On Sunday, January 5, 2003, at 01:42 PM, victoria brandon wrote:
> How long should a battery be able to keep a sleeping PB going without > running out of juice? > (snip) Hi Victoria. As you know, I recently got an Apple- refurbished, sealed 5300cs, so, presumably, the battery could have been sitting in the carton for 5 years. After a few reconditioning cycles, I think it's a good as it'll be and I get (using Jeremy's CSM) an average of 1 1/2 hrs. of use including a few floppy disk accesses interspersed over an average of 24- 48 hrs. of sleep time. Because I have the luxury of a back- up battery, I never plug it in unless recharging overnight after the battery depletes. I'm kind of fastidious when it comes to batteries and back- up as you might gather as you read on;) > So this morning, after about 12 hours sleeping (not plugged in), it > woke up > OK on the battery, but only lasted ten minutes or so before running > clear > down to nothing. Is this at all normal? I don't understand the reporting system used by either Apple's or Jeremy's CSMs and wether their respective accuracies (or lack thereof) are because of the limitations of the software or because of difficulty forecasting these NiMH batteries, but I also will get flaky "time remaining" and "percent full" reports. Often, while the battery is showing anywhere from a 30- 70%, I will suddenly get the low battery warning and then I know I only have a minute or two to save my work and the PB shuts itself down abruptly. The same applies to my new battery, but everything (life left, time remaining when I get the low battery warning and the accuracy of Apple's estimated time, etc.) is doubled. Anyway, using Jeremy's "historical time remaining" is pretty dead- on accurate in seeing how much time I have left. > It's been my understanding that > it's bad for the battery to keep the adapter plugged in all the time, > but if > it's going to run down so quickly just sitting there what choice is > there? > Have you tried Apple's "Battery Recondition" utility? They recommend using it every month, while e-batts.com, which is where I got my new battery from, recommends it every 2 weeks for maximum life. > BTW this battery was bought "new" (I suppose it was actually new-new > quite a > few years ago) last August: please don't tell me I've got to shell > out for > another one quite yet! But what *should* I do? If anything? If you do, I highly recommend e- batts.com <http://www.eBatts.com/product.asp?part=B-5892/ H&Manufacturer=25&descrip=PowerBook_5300CS> and getting the 3.5 Amp hour battery. While not exactly a bargain- basement deal, they're pretty much in line with other retailers prices for brand- new batteries and the 3.5 Amp hour rating is the highest I've seen and costs about the same as what I see other places selling their 2.2 or 1.8 Amp hour batteries for. They also sell the lower capacity battery <http://www.eBatts.com/modelselect.asp?Model=998355> for competitive price and their CS is excellent if you have any questions. The difference in the higher capacity one is amazing when you're used to such short charge spans. In fact, the time I get from my new battery is often longer than my husband gets on his new iBook, albeit I'm only running 7.5.3 with 8 MB of RAM whereas he's running Jaguar with 256 MB RAM and burning CDs every now and then. BTW, I'm not affiliated with e-batts.com other than a satisfied customer. Good luck, Cathy -- PowerBooks is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Enter To Win A | -- Canon PowerShot Digital Cameras start at $299 | Free iBook! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> PowerBooks list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/powerbooks.shtml> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powerbooks%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Mac? Free email & more at Applelinks! http://www.applelinks.com
