Brakka Posted February 10, 2003 Posted February 10, 2003 I've got an older iBook, and I rarely take it out of the house. I got it to have a low-profile computer that I could occasionally use from my recliner. The battery seems to drain more quickly now than when I first got this thing. Today I had it in the kitchen, and it lasted less than 20 minutes. Running only IE and Remote Access on OS9.2. Are there other things that affect battery consumption, like extentions or?? iBook SE G3 466 MHz 320 RAM 10g hd [img]http://www.apple-history.com/images/models/ibookse.jpg[/img] [i](no, I don't stand it up like this ;) )[/i]
deanmass Posted February 10, 2003 Posted February 10, 2003 Screen brightness, heat ( making fan kick in) and HD access. More Ram can help the HD prob, but I am betting the batttery is dying, since it spent most of it's time on a charger ( sounds like)...
Brakka Posted February 10, 2003 Author Posted February 10, 2003 Oh-[i]ho[/i]- laptop batteries [i]die[/i]? I didn't know that. :(
S_Gould Posted February 10, 2003 Posted February 10, 2003 Yep, they sure do. I just had to order a new one for my (white, dual USB) iBook. The old one was down to about 10 minutes! Scott
Mats Olsson. Posted February 10, 2003 Posted February 10, 2003 Is it advisable to pull out the battery when I'm not using it? /Mats http://www.lexam.net/peter/carnut/man.gif What do we want? Procrastination! When do we want it? Later!
Brakka Posted February 10, 2003 Author Posted February 10, 2003 Wow- that was my exact question. And do I just throw the old battery away when I get a new one?
Botch. Posted February 10, 2003 Posted February 10, 2003 If the battery is a nickel-cadmium type, then you should not be leaving it on the charger all the time; this creates heat and eventually causes the electrolytes in the battery to evaporate. Additionally, Nicads develop a "memory", wherein they have less and less capacity for a charge. This can be delayed a bit by fully discharging the batts before recharging (something I try to do with my electric cordless shaver), but even with that precaution they will eventually lose all capacity. Now the newer nickel-metal-hydride batteries don't have these problems, I'm told. I don't know which type the iBooks use, I'm sure someone on this forum could answer that. Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will www.puddlestone.net
G. Ratte Posted February 11, 2003 Posted February 11, 2003 Yeah, this is very interesting. I've got a newer icebook and then one of the old space-clam ones. The old one especially seems to do some weird things with the charging. There's a free app called "X-Charge" on VersionTracker which tells you all sorts of battery info, but I haven't tried it yet. Wondering if it'd be better to take the batteries out then while they're plugged in for a long time? G. Ratte' http://www.cultdeadcow.com
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