08-11-2008, 06:47 AM

So I read on the forums to always use the macbook with it plugged in and to not let the battery drain all the way down and go into sleep mode unless you want to calibrate it.

But I noticed this weekend that even though I had my macbook plugged in eventually another cycle would be added. I would occasionally unplug it from the wall and use it on battery for an hour or two, never falling below 50% or so.

So what constitutes as a battery "cycle?" I thought a cycle involved a battery drain/calibration. Is this normal? I didn't calibrate my battery when I first got it in the mail, which was last Wednesday. Should I calibrate my battery?

I should mention that I've left my macbook on the whole weekend. Not letting it sleep because I've been running transmission and downloading stuff. Would that affect the battery life? I was also wondering if this is good for the macbook? I have a cooling pad under it and leave the screen up and let it go to sleep. This morning I noticed the fan running even though i had closed the lid for it to go into sleep mode. So I turned the laptop completely off because I was worried.

I'm wondering if I shouldn't leave the laptop on all the time, rather let it sleep?

08-11-2008, 06:54 AM

Im not sure what you mean by "calibrate", but what i've always heard is that letting your computer drain down until it's emtpy then charging it up all the way several times (not necissarily in a row) is good for it and can help extend the battery life overall. It's definitely not too late to do it now, im not sure when it would be too late to do it, but either way from what i've heard/read it does help.

08-11-2008, 07:07 AM

Originally Posted by lukenn77

Im not sure what you mean by "calibrate", but what i've always heard is that letting your computer drain down until it's emtpy then charging it up all the way several times (not necissarily in a row) is good for it and can help extend the battery life overall. It's definitely not too late to do it now, im not sure when it would be too late to do it, but either way from what i've heard/read it does help.

In this thread they discuss "calibrating" the battery:

calibrate the battery??

There is also a link to the apple website outlining the procedure. Most say it's good to complete this process about once a month because it calibrates how the battery is read on your desktop and keeps it accurate.

Not really sure if it helps/improves/extends the battery life overall or not. ::shrugs::

But I still wonder what defines a battery cycle? I had 2 cycles when I received it and now I have 5. I've gone through 3 cycles from just from this weekend alone. Just wondering if that is normal..

08-11-2008, 07:14 AM

ohh, i get what you mean now. well, just to put you at ease, i've had my mackbook about 48 weeks, and have gone through 347 battery cycles, that works out at just over 7 a week (so one a day basically), and so if you mean the friday-sunday as a weekend then thats perfectly normal.
This has got me looking at my battery specs now... it says condition is "good", are there any levels above that? Excellent? Fantastic? Flippin Amazing?

08-11-2008, 08:12 AM

Originally Posted by lukenn77

ohh, i get what you mean now. well, just to put you at ease, i've had my mackbook about 48 weeks, and have gone through 347 battery cycles, that works out at just over 7 a week (so one a day basically), and so if you mean the friday-sunday as a weekend then thats perfectly normal.
This has got me looking at my battery specs now... it says condition is "good", are there any levels above that? Excellent? Fantastic? Flippin Amazing?

Hmm..Well I guess it was more than the weekend now that I think about it. It was from Wednesday to Sunday really, so 3 cycles in 5 days isn't too bad..

If I remember correctly, my condition in iStat was "flippin amazing!"

J/J I think it was Excellent. I guess that's the best cause it only had 2 cycles out of the box and its new.

08-11-2008, 01:06 PM

My Macbook Pro battery had only done 37 cycles before it went bad, luckily it was still within the 1 year warranty (15 days left, phew) so Apple replaced it for free. I conditioned my battery every week as instructed by Apple so guess it was just a bad one.

08-11-2008, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by lukenn77

ohh, i get what you mean now. well, just to put you at ease, i've had my mackbook about 48 weeks, and have gone through 347 battery cycles, that works out at just over 7 a week (so one a day basically), and so if you mean the friday-sunday as a weekend then thats perfectly normal.
This has got me looking at my battery specs now... it says condition is "good", are there any levels above that? Excellent? Fantastic? Flippin Amazing?

Mine is 'chuffed'.