08-14-2005, 02:33 PM

Hey I got the new iBook G4 recently and it's a pretty sweet machine. Now I consider myself a dual Win XP and OS X user. Not a switcher since I still think Win XP has its benefits.

My question is about battery life. By fully optimising all my settings I can get about 4.2 hours of battery life. How about the rest of you? Anyone ever see the 6hr mark that is advertised?


In the Apple Hardware info my full charge status is 4530 mAh. How many milliamp hours do the rest of you have?

08-14-2005, 02:40 PM

Get this.

Fully optimised (even though im new to mac I love having things running nice) and with the battery set for supreme battery life I can get over 7hrs using Microsoft Word.

The system reports 8hrs 30mins but it was more like 7.
Amazing considering that my Win based laptop died after 30 mins.

08-14-2005, 03:07 PM

manimoney have you dimmed the screen a bit?
Is airport & bluetooth switched off?
Is the volume muted?

I've had mine run around 6 hours with those settings...

08-14-2005, 03:24 PM

I get about 4.5-5 hours of web browsing and more if I turn off Airport.

08-14-2005, 06:43 PM

I get 5 hours on one bar of brightness and optimal settings for battery use while doing some simple chatting on Adium and surfing a few pages.

08-14-2005, 08:50 PM

That's odd. I have the Energy Setting set to Energy Saver. I have turned off all bluetooth and airport connections. I also set the screen to the lowest brightness without turning it off. Still my battery meter estimates only 4.2 hrs of life. Perhaps I got a weak battery.

Can you guys with 6+ hrs of battery tell me your charge capacity. You see it by clicking Apple Menu>About This Mac>More Info>Power (in left hand menu) The full charge capacity is shown in the right window as Full Charge Capacity (mAh). If you tell me what you have then I can know for sure if my battery is weak.

Mine reads 4536 mAh and I have calibrated it several times to get it better but no luck. Also I've tried all the PMU, PRAM resets. Your help's appreciated.

08-15-2005, 02:34 AM

Full charge capacity 4507, and over 8hrs reported in the battery meter.

Make sure you have the volume off, and make sure there are no CDs in the drive. I would say though that when I plug my adsl modem in it halfs the battery life.. Mine says 4:20 now with 95% left.

8hrs when im out and about is great though.

Does it effect it if you have more programs running in the background? I have turned off Dashboard and many other memory resident stuff.

08-15-2005, 11:04 AM

Thanks man. I think you are right about turning off progs. I found I got over 6 hours estimated when turning volume off and keeping brightness at lowest.

Tell me how exactly do you switch off dashboard? do you just pull all the widgest off the screen?

Originally Posted by Zingy

Full charge capacity 4507, and over 8hrs reported in the battery meter.

Make sure you have the volume off, and make sure there are no CDs in the drive. I would say though that when I plug my adsl modem in it halfs the battery life.. Mine says 4:20 now with 95% left.

8hrs when im out and about is great though.

Does it effect it if you have more programs running in the background? I have turned off Dashboard and many other memory resident stuff.

08-15-2005, 11:33 AM

even tho i have a powerbook.... I will give my 2 cents to this battery thread.

I get about 3 hours of battery power.. (15 inch powerbook g4 1.5 ghz and 1.5GB RAM) Thats using it fully (final cut pro with adium running and airport on) although I mostly leave it plugged in when its on my lap and only use it as stated above when I am somewhere with internet access and no place to plug in... (airport when layover, friends house, etc.)
I am soon going back to school so I will start using it with just microsoft word for some time but probably will leave adium running, i will then have a better idea of how much battery I do get.

08-15-2005, 12:32 PM

I generally get around 6-7 hours of Battery life with screen tinted, Airport off, and Volume muted. I use my iBook for notes in class at College. I have seen that there is a company that has come out with a even more effiecent battery for the iBook. The company is called Newer Techonology (http://www.newertech.com), they claim to up the power of the battery +50%.

08-15-2005, 02:24 PM

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27590

Its a program that disables and enables dashboard. I think it gives better battery life, but wouldnt swear by it.