Battery Life.. what a rip off.

I

iFX

Guest
I just bought a 17" powerbook 2 weeks ago. The last time I calibrated my batter it showed 5 hours of battery life. Now as I type this to you I am at the airport and it only shows me 2.5 hours of battery life and I just turned on my computer.

Why is this happening. I switched from "normal" to "better battery life" mode too.

Please help!
 
Joined
Mar 5, 2005
Messages
282
Reaction score
6
Points
18
5 hours of battery life on a PowerBook sounds overoptimistic. Perhaps that's the estimate under a particular workload that was unrealistic.

BTW, I get about 2 hours on my r3000z laptop with an AMD chip and that's if I run it with Cool n Quiet and underclock it 50%.
 
Joined
Jul 22, 2003
Messages
6,999
Reaction score
187
Points
63
Location
Hamilton College
Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
Wireless internet, sound on and full brightness on the screens greatly reduce the battery life. The battery lifes they list are with it just sitting there. I get like 3.5-4 hours on my powerbook with normal use and no airport on
 
Joined
May 7, 2004
Messages
344
Reaction score
2
Points
18
Location
delhi.india
Your Mac's Specs
MacBook 2.4Ghz Black 4GB;iPod Touch 8GB;iPod mini 4GB silver;Logitech MX1000;
my dad get 2.5-2.75 hrs max
on 15"pb
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Messages
6,188
Reaction score
254
Points
83
Location
New Jersey
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro 8x3.0ghz 12gb ram 8800GT , MBP 2.16 2GB Ram 17 inch.
on my 15inch i get 3 hours max, with screen brightness turned down, no volume, and no airport/ bluetooth

plus the 17inch is even worse on battery becaue of the screen size, that is why I got the 15inch.
 
OP
K

Kokopelli

Guest
Am I a freak or do the 12" PBs have better battery life then? My 12" 1.33 gets 5+ hours with wifi active provided I crank the monitor brightness to one above minimum. And this is on a 6 month old battery with a cycle count of 74.
 
Joined
Jul 23, 2004
Messages
3,169
Reaction score
164
Points
63
Location
North NJ
Your Mac's Specs
i dont have no mac's
Kokopelli said:
battery with a cycle count of 74.

doyou count this or is there some program for this???

basically the more things you do the shorter your battery life is going to be....i can type a document and get about 4.5 hours on my 2 year old pb, but that is only typing and nothing else...

last night i only got 1.5 hours when i was surfing with multiple windows on adiumx checking email listenting to music ...i did need to drain my battery and recharge it though it has been a while
-chris
 
Joined
May 20, 2005
Messages
205
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
New York / Oklahoma
iFX said:
I just bought a 17" powerbook 2 weeks ago. The last time I calibrated my batter it showed 5 hours of battery life. Now as I type this to you I am at the airport and it only shows me 2.5 hours of battery life and I just turned on my computer.

That is normal. The 5 hour battery life is ridiculous - I do not think you will ever attain that number if you actually use your computer. The maximum battery life hours you read from Apple are usually going to be higher than you get time after time. Those are MAXIMUM numbers. When using your notebook, especially nearly always having Airport on as I do, it will be in the 2-3 hour range. And like others mentioned, screen brightness, bluetooth, etc all effect this. So don't be dissapointed, this is how they are. Good luck!
 
OP
K

Kokopelli

Guest
TOYOTA said:
That is normal. The 5 hour battery life is ridiculous - I do not think you will ever attain that number if you actually use your computer.

My battery lasts that long regularly. I unplugged my laptop when I made the first post on this thread. since then I have been browsing the web wirelessly, working on a document in Pages, and running iTunes. 2 hours later my battery meter shows 3:19 left.

What qualifies as actually using your computer?
 
OP
J

jessica

Guest
Yeah 5 hours on a 17" is freakishly overstated.

On a side note. I have a Cycle Count of 25, but my PowerBook has been plugged into the wall for about 1.5 weeks straight and I've noticed that first it'd say 100% then 99% today it says 97% and it's been plugged in. So I unplugged it and I intend to let it drain in hopes that fixes the discrepency.
 
Joined
May 20, 2005
Messages
205
Reaction score
5
Points
18
Location
New York / Oklahoma
Kokopelli said:
My battery lasts that long regularly. I unplugged my laptop when I made the first post on this thread. since then I have been browsing the web wirelessly, working on a document in Pages, and running iTunes. 2 hours later my battery meter shows 3:19 left.

What qualifies as actually using your computer?

I wasn't referring to the 12", I've never used one. The original question by iFX was about his 17".
 
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
1,069
Reaction score
59
Points
48
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro, 8-Core 2.8Ghz, 10GB RAM, 2x1TB HDDs, iPod U2 Edition
My 17" PB gets around 2.5 hours depending on the workload... my 12" iBook gets 5-6 hours.... That 5 inches of screen makes a HUGE difference.

But I'd like to see any 17" PC laptop even come close to 2.5 hours... my 15" toshiba only gives me around an hour and I just put a brand new battery in it.
 
OP
S

SErgini0

Guest
My 15" battery lasts 3.5-4 hours depending on use. I usually have Airport on, but turn down the screen brightness and backlight keyboard. Also make sure you don't have any devices draining the power, i.e USB devices, CD/DVD...
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2005
Messages
6,188
Reaction score
254
Points
83
Location
New Jersey
Your Mac's Specs
Mac Pro 8x3.0ghz 12gb ram 8800GT , MBP 2.16 2GB Ram 17 inch.
I have had my computer since the beggining of the year.. I have 118 cycle count.. Is this a normal or no? I don't use my computer that often.
 

Shop Amazon


Shop for your Apple, Mac, iPhone and other computer products on Amazon.
We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon and affiliated sites.
Top