Battery Calibration and Charge Capacity?

Question

I am currently using a PB G4 15" (high res DL SD) and I've had it for about a month. I just read about calibrating the battery and went ahead and did it. Have I done any damage to the battery or shortened it's effectiveness by waiting a month to calibrate rather than when it was first out of the box?
Also, i also just read about checking the battery charge capacity using the system profiler. My charge capacity prior to calibration was 2731 and after calibration it's 2930. However, it sounds like it should be in the 4400's based on the posts I've read. What do these numbers mean and do I have a faulty battery since it's so low?
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Hi Kevin --
Yeah, I'm not loving those numbers you posted either. I'd try performing the calibration procedure once or twice more to make sure that that battery capacity number doesn't change.
The other thing I would do if I were you is download Coconutbattery: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27425
It's a free app available at versiontracker and it will tell you your battery's original capacity as well as it's current capacity.
I agree with you that a capacity of 2930 mAh after only a month of use and 16 cycles suggests that your battery is defective and should be replaced at no cost to you under the terms of the warranty.
For a frame of reference, after 10 months of use and 166 load cycles, my battery's original capacity of 4400 mAh is now 4228 mAh. No way yours should be in the 2930 mAh range.
When you call AppleCare to arrange for a replacement, if in fact that's what you end up needing to do, the agent you speak with, in addition to making sure that you've properly calibrated your battery a few times (as mentioned earlier) may also ask that you reset your PB's Power Management Unit (PMU). While I'm skeptical that a PMU reset will alter the outcome, you can find instructions on how to reset the PMU here (just in case you need to): http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
Good luck and please post back how everything turns out.
-- JDee
PS. You probably know this, but the calibration procedure has been changed slightly for your DL hi-res version of the PB. Here it is below, just to make sure:
PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD)
The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) has been updated because of a new battery released with this computer. With these computers, follow these steps to calibrate your battery:
Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook's battery until the light ring on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen.
Continue to keep your computer on until it goes to sleep. Save all your work and close all applications when the battery gets very low, before the computer goes to sleep.
Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.
Tip: When the battery reaches "empty", the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond "empty", to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer's memory contents have been saved to the hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.
Message was edited by: JDee