Reinstalled Leopard, battery life *****...

I decided to wipe my Santa Rosa MacBook's HD this weekend and reinstall this weekend. I had been working with the factory install since I bought it in December up until now.
Once I finished getting the system back with all my apps reinstalled, I noticed my battery life dropped significantly. Before, I would get 4:30 to almost 5 hrs according to the gauge on the menu bar. Now I'm lucky if it hits 4 hrs on a full charge.
Whats the deal? Why would it just drop so much from one day to the next? My cycle count is only at 20 and System Profiler says the battery condition is "Good".

I've had the same problem. My reduced battery life has made my laptop almost unportable. I'm down to about an hour and a half for my battery from about 3 hours. It runs really hot - in blow dry mode (the fan on full blast constantly). I've read a lot of reports like this. Probably going to have to go back to Tiger just so I can actually use my laptop as a laptop - too hot for my lap as it is...

Similar Messages

MacBook Pro Snow Leopard battery life

Okay, I've been poring through the threads for days now to try to find a solution to this . . .
I have two different MacBook Pros (a 15" 4,1 and and a 17" 1,2). I've upgraded both to Snow Leopard. Each is now running 10.6.6.
After uprading, both started suffering extremely poor battery life, losing nearly 1% each minute, even when the Mac is sitting and doing nothing.
I've done all the fixes I've found (recalibrating the battery, resetting PRAM, checking for rogue processes, etc.), and so far nothing has fixed the problem. I even bought a new battery for the older Mac, and that had absolutely no effect.
Some of the threads I've seen here go back for more than two years.
Has anyone solved this problem? I'm at the end of my rope!

1% a minute?
You're quite right - this problem has existed for years. Apple bases its power estimates on a device half intensity, using Energy Saver, and SL is supposed to have better battery performance than Lion.
Something is causing your battery to die on you. Check off the following one by one to make sure there isn't another problem:
1. Are you attached by USB? If you leave your MBP attached to a USB device or Firewire cable, you can lose battery power even if your computer sleeps. Disconnect all devices when you're not using them.
2. Are you using Energy Saver? Your machine may be sapping energy by being at high intensity. Instead, opt for a monitor at half or three-quarters brightness.
3. Losing battery even while sleeping? That problem can be addressed by going to System Preferences/Bluetooth and disabling Bluetooth.
4. Are you losing battery through heat? You can lose battery capacity with a system that's hot all the time. Keep your machines as cool as possible, through energy management, getting a laptop cooler, or using free applications like Fan Control.
5. Limit your losses. Use a power cord whenever convenient to increase your real-life battery time.
6. Some applications, like Skype that are on all day, sap battery power. If one such application is on all day (or close to it), this may be part of the issue.
7. Don't upgrade to Lion. This OS demands twice as much power as SL.
I don't want to minimize the significance of the issue, but take a look at which processes are drawing power. You might want to go to Utilities/Activity Monitor at take a look at which applications are consuming your CPU.

Leopard battery life impact on 15-inch 2.4GHz Santa Rosa?

I'm getting ready to take the Leopard plunge by upgrading my Tiger 15-inch 2.4GHz Santa Rosa MacBook Pro to 10.5.2.
I've seen some reports of decrease in battery life with this upgrade, though nothing that seems to suggest there is any sort of wide-spread issue in 10.5.2, so I'm not expecting this to ding my battery life too noticeably (currently 2-3.5 hours depending on usage and settings).
In general I'm not too worried about installing Leopard, but if anyone has any good or bad experiences to share with respect to MBP battery life, I'd appreciate it.

You should have no trouble. The vast majority of the "+Leopard killed my battery+" posts (and the "+10.4.11 update...+ and +10.4.10 update killed my battery+" posts that preceded those) resulted from one of three things:
1. Unfortunate but coincidental timing of a battery failure due to the issues that BillC37 mentioned (and acknowledged by Apple here)
2. The fact that Battery Update 1.2, _which was specifically designed to expose battery problems_, was rolled into 10.4.10 and later updates, and into Leopard, so those people who didn't apply the stand alone battery update got it with the OS update/upgrade
3. A conflict (often a widget or 3rd party app that's not compatible with the update/upgrade) that spawns a rogue process that ramps up the CPU and the fans, which then affects battery run time
So, bottom line, you should be fine.
Hope this helps...

Battery life under Snow Leopard

Looks like I can only get maximum half the battery life, as compared to what it was under Leopard 10.5.8.
I have the latest MacBook Pro 2009, and under Leopard I would normally get about 6-8 hours of battery life, and could get through an entire work day without having to recharge. Under Snow Leopard maximum I could get so far is about 5 hours _at best_ (if I don't do much of anything).
Extra 32 bits ate my battery?

Exactly the same for me as well. I have a new macbook pro 2009 model and yes since upgrading to 10.6.1 I have lost about 50% battery power. This *****.
I went into an Apple store in Amsterdam today, and they said they have never heard of this issue and just told me to call tech support. LOL like they don't read, this issue is all over the net in a way I'm glad I'm not the only one so I just hope a fix comes soon.

Horrible battery life after upgrading to leopard

i just recently upgraded to leopard, about a week ago. ever since my battery life is horrible. after i unplug it from the power adapter i get no more than 1 hour of just surfing the internet. Is there anything i can do to see if i can resolve this problem? or is this something i need to call apple care about?

jhorkey wrote:
well usually it stays plugged in until the night. then i unplug it and when the battery is drained i take it and plug it back in. sometimes i take it away for not too long of a time maybe around 30 min and then i plug it back in.
This is why your battery has problems. You have been using it like the NiCads used to like being used. Li-Ion batteries will die a premature death doing this. It is best to keep it plugged in and only use the battery when you need it.
When you do use the battery there is no reason to deliberately discharge it all the way before charging it again. This will age the battery faster than normal. Li-Ion batteries prefer little charges over big ones.
There is a chance , a small one , that you might improve your batteries life and power.
First you need to do an accurate calibration. I usually time this so the battery is dead around bedtime. Then leave it unplugged and off for five hours or until you get up but a minimum of five hours. Now charge it until it is fully charged. Do not remove the power while this is happening. You can use it but keep it plugged in.
After this is done use the Macbook as needed. If you need to use it on battery that is fine. Just don't discharge it all the way unless you have no choice.
If possible I suggest using the battery for 15 minute increments then plug it back in for a few hours. Do this once or twice a day for a week or as long as you can. At the end of one month do another calibration. Then try using your MacBook as you need. Don't use it on battery unless needed. If you are near your charger plug it in.
You may see an improvement and you may not. You may have to replace the battery. If you do the following has some good info for you to keep this from happening again.
It is OK to leave your battery hooked to the charger most of the time. The only time I unhook mine from the charger is when I calibrate. Have you calibrated your battery yet? You should calibrate every two months or so to keep the battery fully functioning. If you use your MacBook infrequently, it’s best to re-calibrate the battery at least once a month.
The following links have good information about the MacBook and the care of it's battery.
Apple: Tips for maximizing your Notebook battery charge
Apple MacBook and MacBook Pro: Reduces processor speed when battery is removed while operating from an A/C adaptor
Apple portable computer's battery does not show a full charge in Mac OS X
Look here and here for some good tips about battery care.

Bad battery life after upgrading to leopard

i just recently upgraded to leopard, about a week ago. ever since my battery life is horrible. after i unplug it from the power adapter i get no more than 1 hour of just surfing the internet. Is there anything i can do to see if i can resolve this problem? or is this something i need to call apple care about?

likely your fan is running constantly like mine don't know the answer but seen several posting for same problem.

MacBook Air battery life/standby time destroyed by Lion!

My girlfriend's 2010 MBA used to be able to be in standby mode forever (for weeks, if not the advertised month) and still maintain a charge with Snow Leopard. After upgrading to Lion, the battery drains overnight.
Anyone else have this issue?
And does anyone know how to solve it? I tried resetting the SMC which seems to have helped battery life slightly when the computer is in use but had no effect on standby time.
Any help would be much appreciated.

My wife's MBA (Late-2010 11" 2GB) had its standby and operating times destroyed by Lion. Prior to the Lion upgrade, useful operating time were 5+ hours and standby forever it seemed. After the Lion upgrade, immediately useful battery life was 2 hours and standby barely lasted overnight. I ran Coconut batttery to discover that, at idle with no applications running in the foreground, the machine was drawing 16.7 watts. The case was also uncomfortably warm when operating on battery. On charge, it showed 434 watts (shocking don't know if this is normal for Snow Leopard though). My MBP (mid-2010 13" 8GB Snow Leopard 10.6.8) only consumes 9 watts at idle on battery by comparison (and it doesn't have SSD and other power saving features available on the MBA).
So, I downgraded to Snow Leopard by reinstalling the machine from scratch. Power consumption in coconut battery shows 5 watts at idle with no applications. When I wake the machine from standby, coconut battery shows 0.1 watt consumption. So, I believe this may have solved the battery longevity problems. Since I only downgraded today, I have to test for some time before I can declare the problem fixed.

MBP 2009 - upgraded to lion diminished battery life

I upgraded my MacBook Pro July 2009 from snow leopard to lion. My computer's battery life has now halved. What am I able to do? Can I also just uninstall Lion and reinstall Snow Leopard?

Mdgray09 wrote:
Can I also just uninstall Lion and reinstall Snow Leopard?
yes, as long as you have the install disc for Snow Leopard.

MBP 13" Aug09, lost 2 hours battery life after upgrading to SL

Hi, my Macbook Pro bought on Aug 09 lost 2 hours of battery life after an upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard.
I brought it to the Apple service center where they checked the battery and they said that the battery has no problem.
Then, they suggest me to format my mac and reinstall Snow Leopard on a clean disk which i did without any success.
So now, my battery still hold 100% of it's original capacity (over 5450mAh) but my battery died before 3 hours with 0 program running !? (it used to last over 5.5 hours while running Leopard)
What's the matter with my battery.
And of course, i tried all the calibration before i post this topic.
If anyone can help now, it would be so great ! can't expect anything from Apple as they consider my battery as new.
Thanks !
Message was edited by: jay77hkbr

I too have been experiencing worse battery life.
I used to have about 3.5 hours on my now one year old Unibody MBP.
After SL (and switch from original 5400rpm to seagate momentus 7200rpm) I'm now down at about 2 hours.
Wifi enabled
Bluetooth enabled
Brightness around 80%
2 hours is very little compared to the promised 5 hours.
My battery stats:
Health: 94%
Cycles: 112
Full charge: 4344mAh
Feels like I'm on an old lousy PC laptop again.

Macbook Air Poor Battery Life

I have a mid-2012 Macbook air and I've noticed recently my battery life is horrible. I've read every single other thread about this issue but nothing really helped and even the most recent is from a couple of years ago. Obviously now it's 2015 and my macbook is running on Yosemite, so its not the battery issue that everyone seemed to have with Mavericks.
Just writing that small section I went from 73% to 68% and at the current 68% I only get an estimated 2 hours and 10 minutes remaining. I've also had only Safari running this whole time.
Option clicking the battery icon reveals that the condition is normal, as well as the power system report. It also has gone through only 441 cycles, no where near its 1000 cycle "limit" and its health is already down to 77%. While obviously the condition is normal and doesn't say I need to replace the battery I feel that I should, based off of everything else.

Have macbook air from mid 2012 - I installed Yosemite November 2014 and since then I'm having problem with my battery - it has been draining super fast - 4hrs battery life now compared to earlier 8hrs.
I reinstalled Yosemite, didn’t help and then made a clean reinstallation of Yosemite about 5 days ago and there is still the same drain issue.
Thank you in advance!
Here is the Etre Check Report:
Problem description:
The battery has been draining super fast - 4hrs battery life now compared to earlier 8hrs.
EtreCheck version: 2.2 (132)
Report generated 5/2/15, 8:02 PM
Download EtreCheck from http://etresoft.com/etrecheck
Click the [Click for support] links for help with non-Apple products.
Click the [Click for details] links for more information about that line.
Hardware Information: ℹ️
    MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012) (Technical Specifications)
    MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir5,2
    1 1.8 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2-core
    8 GB RAM Not upgradeable
        BANK 0/DIMM0
            4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
        BANK 1/DIMM0
            4 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok
    Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported
    Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n
    Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 341 - SN = D8622840AXXDKRNAA
Video Information: ℹ️
    Intel HD Graphics 4000
        Color LCD 1440 x 900
System Software: ℹ️
    OS X 10.10.3 (14D136) - Time since boot: 10:53:27
Disk Information: ℹ️
    APPLE SSD TS128E disk0 : (121.33 GB)
        EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB
        Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted> [Recovery]: 650 MB
        Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 120.11 GB (105.35 GB free)
            Encrypted AES-XTS Unlocked
            Core Storage: disk0s2 120.47 GB Online
USB Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)
    Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad
    Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
    Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
        Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
Thunderbolt Information: ℹ️
    Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Gatekeeper: ℹ️
    Mac App Store and identified developers
Problem System Launch Daemons: ℹ️
    [failed]    com.apple.mtrecorder.plist
Launch Daemons: ℹ️
    [loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist [Click for support]
    [failed]    com.apple.spirecorder.plist
User Login Items: ℹ️
    iTunesHelper    Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)
Internet Plug-ins: ℹ️
    FlashPlayer-10.6: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    Flash Player: Version: 17.0.0.169 - SDK 10.6 [Click for support]
    QuickTime Plugin: Version: 7.7.3
    Default Browser: Version: 600 - SDK 10.10
3rd Party Preference Panes: ℹ️
    Flash Player [Click for support]
Time Machine: ℹ️
    Time Machine not configured!
Top Processes by CPU: ℹ️
         6%    WindowServer
         4%    fontd
         3%    hidd
         1%    configd
         1%    powerd
Top Processes by Memory: ℹ️
    519 MB    kernel_task
    156 MB    com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
    66 MB    Safari
    57 MB    mdworker(7)
    57 MB    Pages
Virtual Memory Information: ℹ️
    5.28 GB    Free RAM
    2.72 GB    Used RAM
    72 MB    Swap Used

Macbook Air Terrible Battery Life

There are a series of threads on these forums regarding the rare case where Macbook Airs get terrible battery life on Mavericks, and some of them have numerous posts telling you to make a new thread about your specific issue. Here's mine.
The issues began when I did my initial Mavericks update. I had a series of really bad things happen, so I did a cmd+R reboot, and reinstalled the OS. It didn't help, so I scheduled a Genius appointment, and they wiped the drive and installed Mavericks clean.
All of the issues are gone now, except for one: my computer gets less than half the life it did on Mountain Lion. I used to get 14-16 hours of battery life on Mountain Lion when nothing was running. I just charged it to 100% and had just 6 hours of estimated life.
I've reset both the PRAM and the SMC, and neither helped. Might you have any further ideas on how to fix this?
Note: I know that Google Chrome is less energy efficient than other browsers. With that said, I used to still get well over 10 hours at 98-100% battery life on Mountain Lion with Chrome open. My usage of Google Chrome is a constant in this equation; this issue can't be so easily dismissed as being an issue with Chrome, I think.
Here's a screenshot showing a number of things (no apps being open, the poor battery life, and activity monitor)
http://jmeas.com/files/mavericks.png
And here's an EtreCheck report:
Hardware Information:
          MacBook Air (13-inch, Mid 2013)
          MacBook Air - model: MacBookAir6,2
          1 1.7 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 2 cores
          8 GB RAM
Video Information:
          Intel HD Graphics 5000 - VRAM: 1024 MB
Audio Plug-ins:
          BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0
          AirPlay: Version: 1.9
          AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0
          iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3
System Software:
          OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 1:26:34
Disk Information:
          APPLE SSD SM0512F disk0 : (500.28 GB)
                    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
                    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 499.42 GB (317.08 GB free)
                    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB
USB Information:
          Apple Internal Memory Card Reader
          Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
                    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller
FireWire Information:
Thunderbolt Information:
          Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus
Kernel Extensions:
Problem System Launch Daemons:
Problem System Launch Agents:
Launch Daemons:
          [loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
          [loaded] com.cocoatech.pathfinder.SMFHelper7.plist
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist
          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2.Agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.maintain.HideSpotlightMenuBarIcon.plist
          [loaded] com.microsoft.office.licensing.helper.plist
Launch Agents:
          [not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
          [loaded] com.adobe.AdobeCreativeCloud.plist
          [loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist
          [not loaded] com.maintain.PurgeInactiveMemory.plist
          [loaded] com.maintain.SystemEvents.plist
          [loaded] com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist
User Launch Agents:
          [loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
          [loaded] com.adobe.ARM.[...].plist
          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.diskSpaceWatcher.plist
          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist
          [loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist
          [loaded] com.spotify.webhelper.plist
User Login Items:
          Flux
          iTunesHelper
          PopClip
          Moom
          Fantastical
          XtraFinder
          Jitouch
3rd Party Preference Panes:
          AirServer Preferences
          Flash Player
          Jitouch
          TeXDistPrefPane
          WacomTablet
Internet Plug-ins:
          AdobeAAMDetect.plugin
          AdobePDFViewer.plugin
          AdobePDFViewerNPAPI.plugin
          Default Browser.plugin
          Flash Player.plugin
          FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
          googletalkbrowserplugin.plugin
          npgtpo3dautoplugin.plugin
          o1dbrowserplugin.plugin
          QuickTime Plugin.plugin
          SharePointBrowserPlugin.plugin
          Silverlight.plugin
          WacomNetscape.plugin
          WacomTabletPlugin.plugin
User Internet Plug-ins:
Bad Fonts:
          None
Time Machine:
          Skip System Files: NO
          Mobile backups: ON
          Auto backup: YES
          Volumes being backed up:
          Destinations:
                    Data [Network] (Last used)
                    Total size: 2 TB
                    Total number of backups: 16
                    Oldest backup: 2013-10-14 09:52:54 +0000
                    Last backup: 2013-10-27 15:27:27 +0000
                    Size of backup disk: Excellent
                              Backup size 2 TB > (Disk size Zero KB X 3)
Top Processes by CPU:
               3%          WindowServer
               3%          Google Chrome
               1%          EtreCheck
               1%          fontd
               1%          PopClip
               0%          Moom
               0%          Jitouch
               0%          hidd
               0%          Last.fm Scrobbler
               0%          locationd
Top Processes by Memory:
          164 MB             com.apple.IconServicesAgent
          147 MB             Google Chrome
          98 MB              WindowServer
          90 MB              Finder
          57 MB              Last.fm Scrobbler
          57 MB              mds_stores
          52 MB              Google Chrome Helper
          49 MB              Dock
          41 MB              mds
          41 MB              Fantastical
Virtual Memory Statistics:
          2.67 GB            Free RAM
          2.66 GB            Active RAM
          1.77 GB            Inactive RAM
          918 MB             Wired RAM
          1.05 GB            Page-ins
          0 B                Page-outs

This may be because Spotlight is indexing your harddrive, do not interrupt it before it's finished and then it'll be much faster and your battery while behave normally if not better !

Iphone 4 battery life draining battery usage and standby has (-) sign

I know there are forums with the same question, however, I need to know what to do if the restore as new doesn't work as well as trying to turn off the notifications. My battery life was fine until I up graded to iOS5.0.1.
I've also done a hard reboot tried to run the battery down and recharge to 100%. Nothing seems to work. I'm getting a usage and battery standby time of ( - ), no figures at all.
With only 2 short calls and a couple of minutes of internet usage my phone has gone from 100% at 7h this morning to 70% at 11h36. I've only noticed the battery drain over the last few days. The only changes were a couple of upgrades on the apps and even deleting those aren't working. I've also tried to delete my email accounts. I've reinstalled the email settings not with exchange but through gmail. My notifications are at a minimum and iCloud is switched off, the only thing that it is backing are my contacts.
Help! I travel far to get to work and need a reliable phone. I'm not sure whether to hold out for a new update on the software or take it to the genius bar.
Any help would be appreciated.

This seems to mainly affect the 4S however if you search the forum (hardware and using iPhone ) you will find many solutions that have either solved or dramatically improved the situation
My 4 did playup with 5.0.1 up but picking a selection of the solutions has returned mine to normal
Location Services to name but one

My battery life is terrible

My MacBook Pro is almost worthless for battery life.
Correction. I have TWO MacBook Pros, both of which are worthless for battery life.
All day they are charged and the rare time I go to use them without being charged, they last at the absolute most 1 hour. If I am lucky and don't do anything on the computer, maybe 1 hour and a half.
Both laptops are 15" MacBook Pros, running Leopard OSX, 2.33 Core 2 Duo, 2bg RAM. All I'm generally doing is surfing the internet, writing e-mails. I try to keep the screen brightness low enough until I feel I'm straining my eyes.
I have tried running both batteries completely out until charging them again, but I see no difference in battery life. I have read they are supposed to last upwards of 3 hours. This simply is NOT possible for me.
What can I do?

Go to the Power tab in System Profiler and get the data for your battery. For example.
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 3769
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 4556
Health Information:
Cycle count: 200
Battery health: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1788
Voltage (mV): 11563
If the Full charge capacity is 4400 (80% of 5500) or more and the Cycle count is less than 300, then your battery is within spec. If the Full charge capacity is less than 4400 and the Cycle count is less than 300, your battery is out of spec and you should contact AppleCare or visit an Apple repair center. If the cycle count is over 300, it's probably time to consider buying a new battery.
Even when new, I never got more than 2:45 out of my batteries (I am on the 4th battery).

My battery life decreased dramatically after updating to ios 6.1.2. How do I delete and go back to previous iso?

I have iphone 5; my battery life decreased dramatically after updating to ios 6.1.2. How do I delete and go back to previous iso?

Downgrading the iOS isn't supported and wouldn't help even if you could. There have been reports of decreased battery life after every update since iOS 1.0.1.
There are lots of things that can be done including reinstalling push email accounts. basic phone reset (pressing both home and power buttons for at least 10 seconds until the Apple logo appears), and restoring the phone with and without a backup.

URGENT Trying to wipe and reinstall Leopard 10.5 on my 2008 imac8,1 from the disk but my hard drive doesn't show up

So to give a little big of a background on my computer. I got it January 2009 as a graduation gift, because I was going to get a degree in Graphic Design and Animation. I only worked on it [mostly brousing the web, and itunes] for about 6 months because I was taking all of my general courses for college. I then met my boyfriend [late 2009] and moved in with him, my boyfriend has a macbook so I left my mac at my parents house. I was only Using it every now and then and it would be idle/ or shut off the rest of the time.
Fast forward to fall 2011. Me and my boyfriend live in a condo so I brought my computer over because I am now taking graphic design courses and need my computer. I installed a free 30 day trial of adobe cs5.5. It made my computer kind of slow and it froze alot even though I still have over 250gb's of memory in it. After the trial ended I kind of stoped using my computer again, rather installing the free trials of cs5.5 on my mom and my boyfriends macs until I had enought money saved up to buy it.
Here's where it gets tricky.
So now its March 2012 and I tried uninstalling the trial of cs5.5 on my computer since it was just taking up un needed space. I had to uninstall all of the programs one at a time other wise it would freeze up. I have had to hold the power button down to get it to turn off because i couldn't even move the mouse even after waiting a while. Anyhow I get to the last program and it keeps freezing, I tried shutting down my computer via<apple< shut down. But when I start it up again I got a file with a question mark flashing on my screen. So I looked up how to fix that and had to locate where to start up [I selected my hard drive] then I was able to get on to my computer.
So then I go to disk utilitys and do a repair on my internal hard drive to fix if there were any messed up files. After the files are repaired I figure I'll restart it and let everything get up to date. When I do I get the gray screen with the apple and the spinning wheel. This happens OVER and OVER. I tried soft reseting it, manually turning off the computer, you name it. But it still keeps happening. So I figure I'll just wipe it clean and reinstall the whole thing. [I have it backed up on an external drive]
I try to reinstall leopard 10.5 from the disk that came with my computer, all goes well until I gets to the 3rd screen where you select where to save it to, my hard drive doesn't show up. But if I connect my external hard drive it shows up right away. I try seeing if it pops up on disk utility, and it doesn't show up there either.
Is it possible that my hard drive is shot? I haven't really used my computer that much. Its pretty much sat at my parents house for 2 of the 3 years I've had it. So its not like I used it a whole lot.
Help! I'm a college student who needs her mac now more than ever for my design classes!

The battery alone is a $5 to $15 part. Hard drives vary in cost, and depending on the iMac, they may or may not be able to install a third party hard drive, or one resold through Apple.    The resold through Apple drives tend to cost more. This article discusses the varying successes of third party drives on iMacs:
http://blog.macsales.com/10146-apple-further-restricts-upgrade-options-on-new-im acs
The labor costs depend on the store as well as the time to get the parts in stock.    Call around.

Reinstalled Leopard, battery life *****...

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