Filed under: Hardware, Portables, iBook, PowerBook
coconutBattery
Ambrose, my trusty Powerbook, has served me well, but he hasn't had the staying power as of late that he enjoyed when he was just a wee Powerbook. I'm lucky if I get a little over an hour worth of computing power from my current battery.I knew that something was up with the battery and coconutBattery has proved it to me. This great freeware app gives you some useful stats about your battery, it does it well and that's all it does.
At the moment Ambrose is 19 months old, the battery has been through 285 battery loadcycles and it has half of its original battery capacity (at the moment is has a capacity of 2138 mAh, it started life capable of 4200 mAh).
Download the app and post the results in the comments of this entry and we can get a very unscientific survey of Apple's battery life.
Found via.
Get a WordPress.com Blog
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Andre said 3:12PM on 11-13-2005
12" powerbook 1.5/ 512 / 60 HD 5400rpm the last generation in jan 2005.
My battery is not so good....
Original Capacity 4400
Current Battery Capacity 4144
Current Battery charge 4096
It's was 4400 within 4 cycles, in last discharge and full charge the capacity drop to 4144... so bad.
Battery-loadcycles 5
Age of Mac 8 months
I'm really afraid to use my mac on battery again and the Maximum charge drop again... it's was s?w (8 moth and 5 cycles! to get only 4144 charge!!
Reply
Patrick said 9:16PM on 12-13-2005
Anyone find these results disturbing???
Loadcycles: 87
Age of Powerbook: 27 months
Original Capacity: 4200mAh
Current Capacity: 1384 mAH (32%)!!!!!
32% capacity after 87 loadcycles!?
Reply
William Pramana said 8:24AM on 8-21-2005
My battery is 20 Months old, and it's been through 437 loadcycle. Current capacity status is 37% (1587 mAh out of 4400 mAh).
Reply
Brian Rose said 8:29AM on 8-21-2005
Odin (now 21 months old) has lost a ridiculous amount of its battery capacity. I didn't think it was as bad as it is:
Current Capacity: 1475mAh
Original Capacity: 4200mAh
Loadcycles: 422
That equates to an average of 6.46mAh lost per load cycle, compared to your 7.24mAh per cycle. (That is, if I did the math right at 6:30am.) I'm sure the age of the battery somehow factors as well. :
Time to buy a new battery.
Reply
Nigel Radestock said 8:27AM on 8-21-2005
Age of Mac:- 10 months
Loadcycles:- 150
Current Battery Capacity:- 4167 mAh
Original Battery Capacity:- 4400 mAh
Reply
Oliver said 12:44PM on 8-21-2005
I can't use this app b/c i'm still running 10.3.9, however I was still able to find all the information following this comment on /.
http://ask.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=159347&threshold=1&commentsort=0&tid=232&tid=179&tid=4&mode=thread&pid=13344983#13350304
My 12-inch powerbook is the original 867mhz model, so it's about 2 years old, and the battery has done 334 cycles. However, the capacity is still 3273 which is about 78 percent of the original 4200. Not too shabby!
Reply
ursus said 9:46AM on 8-22-2005
Mac Age: 19 Months
Load cycles: 257
Origional Battery Capacity: 4200
Current Battery Capacity: 2815
% Capacity: 67 %
Reply
John D said 10:34AM on 8-21-2005
age of mac: 39months
current battery status: 0%
original battery capacity: n/a
battery loadcycles: 0
my powerbook battery is seriously dead. doesnt even register in that program anymore!
Reply
Apoco-Lips said 8:45AM on 8-21-2005
I read Apple will replace your battery if it drops to under half capacity in the first 2 years and if your covered by applecare, otherwise its just the first year, and in year 3 its $59 to replace as opposed to the regular price of $129.
Reply
Baglan said 3:04AM on 8-22-2005
My battery in 12 months old, however I've been very (overly?) cautious about running my iBook on battery. It's been thru only 64 cycles and is now at 93%. I can still watch movies for 3.5-4 hours and work for maybe 5 before juice runs out.
Reply
Ankalon said 8:47AM on 8-21-2005
I'll help average this out:
Age of Mac: 3 months
Loadcycles: 12
Current Battery Capacity: 4593
Original Battery Capacity: 4600 (guessed value)
Reply
sxtxixtxcxh said 7:31PM on 8-22-2005
3 year old power book g4 800mhz.
101 cycles.
current battery capacity: 4020 mAh
original battery capacity: 4200 mAh
not too shabby...
Reply
Apoco-Lips said 8:50AM on 8-21-2005
I wonder would the amount of RAM you have cause any effect on faster/slower battery consumption:
say you were to do the same tasks on 2 identical laptops except for the ram - say 512mb in one and 1.5gb in another.
which would use up all the juice first?
Reply
lokipo said 8:56AM on 8-21-2005
Thresher is now 9 months old, has been through 118 cycles and sports a whopping capacity of 4368 mAh (99%).
I am quite pleased. :-)
Reply
Apoco-Lips said 8:52AM on 8-21-2005
Almost forgot:
1 month
6 loadcycles
4000 mAh across the board
Reply
Joakim said 9:14AM on 8-21-2005
35 Months
325 Loadcycles
Original: 4400 mAh
Current: 4199 mAh (95%)
It seem it doesn't know I bought a new battery in May!
Reply
jc said 9:20AM on 8-21-2005
After 34 months and 453 cycles, my iBook has a battery capacity of 4192 mAh (down from 4200).
That sounds astounding, until you realize that the current battery charge is 881 mAh (21%), and is unlikely to get above 25%. Any ideas from the gallery for steps to take?
I've tried resetting the PMU, but that was some time ago. And every now and then, the reading will pop to 100%, but will crap out in the low 70% range. All that spare capacity has me intruiged/confused.
Reply
Piers Morgan said 9:25AM on 8-21-2005
I imagine the computer with less RAM would use more power, because paging in/out spins the hard drive, which drains power more than RAM. It would also depend on how much RAM you used: if you never ran many programs at once, the effect would not be as great.
My battery's doing pretty well. My 15" Powerbook is 12 months old, has run 111 cycles and has a remaining capacity of 4362/4400 mAh. I lug it around quite a bit, but whenever it's away from my desk, it's usually plugged in.
Reply
Andy said 9:34AM on 8-21-2005
15" PB, 18 mos old, 261 cycles, 3043 mAh current capacity vs 4200 mAh new.
Reply
Costas said 9:45AM on 8-21-2005
I am pleasantly surprised.
Age of my mac: 32 months (last TiBook)
Battery-Loadcycles: 104
Current Battery Capacity: 4151 mAh!! (original: 4200mAh)
I guess it pays to connect to an outlet whenever possible.
Reply