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

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What exactly is the "smooth cycle algorithm" preference?

Under global preferences -> Cycle tab is the "Smooth Cycle Algorithm" checkbox. The user's manual explanation of this setting does not make sense to me - might someone help me understand what it does?
I quote the manual:
"Smooth Cycle Algorithm: This improves the timing of cycle jumps, making it easier to set the length of sample loops while in Cycle mode—although this is somewhat mitigated through the use of Apple Loops. If your computer has a very slow CPU, this setting reduces the processing requirements for graphic operations. In general, you’ll want to keep this on, whenever possible, especially if you’re working in a style which involves frequent cycling of musical sections. If you find that your cycled sections are not as smooth as you’d like (assuming that your loops are actually perfect), you might achieve better results by disabling this parameter."
I'm confused because this seems to imply that the setting will save CPU and make loops sound better, but sometimes can make loops sound worse? Also note that the setting is called "smooth cycle algorithm" but seemingly in contradiction with the feature's name, the manual says to turn it off if your loops don't cycle "smoothly"
Does anyone know what this is really doing more precisely? Any additional info would be great. Thanks!
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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

What exactly is a charge cycle?

Hi, everyone! So I recently just bought a MacBook Pro with Retina display (about 4 days ago) and I'm really trying to take of it, and it's battery especially. I've tried looking up some information on the best ways to take care of it, and I always come across people taking about things like "charging cycles" and "calibrating the battery" and I have absolutely no idea what those mean!
I don't mean to sound like an idiot, but keep in mind that I am completely new to the world of MacBooks. I've tried to research what these terms mean, but I've found nothing.
Please help and give me advice on how to properly take care of my precious MacBook Pro. I adore it so much and I want it to last as long as possible.
Thank you so much!

despite anything Apple.com has listed, the lithium-polymer battery is a KNOWN entity and its technical behaviour is a known entity, regardless of inside an Apple product or not...
having it plugged in everytime you use it is one thing, ....but some leave it plugged in 24/7 ALL THE TIME,...not a good idea,.....no hard, it just doesnt do the battery any good, and does minor wear on its lifespan.
Exactly lIke permanent magnets..., lithium polymer batteries dont like HEAT ,......perpetual trickle charging (leaving it plugged in alllll time time) is the unwise choice. "
"trickle charging is NEVER recommended for lithium polymer batteries" --- PowerStream.com, 2010-03-17

What is the reasonable battery count cycle for a new macbook pro?

what is the reasonable battery count cycle for a new macbook pro? I just bought it and i found that the count cycle for the battery is 6, is that normal?

First off, a MacBook Pro is not a Power Mac. Power Mac is the nomenclature for Apple desktop machines prior to mid-2006. Mac Pros also are desktops, but later than mid-2006. http://www.apple.com/batteries/ covers Apple notebook batteries and other battery performance. I've asked this thread be moved.

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.

What exactly does 'zpool iostat' measure?

Hi there,
I am wondering what exactly get measured wher i do an 'zpool iostat [-v]' on a machine, especially regarding the write values. Do those consist only of the writes to the ZIL or do they include the following commits, too?
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Felix

A brand new Li battery can store a certain amount of current. For a 15" MBP battery, the nominal value for the maximum amount of current it can hold is 5500 mAh (individual batteries will vary). Over time, the max amount of charge a battery can hold (full charge capacity) drops. Your "health" is the full charge capacity of your battery divided by the full charge capacity of a new battery. You can see your full charge capacity in Utilities > System Profiler > Power.
So, 50% health is a full charge capacity of ~2250 mAh. Less charge in the battery means less run time. Apple states that a battery should maintain 80% of it's capacity for 300 cycles. So, if your battery has less than 4400 mAh full charge capacity, and less than 300 cycles on it, call Apple for a replacement. Read this for details of the warranty extension to two years for these known battery problems:
http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/
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What exactly are unscaledWidth and unscaledHeight in mobile item renderers?

Hello,
What exactly are unscaledWidth and unscaledHeight that get passed to the measure() method for a mobile item renderer?
I am guessing renderers start at "default" width and height (so unscaled) which get scaled based on DPI. Is that it?
Thank you.

measure() doesn't take any parameters so I assume you mean the layoutContents() and/or drawBackground() methods.
If you look at the code in LabelItemRenderer (and MobileSkin) for updateDisplayList() you'll see that it just delegates the work to the drawBackground() and layoutContents() methods:
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What exactly does the AppleCare cover for MacBook Pro with Retina Display?

I purchased the extended protection plan for my MacBook Pro with Retina Display 15" and my question is what exactly does it cover in what kind of situations (i.e. viruses, damaged ports, damaged charger, etc.)? I want to be able to take full advantage of the protection plan since it was a pretty big whole in my wallet.

AppleCare covers all the problems you have with your MacBook Pro with Retina display and the peripherals which came with it (your charger) if you have a hardware problem that you didn't cause. For example, after 2 or 3 years and 1000 charges, OS X says that your battery has to be replaced: in this case, you have to pay for the battery, because batteries have got a lifetime, and Unibody Macs batteries have got an average lifetime of about 1000 charges.
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What is the max charge cycle?

What is the max charge cycle?
If it reach the max, will apple replace it under warrenty? or it not covered, and I have to buy new battery?
Like when you go to System Pref > About this mac > Power > Recharge Cycle.
It will tell you the amount of charged you made. What is the max you can recharge?

A properly maintained Apple notebook battery is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 300 full charge and discharge cycles. See http://www.apple.com/batteries for lots of good info on Apple batteries.

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

What exactly does Standby mode do?

In a quest to figure out how to turn the screen power off when I want to, I have found Standby mode, which does exactly that. All the manual says about it is to press and hold the mute button to go into standby mode, but doesn't say anything else about it. What exactly is "Standby Mode"? Will it still give me calendar alerts, and phone calls and other alerts, or is it essentially turned off?
Jesse
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Standby mode is just a low power state to conserve battery life. It shuts of the backlight and screen, and does not respond to key presses until you bring it out of standby mode. Your notifications, phone calls, etc. are not affected by it.
The holster serves the same purpose: it has a magnet that is detected by the phone to put it into standby. If you go to the notification/ ringer profile settings, you will notice 2 different setting: out of holster and in holster.
Kijana
Please remember to:
1. Mark Accept as Solution on the appropriate post once your issue has been resolved
2. Give Kudos to helpful posts (click the star next to the post)
Thanks

HT1535 What exactly is stored under "OTHER" on your iPhone that you only see when it's connected to iTunes?

What exactly is stored under "OTHER" on your iPhone that you only see when it's connected to iTunes?

Ok, here is how the story have ended for my iPhone 4S.
I took the phone to the genius bar 500-km far from my town. And they told me to wait 20 mins and then they asked what's wrong with the phone. They first thought the battery is dead. But then they changed the battery with a sure-it's-working-battery. But no luck. And told me that "logic board" has gone (why? -no explanation. it just happens).
And then they checked the warranty and noticed that it was expired 29 days ago (the phone was bought from Chicago and I'm in Europe now). Since it's expired, I'm told that it can't be replaced with no cost. I should pay 200 Euros to get a "new" iPhone 4S (you know what is "new" means, refurbished). Or I could buy a brand-new-iPhone5 for 600 Euros.
I'm not rich person and I decided to go with the refurbished one. So, as summary,
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HT3782 What does it mean "Battery Health" Check battery in the battery menu bar?

What does it mean "Battery Health" Check battery in the battery menu bar?

Check the full status by going to the apple in the left side of the menu bar, About This Mac, More Info, System Report, Hardware, Power and see what it says about the Cycle count, Battery Condition, Battery Capacisty, charge remaining.
Condition should be Normal or there is a problem
Ratio of charge remaining to cpacity should be close, round off, to the reported battery charge percentage.
Cycle count tells how many charge cycles the battery has been through, typical lifetime cycle count for a current generation battery is 1,000 cycles.

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.
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What EXACTLY is a "battery cycle"?

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