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The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

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Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#51
post #4

If your cycle count is 223 and you are nearing 80%, then your battery is defective, plain and simple. Apple will replace it. It's happened to me a couple times and Apple took care of it with no hassles.

Agree - I've a 2 year old mid-2011 MacBook Air, 225 cycles and 95% health.

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#52

Is this guy really a developer? I can't imagine using a single 15" monitor to accomplish anything at a productive pace.

That's funny, I can't imagine being tethered to a single spot and accomplishing anything worthwhile!

Snark aside, I love big monitors as much as the next guy, but I've seen very productive developers that never even maximized their code window, let alone used multiple screens.

Getting in the flow is way more important than having a nice setup.

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#53
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe Apple charges $199 for a battery replacement, which is definitely not cheap, but might be worth it if you were still happy with the rest of the machine. I'm not sure how long it takes them to do it, though. I'd expect they'd continue to offer that service for quite a few years to come. As other posters have mentioned, it seems to me like the glued-in batteries don't rapidly decline like the old ones did. I…

imo very conscious decision on part of Apple (and PC makers) to provide short battery half lives, rather than spending more money to deal with the size and heat/cooling constraints of laptops, especially the thin lightweight variety. not only saves them money short term, but helps push users to new versions before they really need to jump...

Can you point to data showing competitors that are doing it better? Seems like the battery life problem impacts everyone pretty equally, and the batteries being used inside Macbooks are pretty similar to those used by every other manufacturer.

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#54
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The official advice is: "Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per…

I wonder if using your laptop plugged in at your desk 90% of the time, but carrying it around to use in meetings the other 10%, is as good as their "ideal use."

Maximizing your battery's life is not remotely close to a science, but as a rule of thumb, discharge to 50% every couple of days then recharge.

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#55
post #14

>letting the battery cycle* Wait- I thought that was for NiCd batteries and Li-ion batteries where suppose to always be topped off? Furthermore going below 15-20% charge hurts their max charge level? *By cycle he means running it down and charging it up?

The official advice is: "Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per…

When I'm sitting at home with my laptop plugged in for a long time, I usually just unplug the battery from the computer and set it next to the desk. Is this an ok idea?

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#56
post #14

>letting the battery cycle* Wait- I thought that was for NiCd batteries and Li-ion batteries where suppose to always be topped off? Furthermore going below 15-20% charge hurts their max charge level? *By cycle he means running it down and charging it up?

The official advice is: "Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time. An ideal use would be a commuter who uses her notebook on the train, then plugs it in at the office to charge. This keeps the battery juices flowing. If on the other hand, you use a desktop computer at work, and save a notebook for infrequent travel, Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per…

The battery is still used even if you leave your laptop plugged in -- it uses the extra juice when the system is under high load. I have used my 45-month-old MBP plugged in 99% of the time, and coconutBattery shows 97% capacity at 38 cycles.

Deep cycling only helps calibrate the battery charge indicator, but doing so will lower the battery's capacity simply because you're cycling it.

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#57
How do you even measure max capacity of the battery? Is it by keeping track of the current balance or is there some other direct physical way to do it?

Measuring once per minute seems like massive overkill for a property that changes on a timescale of months, but the interesting question to me is - does it do anything to the life of the battery?

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#59

Is this guy really a developer? I can't imagine using a single 15" monitor to accomplish anything at a productive pace.

Indeed. It's a good thing there were no developers between 1970 and 2000, and all programs spontaneously arranged themselves via xkcd butterflies until monitors arrived that allowed for development.

Re: The De-evolution of My Laptop Battery

#60
post #4

If your cycle count is 223 and you are nearing 80%, then your battery is defective, plain and simple. Apple will replace it. It's happened to me a couple times and Apple took care of it with no hassles.

I can attest to that: my Macbook white bought on October 2009 (that's 46 months folks) which I used every single day to this very day has 261 load cycles and 91% of original capacity.
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