10.4.4 and/or Battery Updater decreases battery life???

Question

This is a cry to the community.
I just returned from the Apple Store where the Genius was unable to provide me with any assistance. The best advice he had was to engender community support for Apple to issue a software fix for my problem. This is my problem:
I have a 15" aluminum Powerbook, non-high resolution, purchased May, 2005.
A few days ago I installed the 10.4.4 and the Battery Updater software updates, from the Software Updater. I immediately noticed that the hard disk stopped spinning down during periods of inactivity.
Later that night, when I unplugged the power adapter, I was surprised to see that the battery life was now only about 1:20, down from about 3:00 before installing the updates.
Turns out that the Battery Update was only intended for the new battery design shipping with the 15" HR model. There appears to be no way to revert to the previous firmware.
Is anyone else having a similar problem?
Thanks, Mark
Pbook Al 15in   Mac OS X (10.4.4)   May '05 Switcher, never looked back
Pbook Al 15in   Mac OS X (10.4.3)   May '05 Switcher, never looked back

Answer 1

Hi, Carla--
Thanks for your reply. Sorry to hear about your battery. I try to explain what the numbers mean, but I also think that with a brand-new PowerBook, you have a pretty good case to make to Apple that they owe you better battery run-time. The 3-month rule might be an issue if you didn't purchase AppleCare.
The first number that's relevent is "Capacidad de plena carga (mAh)". Hope English is okay with you. This is a technical measure of how much charge your battery can hold, like the number of gallons of gas that a car's fuel tank can hold. This capacity will decline over time because batteries wear out and hold less total charge as they wear out. "mAh" means milliAmp Hours--milli just means 1/1000. Amp is a measure of current, like a 12 Amp vacuum cleaner. If you run a vacuum for an hour, it uses 12 Amp-Hours of electricity. Your battery hold 4249 milli-Amp-Hours--or 4.249 Amp-Hours--of charge when it's fully charged.
The second number, "Capacidad restante", is the remaining charge that is left. Like when a car's gas tank is 3/4 full. Your's shows 3437 mAh, which is about 3/4 of the full charge. Remember, the full charge is the Capacidad de plena carga.
The third number, "Amperaje", is the amount of electricity that is going in or out of the battery. A negative number means electricity is flowing out--i.e., the laptop is running off of the battery. If it keeps using up the charge at the same rate for an hour, it will have used up that many milliAmp-Hours.
So, your laptop is running off of the battery and using 2898 mAh per hour. About 3000. Now look at the Capacidad de plena carga, again. The maximum charge is about 4200 mAh. Just divide the usage into the capacity, and you'll see that your battery will last about 4200/3000=1.4 hours. And, that's exactly what you said.
Sorry for such a detailed (and boring) post.
But, now the problem is obvious. The software update that we downloaded and installed didn't change the battery capacity. It made the computer use a lot more electricity. For instance, my Powerbook went from using about 1200 mA to about 3500 mA every hour. In other words, since my battery only holds 3800mAh, I go through the full charge in about 3800/3500=1.1 hours.
And, yes, that's exactly what happens.
Thanks, everyone. I'm going to call AppleCare back tomorrow and be a bit more insistent that they address this issue.
Mark
Pbook Al 15in Mac OS X (10.4.5) May '05 Switcher, never looked back
Pbook Al 15in Mac OS X (10.4.4) May '05 Switcher, never looked back