iBook battery 56 % charge drops suddenly to 0 % !!!

Giaguara

Giaguara

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While using the iBook on battery and surfing with airport, all seems to work normal untill 56% yesterday. Then suddenly the ibook went to forced sleep, without notifying me first. Nothing woke it up, except the power.. and plugged to it, to my surprise I saw it showed 0 % of charge!! How can 56 % drop suddenly to 0 % ??? And after less than 1,5 hours of use?? The battery is not old, it has to last 4-5 hours, not 1+.

It looked weird, and I hoped it would have been only a weird side effect of switching from 220 to 110 V... But it happened again today. Surfing using the battery, once the battery charge was in 56% it went to sleep, and ASAP plugged to the power, it showed again 0 % !!!

Any suggestions? Could it be the 10.2.4 battery killing effect? Is this happening to anyone else? I remember having seen something about the 10.2.4 bad effects on battery but this seems :mad:
I did a clean install about 10 days ago and would have wanted to go only to 10.2.3 but there were no separate installs on Apple's site so I had to go to 10.2.4 ... a battery issue or system? I don't believe my battery to be faulty. And I remember having seen the battery to e.g. 20 % or under that so why is this happenening suddenly?

:confused: :( :eek:
 
Sounds like the dreaded 10.2.4 update battery death to me. That's exactly what happened to my iBook when I updated to 10.2.4. See this thread for my longer explaination of what I think is going on.

You might want to get a copy of XBattery to query the capacity of the battery. I've got 2 batteries for the iBook. The bad one shows a capacity of 1.2Ah, good for about 70 minutes on a charge. The good one shows 3.544Ah, and I still get a little over 3 hours out of it.

I guess we're still waiting for a patch from Apple on this... :mad:

BTW, I still have a copy of the 10.2.3 combo update if you want it (PM me), but it doesn't seem to fix the problem once it occurs.
 
Xcharge gives the battery this kind of charge statistics. When trying to make it go to 0 % and then to 100 % to possibly make it last longer I get this result. In 42 % it goes suddenly goes to 100 % - note: the 'book was not in sleep mode.

:eek:
 

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And this is what happens at 60 % ... sudden stragiht drop to 0 % :mad: :eek:
 

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It keeps doing it - now from 75 % to forced sleep - sometimes shutting down, always no warning. So about 40 minutes of 'safe' use time with battery.

I will try whether reinstalling 10.2 from zero will help (which will give a pain installing back all the unix applications, customisations etc) and upgrading max. to 10.2.3 - if that will not fix it I will go again to the Apple store and require the new battery. Reinstalling *could* help I imagine, if not it'll be at least tried.

The battery curves keep looking really insane, and I feel insane when using the iBook with battery. Anytime after 40 minutes either a shutdown or forced sleep may happen ... this seems to get worse; once I noticed it happening it was about 56-60, now it happens even in 75%.

:( :eek:
 
I recommend you send those screen shots to Apple and demand they fix this issue. Power problems like this are simply unacceptable if they wish to keep customers happy. (Remember, push command-option-4 followed by space to get rid of those borders around your screenshot elements.)
 
I keep doing the screenshots.

The reinstall the 10.2 and upgrade to 10.2.3 does not fix it. It keeps doing it. To have a n *Apple* laptop with 40 minutes of fun in bed .. err I mean 40 minutes with the 'safe' battery usage before it goes out (sleep or off) anytime, is not acceptable. I have talked about it to someone I know at Apple.

I'll prepare a nice show of all the battery charge drop screens and all the docs I find about it and head to an Apple Store (again). I want my 'book to be healthy again. :)
 
continueing with the shors...
this is not one of the worst, it's from last week...
charge-4.jpg


sonce that: drop can occur anytime when under 80 % charge. so without note the book goes to forced sleep or switches off. that way "safe working time" is maybe 40 minutes - when it switches off without notice obviously i loose all the work i was doing. and now around 35-40 % (= less than last week) it tells it's 199 % charged.

:rolleyes:
 
bump -- very important thread!

This problem is wide-spread meanwhile, just read the discussions on discussions.info.apple.com (-> search for "Battery" there). I'm also suffering it and am just trying to get a replacement battery which seems to be the only solution.

Giaguara, any news? What did they tell you in your Apple Store?
 
found this fix on macnn.com, but sadly it didn't work for me, I think cause my motherboard battery is shot.

Let the battery run down. Unplug the power adapter (obviously do that first). Remove the battery and then reset the PMU. If I remember the knowledge base article number to locate the PMU switch is 14449. Wait 5 seconds and then reconnect the power adapter and then reinstall the battery.

You should only do this with a fully charged battery (after an overnight charge) and make sure you fully charge the battery afterward.

It seems some people had luck only after the second try. I had no luck, but as I say, I think it's 'cause my clock battery is dead, so the PMU reset doesn't work.
 
I didn't want to try that pmu thing, but I've seen all those discussions (apple, appleinsider, macnn etc). I'll try - the thing is getting worse...
Reinstall + 10.2.3 combo was what a genius suggested (obviously no effect) - i run the battery "empty" now and try (and will pass later this week in an apple store) - just that around 55-75% the battery falls to 0 % and around 35-40 % it is suddenly 100 % "full". So running it empty will make it be still 60 % .. or 0%? :confused: I'll try.
 
The PMU reset didn't seem to have any effect (positive or negative, pardon the pun) on the battery situation with my iBook. I have seen some suggestions on the Apple Discussions thread that Apple is definitely aware and working on a solution, but one of the problems that they're apparently having with this is determining all of the conditions neccessary to cause the problem in the first place (duh!)...

FWIW, the spare battery for the iBook is still fine, as is the new battery I got for my TiBook...
 
I have a Lombard g3 400, 6gig, 384mb

I recently had to rebuild because of oddities with sleep amongst other things. However, I've tested my battery and I dont seem to suffer from the same bug as everyone else. I've rebuilt using all the steps mentioned earlier in the thread (and those linked to it). Maybe i've been lucky but I did have to rebuild twice before my book would behave stabley.

With the pmu I did the command option p+r bit. i also did the other one (i cant remember it - but its the command+option+something+f one that make you reboot) 5 times. then rebuilt and combo updated without the battery in.
 
Resetting the PMU was one of the first things I did. As kenny said, it didn't have any effect, the problem's still the same.
 
yes. getting now the update - no mention on it makes me guess it has not been addressed yet. if it continues today still after update the same behaviour, i want the new. .. can't wait any longer.
 
the update did nothing. so it's as bad / worse than it was. i'll go to the fruit shop and ask for the warranty replacement of the battery ...
 
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