So how healthy is your battery?

Caporegime
Joined
1 Nov 2003
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35,691
Location
Lisbon, Portugal
How healthy is your battery? and how do you go about maintaining your battery?

Someone at work asked me how much battery time I get out of my Macbook, I told them roughly 5 hours with general usage

I constantly cycle the battery, literally....I will not plug it in till its in reserve (5%) and when its fully charged I'll unplug it...I've done this it's entire life.

Anyway, I ran coconut battery and this is what it told me

battery.tiff


So just 11mah down from when I bought it, and its now 18months old :)

Impressed! :) - So what about you guys?
 
Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2009
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26,776
I don't make a habit of leaving the charger connected if the battery isn't charging, but in the screen I just took that is the case. :o

Although, I don't always charge from reserve and quite often when I was busy with Uni I'd end up charging it when it was only down to 40 or 50%. Due a new MB soon though so I'm not too concerned. :)

Picture1-11.png
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
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9,817
Location
, Washington DC
This thread provides a nice quick chance for me to ask... How are you guys doing a screenshot and quickly and simply cropping it on a Mac? Any time I've tried to do that, I end up having to faff around with iPhoto. Is there a quicker/easy way, and so it doesn't get added to my photo library?

Aaaanyway for my early 2009 MB (which I try and cycle as much as I remember, and use plugged in a fair bit):

Current battery - 3956 mAh
Max - 3956mAh

Current Battery Capacity - 3956 mAh
Original Battery Capacity - 4100 mAh

Loadcycles - 340
Age of Mac - 17 months
 
Commissario
Joined
16 Oct 2002
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2,648
Location
In the radio shack
Either use shift-command-4 followed by spacebar and you can capture a window direct to your desktop or use something like Skitch which is really very handy.

I'll post my stats when I'm home later.
 
Soldato
Joined
16 May 2005
Posts
6,509
Location
Cold waters
This thread provides a nice quick chance for me to ask... How are you guys doing a screenshot and quickly and simply cropping it on a Mac? Any time I've tried to do that, I end up having to faff around with iPhoto. Is there a quicker/easy way, and so it doesn't get added to my photo library?

Cmd-Shift-3 - Whole screen
Cmd-Shift-4 - Select an area
Cmd-Shift-4 then Space - Select a window

The images get saved to your desktop. You could also automate the uploading to image hosts with various applications and dashboard widgets.
 
Associate
Joined
9 Jun 2009
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1,397
Location
Suffolk
I use mine all day everyday (about 14 hours), and have done so since I bought it last summer. At work its plugged in, and at home usually its running on battery. Any reason why the Capacity has increased (or do I need to do a calibration on the machine?).

20100420-r8n47j8gu7htsn4xgb8g6rgwuj.preview.jpg
 
Soldato
Joined
12 May 2005
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5,146
Location
Ripon, North Yorkshire
I use mine all day everyday (about 14 hours), and have done so since I bought it last summer. At work its plugged in, and at home usually its running on battery. Any reason why the Capacity has increased (or do I need to do a calibration on the machine?).

http://img.skitch.com/20100420-r8n47j8gu7htsn4xgb8g6rgwuj.preview.jpg[/img[/QUOTE]

what MB is that delphi ???
 
Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
14,660
I've just replaced the battery in my MBP 3,1 because it was knackered.

Although I do the same thing as Phate; only charge on reserve and don't leave it plugged in, it's already down to 98% after about 40 cycles.

:(
 
Caporegime
Joined
12 Mar 2009
Posts
26,776
Whats the best way to look after the battery?

ps3ud0 :cool:

Don't leave the charger plugged in when the battery is at 100%

Don't charge the battery until you go into reserve which is about 4 or 5% I believe, or until the Mac falls to sleep.

Those are probably the two easiest ways to look after the health, there's an article on Apple's site somewhere with suggestions as well. :)
 
Soldato
Joined
14 Dec 2005
Posts
12,488
Location
Bath
Don't leave the charger plugged in when the battery is at 100%

I thought the MacBook's (/Pros) would stop charging the battery once it's at 100% and run off the mains directly? And that consequently when the LED is Green you could remove the battery and it would keep running fine, straight off the mains.

I've never tried it, but that's what I always thought...
 
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