Here are some tips for when you have the feeling the battery of your iBook
is about to die:
- Download XBattery.
This is a small utility that is able to graph the charge level of the
battery in your machine.
- Start that app, discharge your iBook and recharge it once it claims to
be empty. Next, check if the battery level graph contains the sudden drops
and jumps present in the following graph:
- If these drops and jumps are present: check the battery capacity using
the 'Raw Battery Info' thing. My one year old dual iBook now says it can be
charged up to about 2.3 Ah, however, when it was ``a bit confused'', it
claimed a capacity of less than 1 Ah.
(Side note: I'd like to compare the capacities of different
models, and ages; if you mail your type,
(battery) age, OS version and reported capacity, you'll make me very
happy!)
- And now.. to fix it: discharge your iBook - and let it go into suspend.
Keep it unplugged and let it drain the battery even further. (Hint: let your
machine do this while you are asleep) - this will cause
any residual charge to be removed from the battery. Next, recharge it, and
you should see an increase in battery capacity.
As to the usefulness of repeating this treatment: currently, I have done this manoeuvre twice,
the first time the reported capacity went form 1.0Ah to 1.8Ah; the second
time, it even climbed to 2.3 Ah. Migh be a good idea to try this again, to
see if I can get it to rise even further (Apple claims it to be possible
to store more than 40Wh in a battery. Assuming it runs at 12V, this
means a capacity of more than 40Wh/12V =~ 3.3Ah should be possible; however,
my battery is over a year old, so it should have deteriorated somewhat)
<mode style="beggar">if you've been able to save yourself from buying a new
(€ 130) battery due to this info, please
so I can eat tonight.
</mode>
Some data received:
| Model | Capacity (Ah) | Submitter | Date received |
|---|
| Dual USB iBook 500 Mhz, replacement
battery from Other World Computing Jan
2005 | 5.000 | /me2005-03-23 |
| 1.0 GHz 12" iBook, March 2004 | 4.3xx | Lomax | 2005-03-20
| | Dual USB iBook 600 MHz, Jan 2002, Battery March 2004 | 4.527 | Jan | 2004-03-14 |
| Dual USB iBook 700 MHz, Late 2002, Battery May 2003 |
4.124 | Stuart | 2003-09-30 |
| Dual USB iBook 800 Mhz, May 2003 | 3.823 | nino | 2003-09-27 |
| Dual USB iBook 600 Mhz, November 2001 | 3.128 | Ian Wyatt | 2003-09-27 |
| Dual USB iBook 500 Mhz, May 20021 | 2.300 | /me | 2003-09-17 |
| Dual USB iBook 900 Mhz, June 2003 | 3.4xx | Dave Aaldering | 2003-09-19 |
Notes:
1)The battery in this machine is heavily (ab)used
Some other links on this topic:
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