Inconsistent battery advice?

I'm a bit confused about what appears to be inconsistent battery advice from Apple.
On this page:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
it talks about the lithium ion battery benefits and says, "You can also recharge a lithium-ion polymer battery whenever convenient, without the full charge or discharge cycle necessary to keep nickel-based batteries at peak performance."
Yet on this page:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipad.html
it says, "For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge, be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)."
I know one is talking about "peak performance" and the other is talking about "reporting the state of charge" but in one case it says you don't have to worry about the full charge/discharge cycle and in the other they seem to be recommending it.
In fact, on this page:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
it says, "Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month."
So is the first statement, that a full charge or discharge cycle is unnecessary to keep the batteries at peak performance, incorrect?
doug

I do not think that this is what is meant by a COMPLETE discharge/charge cycle
That is exactly what is meant by a COMPLETE discharge cycle as shown on this page -> http://www.apple.com/batteries/
"A charge cycle means using all of the battery’s power, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a single charge. For instance, you could listen to your iPod for a few hours 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."
What you describe is what would normally occur after a certain number of partial discharge/charge cycles anyway.
Correct.
Thus there would be no point to the discharge/charge recommendation
This is recommended for the reason stated. "For proper reporting of the battery’s state of charge"
To calibrate the sensors so they display the correct amount of charge left, the battery needs to be measured at the minimum charge and at maximum charge. If the battery is never fully discharged/charged (and measured at those points), it cannot know how much is left when fully charged.
I you are not interested in knowing how much battery you have left, then don't do it. However, if you don't then the OS may think there is no charge left when there is really 20% left (as an example) or and shut down or vice-versa.

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Inconsistent Battery Meter and Inconsistent Charging

Hello Guys
I am really tensed with the current situation with the iPod Touch 4G.1stly it drains battery very inconsistently.i.e it will be 70% approx(since no batt per) and then after 5 min it will be 55 with Wifi download.Again if i put it in sleep it will be back to 60%.
Also if i try to recalibrate the battery(ie drain the battery completely) the ipod will shut down and show the battery connect to pc symbol for 10 sec but then again after 30m sec it does turn on and i can use it for some time.Last night i was able to do this 25 times and then when finally it was unable to turn on i charged it for 10 sec and it did turn on with 30 percent battery.Strange.Can anyone help.I have done everything,Delete all apps.formatted 7 times in 1 week, disabled locations Servies,time zone etc but no good,I also set the ipod as new ipod touch.Is it that the ios 5.1 is affecting small number of users/ipod with this.And also when i took it to apple care they tested the Battery and they showed me that the Battery Test Passed.So they are unable to replace it.
Please help.

Oh! You have created your own topic.
Unfortunately, because you then crashed in on two (quite old) posts, those are the ones I've read first. I've given you my considered response in one of those other posts... and some advice on how to get the best out of these forums!

Mid 2009 applecare logic board and battery ADVICE

returning mac OS and mac hardware buyer here.
i have been questioning (read complaining) about the battery life (1 1/2 hours on safari) and the performance (spinning beachballs on startup, on wake and on starting safari among other things) since i bought this machine. i brought it in for the umpteenth time to the genius bar (they apparently only have 3 of these on record?!) because i had a break and i have a "service battery" alert.
i am being told i can replace the battery and the logic board based upon their diagnostics of the machine and i have FINALLY (Whoo-HOOO yippeee kayeeee'y!!) got a committment from a mac rep that i should be expecting 3 1/2 - 4 hours out of the battery and not 1 1/2 hours.
i don't really have an option here from everything i can tell but does anyone have any advice for me on this? warranty is up in February and from what i am being told i can bring it back if i bring it home and still only get poor battery life.
at the same time i am really unhappy (insert expletive) about having spent so much time troubleshooting this machine only to be told that the hardware seems fine or that the battery tests normal or whatever. this macbook pro 13 inch seems like it was a dog since the day i bought it.
my preference would REALLYT be to trade into mac on a new macbook pro 15" and i am wondering if i am instead i am going to have to just repair this machine (thank my lucky stars that i buy applecare) and empirically test the machine on my end to make sure that i am getting more than 2 hours per charge and that i don't have the spinning beachballs that i have had to have dealt with over the last 3 years...
i mean, i /have/ to fix this machine and monitor it over the next three months instead of them helping me cut bait with it by getting some financial incentive somehow to move into a new MBP is that right...?
TIA

thanks.
looks like it has now had a new battery and a new logic board and it is still failing hardware test for the battery.
they are now sending it out for additional testing to some other facility.
anyone had a similar experience?

Resolving the Directly Conflicting Battery Advice

I have been trying to be a good MBP - Retina owner, and I need to understand the conflicting batter advice.
A Level 7 (prestige points) in a thread titled, Macbook Pro Retina batter problem states: "They [the battery] do not suffer from the "Memory Effect" of Nickel Cadmium batteries. You need to let it run down ONCE so that it can calibrate where the endpoints of battery capacity are."
But then, in a thred titled, Can I leave my MacBook charged at night, a Level 9 says, quote: "You should avoid ever draining the battery completely, if you can. That's far harder on it than draining it down to 50% twice, recharging in between."
While the quote above says you avoid EVER draining the battery completely, another guy in the same thread says let it run flat ONCE A MONTH, quote: "Let the battery completely discharge and then fully charge it and leave it charging another hour or so after it says it's fully charged. Repeat this process perhaps once a month if you notice the battery not charging properly. This process helps the battery calibrate."
Then in direct contradiction to the paragraph immediately above, another post says, "If your MBP was made after June 2009, its battery never needed calibration or "conditioning" in the first place."
Okay. Some are saying run it flat once a month for conditioning, another says after 2009 running it flat is just about the only thing you can do to hurt a modern MBP battery?
What are the actual battery practices to follow for a healthy modern battery, because I sure as heck am confused now. Assuming you never want to run it flat if possible, what are the best discharge practices in terms of percentage of battery charge?
Thanks!

Love it. I saw your order of a fully loaded machine discussed with your buddy in BC. I couldn't be more happy with mine. I understand that driving this screen make long battery life a challenge. I have also decided to get the larger Flash memory, so I'll be swapping this one out. Here's a what I e-mailed a co-worker after my company got me mine:
Not as distinct looking as I thought unless you're looking from the side, but very wellexecuted. It did draw a crowd at the set up table Tues at the Apple Store. Turns out they sold a few they had gotten for display models by accident, so they told me and another guy really lucked out. So far, I think they're right. There's a new Apple Business manager at this store now.
Keyboard seems to have additional rebound in the key stroke, I like it.
Weight loss makes a much bigger difference than I had imagined. Much more comfortable to use and move around. You can easily hold it with one hand by it's corner open.
The screen doesn’t flop anymore! Used to make me nuts. If I used the open 15” MacBook Pro at certain angles, particularly if I was laying back in bed or on a plane reclined, the screen could fall forward some under it’s own weight (or move slightly in turbulence on a plane). Now the retina screen no longer has the glass cover, the hinges function much more stiffly and it holds it’s angle!!
Screen is gorgeous. Did not seem to be such a huge difference at first, but that is because I have been duly spoiled by Apple using the Retina iPad for a while now. When you do get a graphic like a detailed high res photo, and oh my goodness, it is indeed spectacular. Text is like a magazine.
Screen Glare! What happened? I guess when Apple dropped the glass cover on the screen. Anyway, a major issue in certain settings is no longer an issue.
Crazy fast. Loads faster. Once an update is downloaded the install time is spectacular. Sucked up files I was transferring by high capacity thumb drive (USB 2) incredibly quick. Can't wait to use thunderbolt, I ordered a Lacie with two 3 Terra drives I'll run mirrored.
Does not appear to run any warmer than my last generation 15" Mac Book Pro. Perhaps cooler, hard to say this early on. Fan is much quieter.
Seems that Apple's claim of 7 hour battery may be optimistic - not sure. We'll see. This is an issue for us because, for example, the flight from Atlanta to Johannesburg is sixteen hours on Delta, and unless I’m in business class, I can’t recharge. When my laptop goes down, I have to switch to iPad with Bluetooth keyboard. Delta only has wi-fi on U.S. flights as far as I know, even on their regional jets.
Charger chord not attached as firmly, but not a problem either. Bought a second to permanently reside in my office.
Very surprised at the speakers - much improved. I would never compare these new speakers with the Bose Blue Tooth portable; however, it is worth noting that the new speakers in the computer stopped me from buying said Bose speakers as the on-board new ones are enough for the hotel rooms I frequent with my high travel job and I won't be lugging something else around. At home I have even gone to bed with these speakers whereas I used to go through that little black TV box Apple sells to my stereo.
Next machine we buy I'll get the next step up as I need the extra 250 gigs but not the speed. I'm at 62% full with this because I left most of our promotional videos off the machine, and just loaded around 5 key ones.
HDMI worked great in a presentation Wednesday, you have to tell the sound to go to the T.V. speakers via the System preferences. No problems, nice to just take an HDMI chord and no data projector!
My daughter is the most happy - she went from a Vista based laptop to my previous MacBook Pro Tuesday. When I set up her profile, I learned there’s some very cool parental settings available, she’s not as happy about that (set it not to operate between 12a and 6a.
I have ordered a LaCie Thunderbolt 6 Ter two drive external memory - I will run it mirrored.

Inconsistent Battery Readings

I'm a new iPhone owner, the 3GS to be specific, and unlike other posts, I'm not experiencing bad battery life, with or without push on, but I do notice an inconsistency in the reading of the battery life remaining.
My primary example is when I have it charging in the dock. Whether the battery is set to give percentage left or not, the iPhone will show fully charged or 100%, but then suddenly drops between 1-3% while still connected to the cradle. Last night is also did this. It read 100%, then I disconnected it and dropped immediately to 98%.
Has anyone else noticed the charge level significantly dropping when either charging or immediately after disconnecting?
If so, do you know how to correct this or have you been able to correct it at all?
Thank you

I am also experiencing problems with the battery indicator. Yesterday I charged my phone for about 30 minutes with my car charger, and when I unplugged it, the percentage indicated 75%. I used the phone very infrequently, no calls, a couple of pictures, checked email 3 or 4 times when 2 hours later I got the low battery warning at 20%. I turned the phone to airplane mode, as I wasnt able to charge it thinking I would be able to save battery. About 10 minutes later the battery showed %15 percent so I turned off the phone. After that it would not power on at all and was totally dead. Later I put it back on the car charger again, and within 30 seconds of being on the charger, the indicator shows 38%?????
Today another case in point. I leave the house at 100% (it was plugged in to the wall charging all night). Within 15 minutes of NO USE at all, the battery showed 92%?! 3 hours later of little use I was at 58%, and I just got back from lunch and then the battery showed 68% and I had not charged it. Shortly there after it went from 68% to 49% just like that.
Something is amiss!

Replacement Battery Advice - Help!

I have a Macbook Pro 15 inch (early 2006) with battery Model Number MA348LL. Being how this is a really poor battery to begin with, I am looking to buy an off brand of this battery. Any suggestions?

Many, many people who have bought replacement notebook batteries on Ebay for half or less than half what Apple charges have gotten what they paid for, or less: batteries that won't charge at all, won't hold a charge, have far lower capacities than advertised or than Apple batteries, can't be calibrated, don't give any low-battery warning, and/or shut the machine down (losing all unsaved work) instead of putting it to sleep when they are drained. Avoid those batteries. Apple is still the best bet, but quite a few people swear by these:
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Apple/Laptop/Batteries

Inconsistant Battery Charge from plug-in charger and USB ports

My Iphone occassionaly will not charge using the stock plug-in charger and computer USB port. This doesn't happen all the time but enough that I am somewhat concerned. Anyone else have this issue?

Your Majesty,
If you believe your wall charger has an issue, you can contact your nearest Apple Retail store's Genius bar or AppleCare to have it replaced.
When charging from a computer, it is important that the computer not go into standby or sleep mode. Some computers will actually drain an iPod or iPhone's battery if they are in sleep mode. In addition some portable or notebook computer's don't provide sufficient power to fully charge the battery when they are running on battery instead of AC power.
Hope this helps,
Nathan C.

Battery Advice

I have recently got a MSI GS70 2QE and was wondering about what the best thing to do for maximising the battery life. Should I have it plugged in when not playing games? And what about when hibernated/shut down? Should I let it run completely down every so often? Or at least avoid having it on 100%?

Running down stresses the battery most. I keep mine on AC all the time. Best battery life is yet achieved when the battery charge is between about 40% to 80% but I don't mind.

Battery life extremely long?

I recently noticed this past week that my battery was at full charge after it hadn't been docked for at least a day. Now we all know that the battery is used pretty quickly - so I was concerned that the full battery display was inaccurate. Just to test it, I did not charge it for a second night. The next morning when I hit the home button, the battery was completely drained. However, once it went to sleep, I hit the home button once more - and it turned on with over 75% of battery life. I refused to plug it in and it lasted three days - with my surfing the internet, making calls, and playing with apps.
Now no complaints on my end - I'm just paranoid I will assume I have more than enough battery and when I need it most, it turns out to be dead. I thought it might be some sort of bug. Has anyone else noticed this?

Here's Apple's battery advice: http://www.apple.com/batteries/iphone.html
"For proper maintenance of a lithium-based battery, it’s important to keep the electrons in it moving occasionally. Be sure to go through at least one charge cycle per month (charging the battery to 100% and then completely running it down)."

GT70 ONE battery drain

Hi
I own a GT70 ONE since april this year
W8 64 bit is installed
when I stop using the laptop , I shutdown windows before closing the laptop
Is it normal that the battery is completely drained after 1-2 weeks when it is putted away ?
This is the first I time have this with a laptop
kr
Patrick

Quote from: darkhawk on 27-August-13, 11:38:14
Or just remove the battery......that would probably be the best thing to do.
I wouldn't remove the battery. Here's a quote from the forum FAQ: https://forum-en.msi.com/faq/article/battery-advice
Quote from: Forum Battery FAQ
Battery advice
Author Stu on 17 March, 2011 | Print | Bookmark
If you want to use your laptop battery as long as possible, then use this guideline:
1: First time usage, do not start the notebook right away, but charge the battery FULL before turning the machine on.
2: Never ever drain the battery totally, best recharge before 10% is reached or when ever you can.
3: Do not put the laptop in the Sun or use it at very HOT places, high temps reduce the lifetime greatly.
4: Do NOT store your battery for longer periods of time, best recharge every few weeks or keep it recharged.
I advise to keep it in the laptop, although some prefer doing AC without, however it must be kept charged always! (inserted does that).
5: Do NOT pressure the battery to maximum current levels, Lithium-Ion do not handle that well, this means overclocking and gaming on batteries.
No matter if it's called a gaming laptop, game on AC, at all times.
If you want to read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery
Also this is a must read: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/lithium-ion-battery.htm
I suggest you read it as these batteries can be killed quite easily if you use them the wrong way.
If somebody tell you to drain it totally empty, then they don't know what they are talking about and you are well on your way to kill it.
A well handled Lithium-Ion battery lasts minimal 3 years (but will die after time), no matter if you use it or not, but when misused it can be over in days.

New Nokia N95 Gallery + Battery problems

I got a new N95 two days ago, and when I got it it had 3 bars. I used it straight away to load some pics, videos and music on it. Then after loading some pics from facebook which had the really long names like n503642820_36243_4275[1] and I had about 30 of those pics. So when I unhooked the usb and was going through the gallery it immediately hangs and you can't do anything except press the red button by going back and when I press the C button it cancels but gallery is still running and if I access it from the phone it opens with frozen page untill I click the red button. By this time I had a full battery charge. It then goes back to normal, I open gallery again and at the same certain pic it hangs and you can't do anything. All of this is the first day of using the new N95. So when I go back to gallery to delete that file it still hangs on it and so on. Its running V12 and with all that happenning from a full charge it went down to 2 bars.
So we a very fast battery rundown problem
Gallery hang ups about 6 times from a brand new N95
What should I do?Message Edited by mohamed525 on 06-Oct-200712:56 PM

the initial problem started when you used the phone
The first thing you do is charge the battery this improves the life cycle of the battery
Advice to you is charge the battery when it is completlely empty with the phone turned off and make this a habit
Second issue how were you connected with the usb? Via pc suite or data transfer? If it was data transfer you need to disconnect correctly from your pc
There is a symbol in your taskbar on your cpu that if you right click it states "remove hardware safely" you need to do this when disconnecting via data transfer mode before yanking the cable out

What's happening to my MacBook?!?!?!

My MacBook recently starting acting funny.
Two days ago, I'm using it and it just completely shut off. I pressed the power button to turn it on again, I heard the startup chime, then I heard a "click" and it shut off again (no it wasn't the CD drive). This happened like 10 times but started up fine when I plugged it back into the power adapter.
Today, I turned it on and took like 7 minutes for it to boot. Then it showed "Safe Boot" at the login screen. I never pressed anything while booting so how did it boot to "Safe Boot?" So I logged in and I noticed the following:
1) AirPort is gone... It doesn't show in the menu bar or in the Network option in System Preferences.
2) No sound! The volume adjuster in the menu bar is gone AND the volume buttons on the keyboad do not work. I went to the Sound tab in System Preferences and it says "No Output Devices Found" and "No Input Devices Found."
3) The backlight buttons do not work either. If I press it, it just show that it is on the lowest setting and won't move.
Also, My MacBook shut off by itself once today.
I took screenshots but I don't know how to add them to this message so if someone tells me how, I can add screenshots of what is happening.
Anyways, someone please help me with these issues! I have invested a lot in my MacBook and I don't want it to have tons of problems like my iBook did.

Could be your safe mode prevent your device to run, since it boot using the very minimum driver to eliminate and provide more conflict.
From what I read you have an inconsistent battery, and it just shut you off and won't turn back on since it doesn't have anymore juice in it.
Try to calibrate your battery, reset the NV-RAM, and also the PMU.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
Also try to repair permission using your installer disk and repair both disk and permission.
Hope this simple task will eliminate your problem.
Good Luck

NEED HELP!! - ZEN TOUCH ISS

over the past week or two my zen touch seems to be slowly in decline?*sigh?firstly, when i load it up onto my computer, about 25%-30% of my files are shown as non-files (as in, they're there, but i can't do anything to them....as if they're corrupted)?then, there are songs that just won't load, they take forever to load up?and now my playlists won't load and now, as of last night, my playlists are empty?do i dare format it's is there another way?please help!

Sutchanaqi wrote:
- I purchased my Zen Touch 20GB about two weeks ago. A few days ago after I turned it on it turned off in the middle of a song and turned on again and started a process of formatting or reformatting (I think) I forget exactly what the message on the screen said. All the songs who?s info (track, genre, album, etc.) I updated or changed went back to having the same info that it had prior to me changing it. I don?t know if its related but since then my player has turned off by itself a couple of times in the middle of a song and immediately turned back on without going back to song that it was playing last. Whats going on? What can I do?
Sounds like it was running a disk cleanup. The tag data is obviously held within the files, and the Music Library on the player is built from this. If you change this data on the player directly it only affects the Music Library, it isn't written back to the file (and what you've described clearly demonstrates this, which is of interest). Bottom line is, always check your file tag data is correct *before* downloading to the PC.
- If I let the battery completely die before I get a chance to recharge it, will I loose any music?
No. It's not good to leave a Lithium Ion battery discharged for a couple of weeks or more, so make sure to recharge it at the earliest opportunity. More battery advice in my Nomad Primer.
- If I use the reset feature on my Zen Touch will that cause me to loose any data?
No, only your settings.
I know that Im asking a lot of questions. Sorry about that. Thanks in advance for any help?
No problem, that's what the forum is all about

Are there any iPod Speakers that do NOT charge your iPod when connected?

Hi there,
I'm looking for an affordable iPod speaker that does not charge or gives you the option of not having your iPod charge.
I know people who keep attaching their iPod to the dock speakers that they have, and it constantly keeps charging and that literally killed the battery on their iPod's.
I know there is the Logitech MM32 (connects through headset jack), but not sure if that is compatible with the new Nano 3rd Generation.
Does anyone know of any other speakers that does not charge your iPod while connected (when connected to the wall outlet -> AC) or gives you the iPod not to charge the iPod?
Thanks in advance!

Constantly charging does NOT kill the iPod battery, it is a myth.
Once the battery is charged the main charging stops and it is switched to 'trickle' charge which means it get a slight charge every so often.
There is not problem at all in keeping the iPod topped up, just make sure you discharge it fully approx once a month as per Apple's instructions here :-
http://www.apple.com/batteries/ipods.html
And general battery advice here :-
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
The key is the number of full charge cycles you o through, if you only ever keep topping up the battery then you will not go through full charge cycles very quickly. If you only ever top up the last 5% of the battery then you can do this 20 times and it will only count as 1 charge cycle. Based on the 400 they say you can get from a battery before the capacity drops to 80% that would mean you could top up the battery that last 5% over 400*20=8,000 times.
Ian

My iPhone shuts down at between 30% and 10% charge

My iPhone charge only lasts half day generally and shuts down at anywhere between 30% and 10% charge. I have contacted apple and my battery is not part of the recall and they did a diagnostics report from the phone and say its fine.
I can't upgrade for 12mths due to contract but don't think i can keep putting up with this.

This is the best battery advice I have seen: http://www.overthought.org/blog/2014/the-ultimate-guide-to-solving-ios-battery-d rain

Inconsistent battery advice?

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