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Dead Laptop Battery

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Dennis Cheung's rant about PC laptops reminded me of some battery problems I've been having with my iBook
laptop.

Essentially, I only get 20 minutes of battery life. When the
laptop was new, I got a good 6 hours worth. Now, the battery indicator says I get about 4 hours worth, but
after 20 minutes, the battery'll just die and the iBook will go to sleep.

I searched a little on the web, but couldn't find a good solution. Just
lots of
people complaining about the same problem. So, I decided to bring my laptop into the local Apple store to the Genius Bar.

For the uninitiated, the Genius Bar is a brilliant idea. Basically, if you're having any sort of Mac-related problem, you
can walk up to the bar in any Apple Store and ask a "Genius" free of charge.
These are Mac experts working for Apple who are there just to answer your tough questions.
You can walk in and talk to a real person, without having to pay a thing. 
Other retail stores could learn from this.

This isn't to slight PC manufacturers' tech support. About five years ago, I had a problem with the Microsoft Keyboard Elite that I bought from Dell
where basically the "A" key stopped working. Rather than trying to pin the problem on Microsoft, which
Dell easily could have done, they promptly mailed me a new replacement keyboard, free of charge. I didn't even have to mail the broken one in.

Anyway, the Mac Genius (imagine because able to write "Genius" as a
job title on your resumé) said that the problem was that Apple's lithium-ion laptop batteries die after 18 months of use.
They last longer per charge, but have a shorter overall life span.  Since I've had my laptop for about 32 months, he said I was lucky it lasted for as long as it did.

Since I was well out of warrantee, to fix the problem, I'd have to buy a
new battery for
$120.

Devastating...

It's probably the
Apple fan boy
in me talking, but I can't say I'm terribly upset with Apple in particular since I've had an
identical battery experience with every other laptop I've ever owned. It's still the best laptop
I've ever had.

But still, I can think of
better things to spend $120 on.
Having to pay $120 for a battery every 2 years or so seems pretty steep to me.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
    Nothing you can do about it. Laptop batteries always die. We all have to suffer through it. The best you can hope for is an employer who will replace the battery for you free of charge!

  • Anonymous
    April 02, 2004
    I bought a replacement battery for my ThinkPad on eBay for $30. You might try that for your Mac.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    I just happened to post about this same subject earlier this week. I too went to the Genius Bar and they told me the same thing. I bought the new battery, and I now get over 4 hours per charge.

    A word of caution. You might check the color of the battery. Some of the newer ones don't match that white translucent color of the G3 iBooks. I've also heard that the 3rd party batteries don't work as well - but I don't have any concrete evidence on that one. But that's the primary reason I ponied up the $129 - so I could get a guarantee on the battery life.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    This isn't really an Apple issue, but an issue with the battery chemistry, and lithium ion is the exact same battery technology used in Windows laptops with the same expected lifetime. 18 months is the short end, it's more like 18-36 months or around 500 charges whichever comes first. If you want to know how all this works you should do some reading on this site:
    http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm

    Lots of good information there.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    It is a reality of chemistry, batteries always drain over time, 32 months is a good deal, most Li-Ion batteries Apple uses last about 300-500 recharging cycles. Remember the older types of batteries that had memory issues? Hopefully in the future, science and technology will improve the situation ...

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Forgot to post an URL to my bozz dead PMU-batterys, here it is with some swedish text.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Forgot to post an URL to my bozz dead PMU-batterys, here it is with some swedish text.

    http://homepage.mac.com/olle/99bilder/pb400bat.jpg

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Have you tried reviving your battery by resetting the NVRAM using Open Firmware? Sometimes it's more successful than resetting the PRAM via the key-combination during 5 startup chimes. Recalibrate the battery again afterwards.

    http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
    USING OPEN FIRMWARE:

    1) reboot while holding option-command-o-f (boot into open firmware)
    2) type: reset-nvram (return)
    3) type: reset-all (return)
    4) the Mac should restart on its own, if the commands have been typed correctly.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Doesn't the IPod have a worse version of this problem ? you can't replace the battery and you've to get a new IPod..

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Oh wow... I've been wondering why one of my batteries lasts only an hour all week.

    Now I know!

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    I wonder how much electricity a laptop uses? And if you just plugged the machine into a wall outlet and used it for the same amount of time what would the cost of operation be? Of course, the battery itself uses power to charge and that adds to the real cost of portability as well...

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Rolando,
    The iPod has the same problem (same type of battery), but it isn't worse. For $49 you can get the iPod battery changed. Apple will also sell an extended warranty for the iPod which covers battery replacement.

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2004
    Make sure you buy a new battery (there should be a date stamp on it). Old Li-ion battteries will die even if they are not used.

  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2004
    I had an iBook battery go bad after 16 months of use—out of warranty—but I bought my iBook wih my AMEX and they extend the warranty an extra year and paid for a new battery. Something to consider whan buying another Apple or any computer for that matter. I'm not usually one to shill for a credit card company but their extended warranty policy has saved me hundreds.

  • Anonymous
    April 20, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 24, 2004
    To Olle Jonsson

    I have the same problem with my Tibook 500-is it a tricky operation to remove the batteries?


    Thanks Steve

  • Anonymous
    July 11, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 02, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 05, 2004
    Please don't short out the battery terminals. It really doesn't work. At all. I did that with the 2600 mah battery in my old Toshiba Portege 7010ct (which, BTW, still had almost 2 hours of battery life remaining-not much less than when it was new) and results were catostrophic. The laptop wouldn't even detect that the battery was inserted. Bad idea, weta.

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2005
    These have been hard days for Microsoft laptops. First Dennis Cheung's Acer doesn't autosuspend, then...

  • Anonymous
    August 19, 2007
    These have been hard days for Microsoft laptops. First Dennis Cheung's Acer doesn't autosuspend , then

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