Powerbook AC/battery issue

Hi there
wondered if anyone could give advice to this issue. I recently acquired a used Powerbook G4 Aluminum 15" widescreen which I bought knowing it had a dead battery which I'm due to replace, however as I have to leave it plugged in with the ac adapter in the interim I have noticed that there is a low level crackling/squealing emitting from the speakers even during sleep mode - its only noticeable when its quiet and stops when I unplug from the wall but I wondered if this was something to be concerned about? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
regards
Troy

air97 wrote:
I have the 1 Ghz version. and the battery says that the battery is at 75%. very odd.
OK, that's the same as mine. The total capacity number is bizarre, though. The 75 percent on the battery sounds right, as that corresponds to what your reported mAh remaining would be compared to what my System Profiler says about maximum capacity.
Why it's stopping the charge at the point it is is a mystery, but it may simply be a calibration problem. I would recommend again the tactic of running the thing all the way down to sleep or warning, then letting it completely recharge. Apple says at page 9 of this manual (http://manuals.info.apple.com/enUS/PowerBookG415inch1GHz-867MHzGettingStarted.PDF) that this only need to be done once, but I have found that is not exactly true.
Anyway, it's worth a try. As a final thing to try, a power manager reset might be in order, though I have found that really is a last resort thing on the TiBook.

Similar Messages

Powerbook G3 Battery Charging Issues

Hi All,
My Powerbook G3 (with a new Newer Technologies battery) is not charging correctly. It charged at 100 percent for the first 2-3 cycles and has been falling steadily since. Now it won't charge past 28 percent. Thinking it was a battery issue, Newer has replaced it three times since January. What could be wrong?
Chris

Kathy,
Possibly a few of these comments and suggestions will help...
- You have the Powerbook G3 Series M4753 a.k.a. "Wallstreet".
- If the lithium ion battery is several years old or even the original, it may be shot. Normal life span of these batteries is approximately 3 years.
- When you press the little button on the battery, do any of the LEDs light up?
- Since the Wallstreet is apparently running off the power adapter, do you see a lightning bolt in the menu bar or one in the Control Strip at the bottom of the screen? This would at least indicate the charging system is functioning.
- If you see no lightning bolt, shut down the computer, then reset the power manager:
1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
2. Simultaneously press Shift-Fn (function)-Ctrl (control)-Power.
3. Wait 5 seconds.
4. Press the Power button to restart the PowerBook computer.
If the power manager was properly reset, you will see a brief flash of the sleep light and hear a brief runup of the fan.

Powerbook G4 Battery & Apple Care

Hi,
I brought my Powerbook G4 into the Apple store b/c my battery would only hold about 1 hour after a full overnight charge. I bought the laptop in Sep 2004 and the Mac Genius told me that I needed to buy a new battery. I informed him that I bought Apple Care at the time of original purchase date (same store that I took the laptop into). His reason was that Apple Care only covers defective batteries and that after about two years, the battery will not hold a charge well. I told him I felt somewhat cheated b/c the battery issue was the primary issue as to why I bought Apple Care in the first place -- at the recommendation of the Apple salesman who said Apple Care covers the battery. I don't know what to do. I guess I could buy a new battery, but I just kind of feel a let down. What do you guys think? Have you ever had your laptop batteries replaced at no charge after a lengthy time of ownership?

My understanding is that batteries are considered to be "consumables" and are not covered under warranty (original or extended). From day one, they are known to wear out, that's their design. AppleCare costs something like $349 from Apple for a PB and a battery costs $79, so if that was the only reason to get it, it would hardly make fiscal sense.
I got my Applecare to protect myself in the event that the screen or logicboard or some other pricey component proved defective 18 or 24 months into owning my PB, and I could get the unit fixed and sent back to me gratis -- whereas an uncovered repair might total in the thousands otherwise.
If I were you, I would just buy a new battery -- I'm going to have to join you in few months, as my own battery has lost about half its capacity, but that's how rechargeable lithium ion batteries are -- their capacity and charge retention declines with both time and use. C'est la vie.
-- JDee

Yet another (different?) battery issue

I have two batteries for my Powerbook, one I keep as a spare and which has only been used about half a dozen times.
Over recent months I have noticed that the original battery (and the unused one) seemed to take an increasingly long amount of time to recharge, but in the past few days it won't seem to recharge at all. The percentage of remaining charge on both batteries will only go down, with one currently at 25% and the other at 37% and no matter which battery I have installed, whenever I click on the battery menu, in the first line it says "10:00 until full"
I've tried all the suggestions that I've seen in responses to other battery issues, including resetting the PRAM both with the four key shortcut and using open firmware and reset-nvram and reset-all. I've also tried resetting the PMU by holding down the power key, until the long bleep and I've just tried the Powerbook G4 Battery Updater, but with both batteries I get the following message "Your battery was not updated. Make sure you have a battery properly installed and then try to update your battery again. Be sure to complete the update process for this battery before starting the update of another battery"
The information in the system profiler for each battery is as follows:
Original battery -
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 861
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 3508
Health Information:
Cycle count: 110
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 10
Voltage (mV): 11320
Relatively new battery -
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 1621
Charging: Yes
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4381
Health Information:
Cycle count: 3
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 10
Voltage (mV): 11331
I notice there is a massive difference in the "Cycle Count" for the two batteries (110 and 3) although I haven't got a clue what this means.
Any advice or suggestions would be most welcome, as at present I am worried that eventually I will have run both batteries down and there will be no point in me purchasing a new one if my laptop cannot charge it for some reason.
As ever my utmost thanks in advance to anyone who takes the trouble to get back to me
Kind Regards
Bernard
PS. the charger info in System Profiler is as follows
AC Charger Information:
AC Charger (Watts): 50
Connected: Yes
Charging: Yes
Message was edited by: tdogb

Thanks a million for getting back to me Louie
The ring on the power socket is orange, suggesting that it is charging. However I didn't noticed the 50watts in my System Profiler details for the AC Charger. My Power Supply says that it is a 65w one with the correct model no. for this Powerbook (I think it says A1021 on it but I don't trust my eyesight at this time of night)
Both batteries do appear to be charging but incredibly slowly. For example I have been trying to charge up the battery all week and I had it up to 33% at one stage, before I neglected to plug the power chord in when I turned it on and it slipped back down to 22%. Three days later with it plugged into the power constantly (with me using the computer only during the day and putting it to sleep at night - should it charge when in sleep mode?), it's only crept back up to 30% again.
This battery could be knackered but I hardly have used my spare battery and even that won't seem to charge any quicker
I am also pretty certain that this incredibly slow charging is a recent problem, as I've had that power supply for some time (a year maybe) and I am sure that in the past the batteries have charged up at a more normal rate.
My power supply socket got a little knock recently when I tripped over the cable (as seems to be a common problem on the old non-magnetic sockets) and since then, with the connection not being nearly so snug, it happens quite frequently that I wake the computer from sleep and only realise that the plug is slightly out of the socket when the warning comes up that the laptop will put itself to sleep because the battery is low.
As a result, where previously I was always using the power supply with the battery fully charged and the light on the ring usually green, these days it seems to be permanently orange because I keep running the battery down and in recent weeks it will not seem to charge up because it takes so much time
I am guessing that I must've bought a moody power supply (I guess cheap is cheap, as they say) but I don't think it's the source of my problem because the issue has only manifested itself recently
Many thanks as always for taking the trouble to get back to me
Best Regards
Bernard

Strange iBook G3 battery issue

I have an iBook G3 FireWire model which won't recognise its battery. It displays as 5% charged with the "fully charged" icon next to it and the menu saying "Calculating... until full." Unplugging the computer will force it to shut down. The computer's optical drive is broken, so I had to install Tiger via USB. The first time, it worked just fine, charging the battery as normal. The problem arose when I installed some updates (I think it was the 10.4.11 Combo updater) and shut down. Upon restart, it never reached the "Starting Mac OS X" screen, just staying on a light blue screen with a perpetually spinning wheel. After attempting multiple restarts, I unplugged the computer while it was on said screen, and it lost all power just as it does now. I reinstalled Tiger with the same USB and disk image the next day. Both http://reviews.ebay.com/iBook-Clamshell-Battery-Issue?ugid=10000000007193925 and booting into Open Firmware and entering the commands reset-nvram, then set-defaults, then reset-all yield the same result: it will charge to 13%, then stop and say "Calculating... until full." The charger is known to be working, it charges my PowerBook just fine.

The typical lifespan of a lithium-ion battery is two to three years. Some last a little longer; some don't even last that long.
It needs a new battery.
Which exact iBook model is it?
You can choose from this list:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html
It would seem that it is recognizing the battery; it's just not charging. If an iBook doesn't recognize the battery, there will be an X through the battery icon in the menu bar and the System Profiler wouldn't give you the battery information; it would say "Battery Installed: No".

Possible cure for battery issues

hi
first of all i dont own the device yet
i am user of 5530,5800,n8,c7,701
i was looking farword to bring in my hands the first nokia wp7 but due to features missing and (in my opinion) little overpriced at the moment(as sim free) i will wait for the next nokia wp7
but being for a while in nokia forums i deside to write this atricle with my opinion about the battery issue (IF IT IS) with the 800
after reading many users facing problem with battery in different revious and forums about my N9 last longer or my N8 etc i deside to do a test with my current in use 701(1300milliamber battery and the brightness screen that nokia offers right now)
i left all day the phone connected to 3g and gprs data with about 5 min calls couple of textsand little browsing fmobi,little use the default browser,little use apps which connects to internet ...all these for about 1,5 - 2 hrs
it did last about 12 hrs same as some users with the lumia
Now if you dont belive me TRY THE SAME TEST BY YOUR SELFS
what i have understand (as i dont own the device) is that perhaps by default or out of the box (and especially the branded phones from the providers) is that featurs like wifi or data, nokia account, market place bing etc must be ON
if was the same issue with my 701 it will not go too far of course
what nokia possible can do is to do a frimware update which in start up or rebooting the phone....dark them,wifi,data,bluetooth,internet connection should be off by default like in symbian
i am sure the upcoming new customers will not have future complains
but i belive this is important as some poeple dont have the knowlege to do all these to turn off manual, especially in a new UI that they are using first time (wp7) and of course having a new phone most of them especially the non experts can think the battery drains so easy if all are ON
******* or at least nokia should make it like symbian to turn off automatic after closing apps,face,twitter,email etc
thanks for your time reading
for me after my Xmas bonus(if any lol) i will go for a windows phone(sim unlocked)either if nokia or other brand
of course i can wait for the next nokia model not because of the battery issue but i prefer in windows phone 7 bigger screen
thanks again

I must agree with your thinking...
When I first got my C7, battery wasn't lasting a day...
And the reasons was the ones you said...
e-mail was keeping data on, WiFi was always looking for a connexion
I won't say that the Lumia 800 can't have any battery issues, but first of all, it's our use that kill off the bettery...
Setting e-mil to work only once per hour, setting WiFi off when not used...
Only those 2 option give a bette life to the battery...

Is the battery issue with the 4s resolve or is it still a problem

I'm thinking of uupgrading to the 4S but don't want to if they are having battery issues.

Not everybody has problems. To see some reasons and solutions have a look at this discussion and the answer given by Lawrence Finch:https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3546270

IOS 5.1 and iPhone 4S - battery issues resolved?

Has the 5.1 update resolved your battery issues or created any new ones?
I just updated mine, and had to rush out the door so I couldn't test properly- I couldn't reset all settings to factory or recharge the phone to 100% but as is, so far no improvement at all. I wouldn't say I have the issue as bad as some others as my 4S lasts about the same as my windows phone (HD 7 - amazing phone if anyone wants a second phone or a change from ios, Android ***** so hard it hurts) and my old 3GS used to get after i updated it to 4.1 which was really bad, except I don't get so much "phantom drain" as that did. I do know that it could be much better as when I've reset my settings to factory before I've got a much better life span (what I'd expect from a smartphone) for a day or so before getting the bad battery again.
Any news, tips or findings? How has ios5.1 affected your 4S or previous model iPhone?

The Basic Troubleshooting Steps are:
Restart... Reset... Restore from Backup... Restore as New...
Restart / Reset
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1430
Backing up, Updating and Restoring
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414
iPhone User Guide

Genius Bar Feedback on Battery Issues

Ok..so I know there are hundreds of posts regarding various battery issues. I thought it might be helpful to post feedback on my genius bar visit today regarding my battery.
The issue with my battery is that the meter seems to be stuck at about 80% full, regardless of how much I use the iPhone or how long I charge it. I have no accurate way of knowing how much battery life I have left. I have even played 6+ hours of straight video to drain the batter and the meter never moves.
Fortunately, my lightning bolt icon (upper right corner) does eventually change to an a/c plug which tells me that the battery is fully charged even though the big green battery is always at 80%.
So the guy at the genius bar tried and inquired about all the usual tricks already discussed in this forum (restore, plug AC adapter to wall instead of USB, turn off wifi, bluetooth, etc). and concluded that it's most likely a software issue.
He did say however that the the usage statistics frequently mentioned here are controlled by AT&T and that it's functionality depends on AT&T sending some sort of over-the-air signal. Don't know if I buy that.
So, in a nutshell, they did not offer to replace the phone (not that they had any in stock anyway), but instead made a notation of the problem using my serial number and told me to wait for an Apple software update, which will most likely correct the problem. If it doesn't, then they can assume a hardware conflict and issue an replacement.
I know this is getting long, but I would like to add that my battery life itself seems fine. I just never know what I have left by looking at any of the two meters.
G5 Duo-Core Mac OS X (10.4.10)

My original iPhone had poor battery performance and would not reset the usage stats. There is no Apple Store near me, so Apple support sent a service phone and I sent mine in. The service phone has good battery performance and correctly reset the stats. I was notified that the original phone could not be repaired and a new replacement was sent to me. The new iPhone has great battery performance, but no matter what I try, the usage stats won't reset. Today I was told by Apple support that they believe this is a software issue and a revision would be developed to address the problem. There is no forecast availability date. It doesn't make any sense that a signal from AT&T would have anything to do with the battery stats. The service phone charged and reset the stats before I swapped my SIM into it.

Semi-Scientific Test on iPhone 4S Battery Issue w/two iPhone 4Ss

All,
My wife and I ordered identical 16 GB iPhone 4Ss. They were set up the same way. From the very start, I could tell that her battery was outperforming mine.
After a day of turning off and on various settings, from Location Services, to Siri, to iTunes settings, etc. I still noticed a huge gap in stand-by performance. I was losing 1% per 10 minutes, her phone was not.
Today, we had similiar usage with similar network characteristics (WiFi, decent 3G coverage) starting from a full charge (100%). After 8 hours, her phone still had 52% remaining. Mine died on the way home from work.
So tonight, I performed a test. I plugged both phones up and allowed them to fully charge to 100%. While plugged up, I ensured each setting on the phone were identical, including the number of Exchange accounts, brightness level, etc. At 9pm CDT, I unplugged them. My phone took a long time to get from 99% to 100%, her phone didn't. Mine also went to 99% upon unplug, her's didn't.
Neither phone was used at all, stayed completely in stand-by mode. At 10:15pm CDT, ...her phone remains at 100%. Mine is now at 92%. That's roughly 1% every 10 minutes on my phone, same thing I saw earlier in the day.
I think this, for me at least, confirms the diverse results folks are seeing. Some folks are seeing major battery issues, some are seeing better battery life over other iOS devices. It just so happens in our house, we have one of each. Why would two identical phones behave so differently? I've exahusted all possible options on my phone, including the recently posted attempt at deleting e-mail accounts and resetting network settings.
Does Apple recommend that I do a restore on my phone? I am trying to do so, but I am having issues re-downloading iOS 5. If I still see the same battery drain, I believe I will take this into the Genius bar.
I do believe it's time that Apple address this battery issue. I for one, based on experience, believe it's real, and could be a manufacturing defect. I don't know how else to explain two identical phones having vastly different stand-by results if my restore fails to fix the issue.

After spending 2 days troubleshooting I have found my battery drain culprit. When I turn my wifi on it coninuously disconnects and reconnects to my network. This was draining my battery about 1% every 4 minutes. I went through all the turn this stuff off, reset network settings, setup phone as new, helped some but still had the issue. This morning I set mine and my wife's up the same, she went to work and was playing music on the way in. Still had 100% after 40 minutes. I was at home with wifi on and dropped to 90%.
I charged my battery back up, turned wifi off and now after an hour still have 100%. This is with siri on, icloud on, notifications on, etc.
Can anyone else confirn this is an issue for them. I am trying to determine if it is hardware or software related.
Thanks

Iphone4s - iMessage, Call & battery issues

I cannont receive text or picture messages via imesssage every once in a while, it never appears to be an issue when i receive from OTHER phones on other networks. I am able to send the messages though. and this issue is not consistent. it happens every now and then.
While i was testing this, i also noticed that when i send an iMessage the receiver is seeing my email Id instead of my phone number. I donno how frequent it is, but i noticed it once.
also, whenever someone calls me i get the call very late, i.e. just when the caller is about to reach my voicemail or disconnect. I have tested this by dialing my phone from a number of other phone including iPhone 4 & 4S from At&t
coming to the battery issues, i ALWAYS have my time zone off(i put my clock 10 min ahead), so i dont see the issue others are facing. But once in a a while i can see the battery dropping from 80% to dead within an hour or two without any usage. I got my iPhone 4s on day 1 and this happened about 4-5 times till now. Everytime i saw this happening, i would terminate all the background apps but that dosent stop the battery from draining.
I went to the apple store yesterday to have it diagnosed and they sent me away telling that I need to make an appointment.
Is anyone else facing the same issues?
Please share the solution if anyone was able to get around these issues.

Hi,
I had battery issues with my iphone5 ever since I updated to the latest IOS. My battery was draining really fast and my phone was really warm. What I did to solve this problem was: Go into Settings>Mail>Fetch New Data>Push,and make sure you switch push off. In that same section make sure that fetch is set as manually. This means that you have to check your emails when you want to - instead of the notifications going off every minute draining your battery.
I hope this helps anyone with the same issue.

A suggestion for those with battery issues:

When I first got my iPhone, I had the same battery issues many people here are talking about, in fact I posted about it myself. Its fixed. Very fixed, and Im very happy with my battery life. Here is what I did.
First, do not charge it using your USB connection. At least not always. Why? I dont know. I did the first few days, and couldnt get a full charge even tho system wasnt going to sleep. I started using the wall charger, and got longer battery life, but still not great. One night, I forwarded the phone to my home phone in case I got a call, and shut the phone down completely, and put it on charge. In the morning, I woke up to a 100% charged, fully glowing battery icon. The battery lasted all day with no issues. Every night after that, I just charged it on the wall charger, but did NOT shut it down to see what happened. I am still waking up every morning to a 100% fully charged battery. The battery life seems to get better daily now.
Today, I ran wifi for about 5 hours because I forgot to shut it off. This was after going to the pool and listening to the iPod on the phone for about 2 hours. And using the phone normally throughout the day, checking mail, sms, etc. Really a full day of work, and my battery is still over 50% full. I purposely didnt connect it to anything during the day for a recharge, not the USB or wall charger.
Good luck, hope this helps. Id be interested to know if it does.

Here's my non-scientific experiment.
After surprising battery drain for the first 10 days or so with not much usage, I completely drained the battery yesterday until the phone shut off.
I plugged into AC charge and was worried when it didn't seem to even begin charging.
I plugged into USB, assuming it needed to charge enough to at least complete a sync.
I left it on USB until about 5-10% charge, then switched it to AC. At about 50% I needed to use it, so I did but sparingly, and put it back on charge, all the while keeping Mail on manual and WiFi off.
I took it off once more to get it home from the office, then plugged into AC.
I left that charging overnight.
I never actually got the "glow", but did get the plug icon showing full charge in the status bar.
After about 2 1/2 hours this morning, the status has not moved off of 100% (but with little usage as before).
This is definitely an improvement already though. Hope this helps.

IPhone 4S update to iOS 5.1 singal and battery issues

Hi,
I was on 5.0.1 and had no issues at all loved the phone and my battery life. Eversince I updated to 5.1 my phone signal is awful, 2 bars when I had 5 before, constantly floating, calls drop for no reason. Yesterday nobody was able to reach me until I restarted my phone. Switched phone on in the morning yesterday and I get no service for around 30 minutes, after restarting 3 times it finally found network.
On o2 got my iphone from Apple unlocked.
As to battery life I can loose around 10-20 % in 2-3 hours not doing anything just in stand by, my battery issues were solved with 5.0.1 but started again with 5.1
What is apple doing? it is to say the least frustrating as ****. Fix one thing then break another, or break 2 while fixing them. It ****** me off.
I tried to restore my phone 7 times already set up as new and still no improvement.
One more interesting issue is when you go to your purchases in App store, and click dowload and app dissapears and then reappears on home screen few minutes later once it is done downloading.
Anyone else with this kind of a issue?

Honestly guys,
It is either apple is blinded by their immense success which will not last if they keep going the direction they going. They should have more time to test their products thouroughly before they put their production line on overdrive. Company this size ignoring issues like that.
I think new Ipad will have problems as well, it seems this line up 4S and new ipad is kind of transition point to a newer devices and were made just to get something out on the market. Using same CPUs same formfactor.
My problem is I payed a fortune for it and it doesnt perform, I dont pay 600 pounds for a phone because I want to have issues with it. What they are doing is plainly ignoring these problems. Battery issue been going on since the release of the phone, going to be a year soon.
Microsoft and Apple changing places, look like microsoft going the right direction now with Widnows 8 and mobiles where as apple comes up with something like Lion which I hated and now Mountain Lion which plainly is running out of ideas and starting to implement some features from iOS, these are completely different devices. They do not need to be the same, they werent created for the same purprose.
I was on apples side all along but they are blinded by their pride in leading this revolution that they choose to ignore these issues. Relying on peoples stupidity to show off things like ipad 3 is 4x faster than tegra 3 where as in real results it came out 15% faster.
Apple get his fixed before it is too late. Scared to buy your products now!!! Good thing I didnt get iPad looking at overheating issues it is having, and also not charging from cable while in use but draining battery. No thanks

Help with iPod mini (Battery issues)

I am an owner of an iPod mini (1st generation) that I bought in February from Amazon. The mini has constant battery issues that have led me to suspect a bad battery within.
For instance; I leave my mini in it's charging cable overnight, and it reports "charged" in the morning. I leave it for the rest of the day in my coat's poket but during my walk home from the bus stop, I find that the mini's battery is completely DISCHARGED and doesn't work at all. I'm sick and tired of having my battery last only a minute before it completely dies on me while walking home.
Can anyone lead me to a source of help? I NEED to get this problem fixed as I don't want to listen yo all my music while having to be hooked up to a cable.
iPod Mini (1st generation) Windows XP Battery discharged in a minute.

Edited by an Apple Host
Apple will replace your battery (if its within one year of purchase, no receipt needed, just the SERIAL # on the back of your mini), and you can get repair for FREE, just $32 for shipping and handling, OR you can, if an Apple store is near your home or in your town, take it to them, and get a REPLACEMENT mini on the spot, for FREEEEE!!!
Try those methods, but i HIGHLY suggest you take it to an Apple store first and see their take on the issue!!!

I have an iPod Nano that is synced to my mac, but it is sent in for the battery issue. Anyway, I have bought a 2nd gerneration Ipod touch and I want to now sync it to my mac, but it does not show up in the left menu bar. Please help. Thanks All!

I have an iPod Nano that is synced to my mac, but it is sent in for the battery issue. Anyway, I have bought a 2nd gerneration Ipod touch and I want to now sync it to my mac, but it does not show up in the left menu bar. Please help. Thanks All!

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1591
There have been some problems accessing pages on the Apple web site. If the hyperlink gives you a "We're sorry" message, try again.

Powerbook AC/battery issue

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