Battery cycles - what gives?

So my new MBP is showing according to iStat 8 battery cycles. I find this rather surprising since so far (apart from when I got it), I’ve been pretty much running it plugged in to the power socket. When I first got it I ran it right up and right down for one cycle on advice.
So does it notch up “cycles” even when it’s running almost entirely off the power cable?
I gather from the manual that I can’t expect the battery to last a tremendously long number of cycles... It’s annoying that the battery isn’t easily user changeable like my last Powerbook. OTOH, changing it doesn’t look that hard if someone will actually sell me a battery so I can do it.

Nature1953 wrote:
Well I was thinking of my local Mac place. Surely they would charge for labour? I think in the UK they would?
That pricing applies to Apple Stores, Apple's Mail-In service, and to Apple Authorized Service Providers. If your 'local Mac place' is an AASP, they must adhere to that pricing policy (or risk losing their authorized status). If your local Mac place is not an AASP, they can charge what they want, but if that's the case, I'd consider finding a bona fide AASP regardless.
Allan's experience with all of two older Apple portables aside, I do think you're better off using your battery frequently - that's simply due to the chemical properties of a lithium-based battery, which builds up oxidation by-products over periods of non-use. Allan's 3.5 year-old battery may be 'good' today. 5 cycles from now it's health may drop precipitously (that's usually how they go, when they are not maintained properly), or it may last for some time to come. But, proper maintenance is even more applicable with a machine that has a battery designed to last more than three times as long as those older machines. Apple states a minimum of one cycle per month.
@Allan Leedy - It's not solely my recommendation - Apple themselves state, +"You can calibrate your iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro computer's lithium ion battery for best performance..._The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time_ to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate and to keep the battery operating at maximum efficiency. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months after that. _If you normally leave your Apple portable computer connected to AC power and very rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month_."+
You are, of course, free to not follow the advice of the engineers who designed the product you are using.

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3.1.2 EXTREME battery drain - what gives?

Ever since uploading to 3.1.2 (worst mistake ever)...I can get barely ANY time out of my battery. For instance, today I had roughly 35% remaining battery when I sent a SMS to a friend. We steadily texted each other back and forth for about 20 minutes. Texting was the ONLY thing I was doing on the phone. After 20 minutes, I was down to 18% battery left.
This is just unacceptable. This had my my iPhone nearly unusable, as I'm constantly searching for a power source to charge it.
Push is off, notifications are off, wifi is off, location services are off, bluetooth is off.
I've restored to 3.1.2 at least 6 times already.
This is ridiculous. Has anyone else had this nightmare since updating to 3.1.2? How can I fix this?
Message was edited by: JCMoney

mruk69 wrote:
I think it is crappy of Apple not to fix this. 3.1.3 is even worse.
Says you - what about the others of us that are just fine and got better ?
You sell a mobile device as the best in the world, yet the support is crappy.
How so ? They sell a product - and the millions of happy users says its good - not Apple.
Pull your finger out Apple, please.
Nobody from Apple reads and responds to this forum, not least of people who make such coments.
My phone is slow, I charge my battery with the Ac adapter and about 30 seconds after pulling out the connector, it is down to 95%. Within hours it is down to the 30% range. I have wifi, BT, Location Service all off. I don't even check email on it and don't search the web very often, just in case it goes dead.
Just about every time I restart the phone it says no service, I have to keep toggling the Airplane mode to get service back.
At what point do you figure out your phone is actually faulty ? Take it to the Apple Store and get it sorted, or do you expect them to call on you ? Expecting a flag to pop out of the side saying 'take to shop' ?
I assume its out of warranty given you're expecting a miraculous software update to solve such an obvious hardware fault ?

What EXACTLY is a "battery cycle"?

Hi all,
We have 3 MacBook Pros. My battery has 516 "cycles" and is beginning to act a bit flukey. I've read quite a bit about his and everyone talks about the Apple warranty is good for up to 300 cycles, average life should be 500 cycles - everything looks normal that mine is dying! It's 2 years old anyway. My question . . .
WHAT EXACTLY constitutes a cycle? If I use 1/2 a charge, down to 50% and then charge it full . . . does that count as a cycle? Or . . . should I drain it to zero if I can and recharge that - and that is 1 cycle? Does it count as a cycle everytime I top it off? Or doest it have to be drained to a certain point to be considered a cycle?
What is the magic % if that's so? Does anyone know how Apple does this? I'm just curious? Why run up the "cycles" if you don't have to? Thanks a lot, if anyone knows this!
Larry

A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could use your notebook for an hour or more one day, using half its power, and then recharge it fully. If you did the same thing the next day, it would count as one charge cycle, not two, so you may take several days to complete a cycle.
Perhaps the following will help with questions about laptop batteries:
About Batteries in Modern Apple Laptops
Apple - Batteries - Notebooks
Extending the Life of Your Laptop Battery
Apple - Batteries
Determining Battery Cycle Count
Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance
Battery University

I exchanged my battery-challenged Ipad 1 for a refurbished model, and it won't move from the first page. . .what gives?

I exchanged my battery-challenged Ipad 1 for a refurbished model, and the new model won't move from the first page, which shows the battery charger pointing toward an Itunes logo. It has a full battery charge. . .what gives?

It's been so long since I activated an iPad original model, and I am assuming that it needs to be activated. If that's not the problem, then you need to restore the iOS software.
Eject the iPad, turn the iPad off, quit iTunes, restart you computer - then restart the iPad and connect it to your computer and see if iTunes launches on it's own. If it doesn't, then launch it yourself. If iTunes does not guide you through the activation process, I assume that you have to restore the software.
Click on the iPad name on the left sidebar of iTunes. If you don't see the sidebar, go to View>Show Sidebar from the menu at the top. Then you should see the iPad under the devices heading. After you click on the iPad name, click on the Summary Tab at the top of the iTunes window on the right. Then Click on Restore.
I'm hoping that starting the process over again activates the iPad rather than having to restore the device, but see what happens.

HT1476 The battery isn't re-charging on my iPhone 4 @ home, but at Verizon store it does! There is no power problem at home. What gives?

The battery in my iPhone 4 does not re-charge at home, but it does at Verizon store. What gives?

Ac charger or usb using a computer

It's been power cycling (turns off while in use) with increasing frequency, and now won't even turn on. What gives?

My phone has been turning off while in use, and would, in the past, recover if I turned it off and on.
Now it won't do anything, and I know that the battery is not dead. What gives?

Hello Hoges,
About your question of connecting the Elitepad directly to another PC via USB.
Since the tablet is considered a full windows PC, you cannot connect it directly to another PC via USB.
Androids and Apple iphones, etc etc. are different than a windows PC. Even if you used an OTG usb cable.
Windows PC's could be connected via a crossover cable but it is very particular and requires an ethernet port on both machines.
You can connect them via a Network though, like connecting via a Home Group through a wireless connection.
Better still, you can backup your files on a cloud service like Dropbox, Onedrive or Google and then download them to the other machine. If both machines are using Windows 8.1, you can use HP Connect to backup and transfer files.
If you have a usb to micro usb adapter, you can use a pen drive to tranfer files with.
I do not know anything about the magazine articles you are downloading, but if done so via an app in the Windows store, couldnt those be redownloaded anyway without transfering?
IF the tablet is still under warranty and the charging port is loose, you can contact HP Support to see what your options are.
Hope it helps.

IPod touch 2nd G won't hold charge. Restore does not help. removing all apps. Still discharges. What gives?

iPod touch 2nd G won't hold charge. Restore does not help. Removed all apps and it still discharges even if not turned on and used for anythig. What gives?

If it is warranty, bring it back to the Genius bar and insist on a replacement. If out of warranty, you can get a replacement iPod with a new battery for $79 at the genius bar.

Macbook battery cycles

Hello, what are the battery cycles for a late 2009 MacBook. I see that it is starting to drain my battery like really fast, here I have been typing this and have watched my battery go down 10%. So I bought this battery app and it says that the cycles is at 350 I do not know if that is good or bad, so I just want some feedback and sugestions.
Thanks

Generally batteries with a cycle count of over 300 are considered depleted. Not that they won't function but they won't do as well as they did previously. I would suggest a new battery. You can purchase from Apple for about $129 in the USA. You may be able to find 3rd party batteries cheaper on eBay.
http://store.apple.com/us/search?find=macbook+battery
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2043212.m570.l1313&_nkw=macboo k+battery&_sacat=58058
Best of luck.

Will using iphone while charging use up battery cycle?

battery capacity decreases as we repeat charging / using the phone.
but what if we use it while it is being charged? will it just use power from
the power source or charge+use up batter at the same time?
i hope it can just use draw power from the external power source and leave
the battery alone if it's full, then I can just use bluetooth and leave
the phone in the dock to not waste battery cycles.

There are two issues here. A cycle is the EQUIVALENT of one complete use of the battery from fully charged to depleted. But it can take place over multiple uses and charges. There is no way to avoid using cycles (or portions of them) other than leaving the phone plugged in all the time. Which brings us to issue two:
The worst thing you can do to your battery (other than letting it get very hot) is to leave it plugged in all the time. This is not because it will overcharge. As others have pointed out, the phone is smart enough to prevent overcharging. But li-ion polymer batteries like to get some "exercise" to say fresh. Apple recommends the equivalent of at least one cycle per month. If it's plugged in constantly, it will not get enough exercise and its capacity will diminish.
-dan

Is there a way to disable touch on the Helix and get a power management for battery cycles?

As the title describes.
I've been drawing a fair bit on the Helix using photoshop but what to find a way to disable touch. I used to be able to do it on my x220t through the control panel>isd tablet settings. Windows 8 doesn't have that option. Please don't mention palm rejection as it doesn't always work.
Also I'd live to know if there is a battery gauge to show the battery cycle of the helix. I know the battery is in good condition. What i'd like to know is the cycles of both batteries.

So I have found a temp work-around that does the deed. I have been using a lot of autodesk sketch, and its bomb if you don't have to worry about your hand touching the screen while you sketch. Here is how I have been doing it.
WIN+X >> Device Manager >> Human Interface Devices >>
Under this section you will find three USB Drivers installed. I found that if I desable the second USB Driver, then the touch screen stops working, but the Digitizer still works 100%. Just re-enable when you want to use the touch again. I really wish Lenovo had software to take care of this out of the box. But as I said, It works for the time being.

I have spotty signal at my home, so some functions don't work until I leave the house. I noticed on the main screen, it says I have 54 emails, but when I open the app, I only have 4. I powered down and back up. No fix. What gives?

I have spotty signal at my home, so some functions don't work until I leave the house. I noticed on the main screen, it says I have 54 emails, but when I open the app, I only have 4. I powered down and back up. No fix. What gives?

Im having this same problem an my phone is about 3 weeks old. I am not sure about the voice over part though...I have not yet figured out how to work the voice recognition part of the phone...I am such a newbie with this phone. I did the power off/on suggestion, several times. I tried leaving it off for 10 minutes. Tried to reset with the power on/off and home button pressed at the same time. Charged battery. Still makes no difference. You cannot scroll any direction. Have to double click to open apps. Have to double click letters when texting or emailing in order to get the letter in the text box. Can scroll through app choices, have to click on the line with the dots in it and move from page to page. Can't access the settings - > general - > accessibility - because it won't allow me to scroll down to "general".
Anyone help you with your fix yet?

Battery cycles and percentage left is already at 95%!

I got my macbook air yesterday and it already says that the battery life if only at 95% left 4872mah left
Why does it do that?

I think what he means is the "battery health" shown in istat pro.
I know I let my battery go for a bit today (maybe down to 65%), and after recharging, for some reason my battery cycle count increased from 1 to 4. My charge capacity is 4979 mAh now, I recall it being around 5060 mAh earlier.
This all could just be because it's a new laptop - I'll likely calibrate the battery to see what that does.

Keeping battery cycles low

So I've been reading up on this forum regarding batteries and battery cycles, I've owned my MBP for about 3 months now, and Im already up to 51 cycles! I do use my computer quite a bit.
Now I've read that Apple suggests not always running your laptop with the power plugged in, but rather that it is healthier for the battery to be regularly draining and recharging it, is there really any truth to that??
What I really want to know is that if I'm at home, where I can keep the MBP plugged in most of the time, will that keep my cycle count low?? Really I bought this computer with the intent of using it as much, if not more, than people use desktop computers. Sometimes I may be on this computer for 6+ hours a day. It worries me that I'm told I should usually run it off battery, and that once my battery reaches the 300 cycle mark, I should expect it to start dying.
Is 51 cycles in the 1st 3 months alot more than I should have?? Suggestions please...

I find that those with around 200-300 cycles on the clock at 2 years will generally have the best performing batteries at that time. if you think yuo're going to be under that then use your MBP on battery more often. Simple as that. Otherwise, if you feel you'll be at or over that mark after 2 years then there's nothing at all you need to do.
Doing a Battery Calibration…
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
… every month or so is in fact not necessary beyond ensuring you MBP is able to correctly determine your battery's true state. For a regularly used battery is serves no other purpose. For those that don't use their batteries regularly it's akin to forcing a PS3-playing slob of a child to take a weekly gym class in a hope they won't turn into a relative of Jabba the Hutt.

Macbook pro battery cycles

I have 385 battery cycles on my 2009 MacBook Pro 17—no problems yet. How much longer can I expect the battery to hold up, what is the process to get a new battery, and how much will it cost?

Here is a copy & paste straight out of the operating system:
The battery condition tells you whether your battery is functioning normally and approximately how much charge it can hold.
Here are the possible conditions:
Normal: The battery is functioning normally.
Replace Soon: The battery is functioning normally but holds less charge than it did when it was new.
Replace Now: The battery is functioning normally but holds significantly less charge than it did when it was new. You can continue to use the battery until you replace it without harming your computer.
Service Battery: The battery isn’t functioning normally, and you may or may not notice a change in its behavior or the amount of charge it holds. Have your computer checked by an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP). You can continue to use your battery before it’s checked without harming your computer.

120 Battery Cycles in 73 Days!!!

' AHEM!!! <Slightly sheepish look as he addresses everyone...>
' Ah... Yeah... So... I, uh, picked up my 17-inch unibody on the afternoon of the 30th April. And, well, checking my battery cycles the other day (just out of curiosity you understand?) I noticed the triple-figure count. And choked.
' After clearing my windpipe and resuming normal breathing, I decided to do the math. What this essentially means is that I've managed to average a charge and a half a day, every day, since getting it!!!
' Now, to an extent I can understand it... I'm in I.T. and work on it or through it essentially whenever it is I'm working - which means a lot of overtime too. And sitting in the position I'm in - thousands of kilometers from home in another country - it's also my primary piece of entertainment kit in the meantime. Annnnd I do tend to go everywhere with it - which includes picking it up to accompany me even when I just head outside for 5 or 10 minutes for a smoke for example.
' It is on-and-off of the power cord all day as I move in and out of places doing whatever.
' I just wasn't quite expecting triple digits. A cycle a day I would swallow or believe no problem. The plus-50 percent is a bit of a surprise.
' So. Anyhow. What do y'all think then? Should I offer my services to Apple as a battery stress-tester or something? Might as well get something out of the fact I'm likely to be the very first sealed-battery MacBook client to need a replacement due to usage and not some kind of fault... <Grins>
' Anyways. Just thought I'd share!
~Menageryl
-Jack of All Trades, Master of Some!-

' W-O-W!!! Soft Reset - dude - I bow my head in admiration! <Grins>
' I see the first box you mentioned is pretty close to my average. When I first did the math on mine it was 1.57xxx charges a day...
' But 2.6 charges daily??? ****! I am suitably impressed!!! I know there is always someone, somewhere, that is both above and below one in any situation or circumstance in life - but I didn't expect to get a reply to this thread so quickly by someone trouncing me. Hehe. :-D
' Of course I couldn't agree more about your statement re. this stuff sometime making for good / interesting discussion. That's primarily why I started this thread really...
' Just out of curiosity, could you share with us what make / model / year / etc. each of those systems you mentioned happens to be?
' Oh - and what is it you do with 'em that makes for the sort of battery-usage-profile you've shown?
' Looking forward to your, and other people replies!!!
~Menageryl
-Jack of All Trades, Master of Some!-
Message was edited by: Menageryl

Battery cycles - what gives?

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