MacBook Air :: "Proper" Battery Usage For New - Aka Power Supply Vs Battery?
Nov 29, 2010
As I just bought a 13" MBA, I am still in my "babying" phase of the machine and want its battery power/capacity to last as long as possible. I have already done the battery calibration recommended by Apple (not even sure if its 'necessary' but I did it anyways), with charging, resting, draining, resting, and re-charging. But now I am worried about the battery cycles. Should I only plug my MBA in when the battery is close to being drained (aka use it on battery power for most of my usage?) or is it okay to drain the battery to like 80% remaining, charge, and then drain to 70% remaining, then charge again? Im not sure if Im making sense, but basically I don't want to be wasting these valuable cycles, as they seem to determine battery health and longevity. So what is the proper battery usage for the MBA, or is it basically use off power when you want and use on power supply when its available?
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Jun 21, 2010
I'm just wondering if anybody knows whether it is possible to obtain a replacement battery and power supply for such an old computer. My 17-inch MacBook Pro is about five years old, and the battery seems to be completely dead. It will not start up, will not take a charge, and cannot be used, whether plugged in or not. A multitester test suggests that the power supply no longer works either. My MacBook has one of the older-design power supplies, with the circular port, rather than the newer, magnetic, rectangular ones. I'm planning on getting a new MacBook in the near future, but I need to access some things that are saved on my old Mac's hard drive, if at all possible.
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May 26, 2009
Starting this morning an X has appeared over my battery icon. When I click the icon is says no battery available. When I check the system profiler it says no battery installed. When I click the button on the battery all 6 lights turn on. I have read similar posts to this that say when they unplug the power supply the mac turns off in a few minutes, mine however will stay on the same amount of time as if the battery was charged. I'm surprised that this happened because I bought a new battery 3 months ago because the original one short circuited when my hard drive went last summer.
I had to have the power supply constantly plugged in if I was using the computer. I tried shutting down the computer, removing the battery and restarting and that worked. However when I shut down, unplugged the power supply and tried to restart, it did not turn on. I'm hoping there is a solution as I use my laptop on the road often and not being able to turn it on without the power supply is a real inconvenience.
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Apr 29, 2010
Just wondering if anyone has ever encountered this or if any experts out there know of the issue.I have a spare White Macbook (late 2008: Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz, 1GB, 120GB) that I'd like to set up for my brother to use to introduce him to the wonderful world of Macs. The problem it is having is that when I have a battery connected to it (I tried 2 different ones included a known-good one that is brand-new just purchased from Apple) it powers on and gives me the chime, but then immediately shuts off unexpectedly giving that little "whine" sound like if it just lost power all of a sudden. However, when i take out the battery, and just plug it into the Magsafe AC charger it works fine. Also when just trying to run on battery it does not turn on at all. Here's some cliffs:
1) Macbook with just battery does not turn on
2) Macbook with battery + Magsafe AC charger connects powers on, gives the chime, but then immediately shuts off making the "whine" sound as if the power was suddenly cut off
3) Macbook with no battery connected and just the Magsafe AC charger connected works fine.Do you guys think this is either:
A) battery connector issue (the little piece with the metal wires that the battery connects to. ~$50 part)
B) Logic Board issue
I already tried resetting the PRAM and SMU to no avail.
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Jun 18, 2010
I just turned on my 13" MBP and got this message. Apparently, this is supposed to come up when there is only like 5% charge left. My battery indicator at the top of the screen said there was 22% charge left. Also, according to IStat, my battery's health has already dropped down to 97% after only about 2 weeks and 5 cycles. Is this normal? I'm going to try recallibrating my battery by fully charging it and then letting it fully drain. Is there a good chance that this solves this problem?
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Feb 5, 2009
I had some issues with battery drain while sleeping awhile ago but that problem has been solved. However, ever since that incident I could not be paranoid about the battery life etc.I heard people saying that leaving the charger plugged in is simply fine as long as I do the regular calibration once or twice a month or so. Yet, Apple stated that they do not recommend the laptops to be plugged in. I will be going to a college this Sept and I really do want my laptop to last at least the whole 4 years.
Ever since I have contacted Apple customer service about this Battery issue I have left my Macbook charged up and plugged in while using and letting it sleep. One thing I have noticed is that the battery indicator says 99% and doesn't increase or decrease yet the green light is on. Is that normal? Since this is my first Mac ever and also first Laptop I would like some advice on how to treat the Battery( I know how to do Calibration and such). Is it better to do full cycle usage of Alum Macbook battery than leaving it plugged in all the time? (I unplug it when the Macbook is off).
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Aug 20, 2010
Is it better, during normal usage, for example at home, where you could either charge your MacBook Pro or let the battery drain until it is used up (5%, ...).
Some people say that letting the battery cycle is the best option, yet other people, including my friend who had lost many many cycles even though he had attempted precautions (Dim screen brightness until one block remained, wireless off, bluetooth off) had said that having your laptop plugged in as muchas possible is the best option, as there would be no cycle change.
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Dec 29, 2010
I have a PowerMac G5 with the first motherboard that is out of order, and another PowerMac
G5 Late 2005
with 2x2.0GHZ
Mounting the powersupply from the 2004 on the 2005 is the powersuply compatible or not?
EDIT: I looked on Mactracker and compared the two:
Max Watts in the first is 604W and 450W on the late 2005.
I want to put a powersuply from a G5 2004 (604W ) on a G5 2005 that had a 450W powersuply is this possible ?
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Sep 26, 2010
I think you guys will agree with me, that I have powercycled my battery too much, resulting in a serious loss of performance with my battery.
I have been unplugging my MBP each, and every night, and then using battery during th day until I got the low battery warning, then plugging it in until the evening, and so on.
Looking at the status below, 50+ powercycles in 10 months has reduced the life of my battery by half. Looks like I will invest in a new battery at some point, and follow Apples guidelines to the letter in future.
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Aug 8, 2009
I have been reading posts about charge techniques and usage to preserve the battery life but its often inconclusive and comes with different opinion. Even Apple do not have a proper usage/charge guide to maintain battery lifespan. Therefore, I have decided to conduct this study and perhaps produce a certain conclusion on what is the best charge technique to maintain the battery life of our Macs. Please fill in the following template and a final conclusion will be produced once we've received enough inputs. Use software like Coconut Battery to retrieve the relevant information required by this study.
MacBook Model (type,year,unibody):
Charge Cycle:
Age of your Mac:
Battery capacity (current-original):
Health in %:...........................
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Jul 9, 2009
I just got a new MBP and I want to test how much battery life I am getting. Is there a way to do this other than just manually keeping track of how much time I used it for? A program or something that tracks it for me?
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Jan 4, 2010
I have just completed rescuing a water damaged MB C2D which was originally a 2.16 and is now a 1.83. Fun project for a cold Sunday afternoon. 5 hrs I have one issue with the MB and that is the charging of the battery. The battery icon sometimes shows 'no battery' or if it shows a battery is recognized, it isn't charging. The LED on the mag-safe charger is always green. The battery is from the water damaged 2.16 and my thinking is that it may have suffered damage from being exposed to water. Original owner left the MB in the backyard and it started to rain!
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Feb 12, 2008
My 2*1.8Mhz G5 tower (second version) shutdown two day ago and refuses to turn up again. I have absolutely no sign of life, not even the external white led or the internal red one. I'm trying to figure out whether it is the power supply of the start button which cause the problem.
Is it possible to test a G5 power supply like an ATX power supply, by connecting two pins which would make the fans start ?
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Jul 29, 2010
I have a mid-2007 MBP. Here is my issue...it's been more than a year that when I totally discharge my battery (meaning the MBP shuts down), when I connect it back to the charge it is taking abotu 10 minutes to power up again...it was not the case before and my wife's MB is working well....meaning when it is down, just connecting the charger the MB is back on within a sec.
I have changed my battery but it did not change anything, I called Apple and they recommended me to restore snow leopard...which I did...I still have the same issue.
Does anyone experience this? Any idea what is happening (HW or SW issue) and is there a potential fix?
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Jun 21, 2012
I have just bought a second hand MacBook laptop and it has a wierd battery issue that can't seem to find mentioned anywhere.Initally all seemed fine, but then I noticed the battery wasn't charging and the battery menu reported no battery found, also the MagSafe plug had not light; some searching instructed me to reset the SMC which I did, and everything was fixed, I could runs the computer from the battery and the power lead charged the battery. But now (just a day later) the battery won't power the computer at all - the computer will only work if the power is connected - however the light is shown on the MagSafe plug and the battery is being changed, but if I disconnected the power lead, first I see the restar/sleep/shut down dialog that you see when pressing the power button, then shortly after the computer turns off, if the power if reconnected, it boots from scratch, so it wasn't asleep!
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Nov 16, 2010
Am I right in assuming that my MBP will switch off power to the Mini Displayport, when running on batteries ?Well mine does, but want to make sure that's right ?
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May 29, 2010
I have a brand new MBP 17inch, the battery would not charge with the charger. It basically went close to empty and then I decided to shut down and restart to see if it will reset and start charging.. Now the MBP doesn't even turn on
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Apr 4, 2012
I am wondering if my battery is losing its power? Fully charged I get 3 hours at the very most from it. I started this morning at 100% and after 10 minutes am down to 85%. This computer was purchased in 2008.
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May 21, 2012
The 2011 macbook pro with i7 processor will not power up or charge at all. The problem started after my battery ran out and the computer shut down. Since then, when I plug in the charger only the green light turns on. In addition the light on the base (in front of the keyboard) flashes. Nothing happens when I hit the power button. The charger still works on other laptops. To emphasize, the screen will not even light up. It sounds as if the computer is starting (for less than a second) before stopping, only to start again but that is purely speculative.
Info:
MacBook Pro
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Jun 13, 2012
Before buying a new 11" Air I need to know if one with the i7 OS would use appreciably more battery power than one with the i5?
And, since I am not a gamer or user of complex software, is there any real advantage to going with the i7 over the i5?
Info:
MacBook Air
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Jun 23, 2012
My MacBook is still going strong, but in the event that the battery dies, will it still run on AC power?
Info:
MacBook, iOS 5
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Mar 19, 2008
My girlfriend has a 12 inch Powerbook G4. She noticed that the battery life was starting to dwindle. Tonight, she tried using it. It wouldn't power up. The battery indicator showed one flickering power circle. The adaptor has the green circle on it, indicating the battery has a full charge. However, the computer won't charge up.I've read the 12 inchers don't have separate PMUs. Could that prevent the machine from starting? She was using it earlier this evening, as she e-mailed me pictures from our vacation.
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Apr 18, 2008
My battery needed replacing for a couple of months before i dropped it from about knee level onto a sidewalk. After the drop I got the not charging icon. I thought maybe the battery had just finally died. so I did not panic about the no charge. The laptop works fine when plugged in to power with the old battery on or no battery at all. Not at all when unplugged.
When I put the brand new battery on the lap top, the computer shuts down halfway through boot up. I tried holding the power button down through boot up reset, as well as removing all power (plug and battery) and holding down the power button for 10 seconds reset.
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Aug 20, 2010
I calibrated my battery for the first time since Dec. When I plugged it in this morning, it took 3 hours to charge all the way, and now it's stuck on 99% full, 0:00 till completely charged, and I'm getting an error when I click on the battery in the menu bar that says "Service Battery". When I click on the error, it tells me that it may not be functioning properly and to take it to an authorized apple service retailer. Before I waste 2 hours by going to the Apple store and back, has anyone else had this problem, and is there a way to fix it without having it looked at?
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Jan 6, 2009
I get the whole part about that I set my laptop to go to sleep in 5 minutes, and if I close the lid it'll go to sleep, and the little light at the bottom starts to pulse, etc. But in sleep mode, my battery seems to drain extremely fast!
For my old Gateway M275 laptop while in sleep mode, it would probably lose about 5-7% of it's battery in a day's duration. With my MacBook Air, I just came back to it tonight after a day's worth of sleeping, and my battery was down to 16% from 29%. And to check, it was indeed sleeping!
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Mar 14, 2009
If you look at apple's battery life page it states the MBA battery is removable, I thought it wasn't supposed to be?Battery Lifespan For Apple notebooks with removable batteries ? such as the MacBook, MacBook Air, and 15-inch MacBook Pro ? a properly maintained battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity at 300 full charge and discharge cycles. You may choose to replace your battery when it no longer holds sufficient charge to meet your needs.
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Apr 2, 2012
I have an early 2008 non-unibody MacBook Pro. For about a year now, the status of the battery has been "replace soon." I was still getting a pretty good amount of time off of one charge so I wasn't too worried. This past Saturday morning, I woke up, checked the battery indicator lights on my computer (it had been sleeping since the day before) and it said it had about 60% percent so I opened it. I was on the Internet for about 10 minutes before it shut off without warning.
It wouldn't turn back on when I pressed the power button, so I plugged it in and it turned back on. When I checked, the battery status was "replace now." After using it, I turned it back off and left for NYC for the weekend and didn't bring it with me. When I got home last night, I plugged it in and tried turning it on with no luck. The battery indicator light was flashing one light, so I just assumed it would need to charge for a bit before it would turn back on. After about two hours, when I went to bed, it still was flashing just one light. I kept it plugged in over night, and this morning when I checked it, the battery indicator lights showed that it was fully charged, but it still wouldn't turn on. I still kept it plugged in throughout the day just in case, but it still won't turn on even though all the lights are lit. Is the battery just showing me false information, or should I be worried about more than just the battery?
Info:
2008 MacBook pro
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Jun 2, 2009
purchased a macbook Unibody back in October 2008 when they were released and use it heavily. The battery no longer holds a nice long charge - I get about 2 to 2.5 hours out of a full charge.
The battery has 149 cycles on it, which is obviously high (and correct, I use the hell out of it). With it still being in warranty, is it worth pursuing a replacement battery? Will Apple tell me to go take a hike with the high cycle counts?
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Nov 11, 2009
i just ordered a late 2008 macbook pro 15 with the dual GPUs (9400m and 9600m GT) and I'm a little worried about the battery life.
-What can I expect if just doing normal every day stuff (web surfing mostly?)
-does watching a movie off of the hard disk use less battery than watching it off a DVD? Is there a big difference?
I'm not a big gamer but would like to have the horsepower to play a game should one come out that I want. I'm also not a big traveler so battery times are only of average importance.
Basically, I'm asking if I made a good purchase considering I have only average concerns for both battery and game performance. They had the new 7 hour battery 15" macbook pro for the same price but it doesn't have the dual GPUs.
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Nov 15, 2010
been using my older MBP with windows 7 for a while and have never notice oddies with the battery until now. Then recently after replacing the failed HD and re-installing Snow Leopard on my 2007 MBP, the battery panel is telling me "Service Battery"; it's battery health according to coconutBattery is fair for it's age (50%).
the unit (battery) has been replaced previously due to being considered 'under performing'. Is Snow Leopard trying to encurate it's users to replace the battery more frequently? If not, does anyone know why this appears? I'm at lost, since it appears to work fine, if not charging completely.
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