on 2/7/04 6:23 PM, Dan K at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Bruce Mitchell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> My Mac guru advises that it is wise not to keep a PB plugged in all the time >> but instead let the battery run down fully at least every few weeks, that >> doing so will actually enhance the life span of the battery. He seems to be >> correct, as with every PB I have owned I have had spare batteries for the >> other bay which get little use and they always die long before the main >> battery which I let wear down periodically. > > Your Mac guru is correct with respect to nimh and nicad batteries but > wrong when it comes to LiIon batteries which lose significant life every > time they're fully discharged. Every few weeks would is certainly > overkill. That said, it can be useful to occasionally calibrate LiIon > batteries. > > The best advice I've seen for maximizing LiIon battery runtime, as posted > to usenet by "Peter" (whose last name escapes me at this moment): > ------------------------------------------ > (Peter's Trickle Calibration) > > 1. charge fully and then some > 2. in terminal, > ioreg -p IODeviceTree -n battery -w0 | grep Bat > (make a note of your Capacity -- should be around 4000 or more) > sudo pmset -b spindown 1 sleep 0 reduce 1 dim 1 > (prevents idle-sleep, and after 1 idle minute spins down your disk, > reduces your processor speed, and turns off the LCD when on battery) > (Maybe in Panther you can do that without pmset, but Jaguar is broken) > 3. shut down all applications. turn off airport, > disconnect anything external -- keyborad, mouse, printers, > and finally, power. > 4. LEAVE IT ALONE -- DO NOT TOUCH IT > > 5. W A I T (5 hours or more ...) > 6. eventually your notebook will go to sleep > > 7. plug it in. wait 3 minutes. (mebbe 5 to be sure :-) > 8. ioreg -p IODeviceTree -n battery -w0 | grep Bat > (Has it re-evaluated your Capacity?) > 9. leave it alone and let it charge fully. > 10. if the Capacity changed significantly, you might want to repeat > the calibration cycle. > 11. Adjust your battery-power management settings to make it sleep > at a more reasonable time. > > Note -- *calibration* means helping the battery's firmware estimate the > battery's capacity. > ------------------------------------------ > > Obviously, the bits about using terminal to read and set some parameters > are not applicable to those using a classic MacOS, but the idea remains > the same. The discharge should be as slow as possible. > > hth, > Thanks for this. How about leaving the battery in all the time whilst using the PB plugged in? Does that make any difference?
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