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sk3pt1c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
918
6
a simulacrum
i just got my powerbook 17",i did what the manual says about the calibration of the battery.charged it untill the light turned green,used it until it went to sleep,charged it all night and then again the same thing.when i wake it up and the battery is at 99% it says 3 and a half hours!
i thought the battery life was 5 hours!
what's up?

edit:it's bto with 2gb ram and the 7200 100gb hd
i don't think these two can take 2 hours out of it's battery life though,right?
 

Josh396

macrumors 65816
Oct 16, 2004
1,129
0
Peoria/Chicago, IL
Apple usually likes to add a little bit of battery life to their laptops. If you turn off Airport, BT, and lower the brightness of the screen then you will see a jump in battery life you won't see over 5 hours of battery life on your Powerbook with everything on.
 

sk3pt1c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
918
6
a simulacrum
oh yeah i forgot i had the brightness at max
i took it down to half and got another half hour,thanks
airport is always on cause we have a wireless network at home
what's bt?
so basically there's no way to get 5 hours out of it right?
not even 4, 4and a half?

edit:does anyone really ever use automator?it looks pretty pointless to me

also,i just wanted to say that i am in the process of deciding to go open source for my system and only use open source software
i have installed neo office and it's very good
you think there are any problems with macs and open source?
i am a new switcher so i will have a lot of questions,bare with me please :)
thank you

edit again: wow!battery life just went up to 4 hours 48 minutes!!! :) what's going on? (not that i don't like it) :)
 

donga

macrumors 6502a
May 16, 2005
841
1
AZ
BT is bluetooth.

I've had my 12' pbook since February, and I generally get around 4 hours on it. Maybe if you go to: Open Energy Saver and set it to Longest Battery Life it may help save some battery life. Let us know if it works, or if you've got other issues.
 

OutThere

macrumors 603
Dec 19, 2002
5,730
3
NYC
sk3pt1c said:
what's bt?

Bluetooth. Check your system preferences or the little thing on your menu bar.

edit again: wow!battery life just went up to 4 hours 48 minutes!!! :) what's going on? (not that i don't like it) :)

The battery life meter live updates to reflect whatever you are doing at the moment...so if you're listening to music it will estimate a shorter amount of time than if you are doing nothing at all.

does anyone really ever use automator?it looks pretty pointless to me

You have to be conscious of the fact that you can use Automater, if you keep it in the back of your mind you'll love to remember to use it when you have to do something really mundane and repetitive.

also,i just wanted to say that i am in the process of deciding to go open source for my system and only use open source software
i have installed neo office and it's very good
you think there are any problems with macs and open source?

There shouldn't be many problems with Mac OS X and open source software that compiles on PPC *nix systems...but why would you want to lock yourself into "only open source". You're limiting yourself pointlessly...use what's best and only buy software that's worth buying...only using open source eliminates tons of closed-source free software, as well as a lot of low-cost closed source software. I can understand avoiding MS office, but not a whole lot else.
 

sk3pt1c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
918
6
a simulacrum
80% and it says 3:48 left
i also have a usb wireless mouse,the microsoft wireless notebook one
so my question is, can the mouse,the ram and the hard drive take one hour of battery life?
i have changed the settings in the power saver to long battery life support
i don't have any other problems so far
i did some video capture and make a small dvd video and no problems
other than that,the battery life is of course much better than the **** pc laptop i have and this one is a beauty
plus i can leave it on my lap without burning my crotch :)
i just want to start learning unix on it again so i have more power
i really like the cool way that you install and uninstall stuff though,made me realise indeed how intuitive it is
i hope i will make this my main laptop soon and complete the switch with a desktop when i get back home after my studies

edit:i meant mostly open source,thanks
bluetooth is off
 

Anonymous Freak

macrumors 603
Dec 12, 2002
5,559
1,245
Cascadia
I've gotten 5 hours...

I have a rev.a 12" PowerBook, and when it was new, I could get 5 hours of life. With AirPort and Bluetooth turned off, screen brightness on the lowest setting. Now that it's a few years old, I've had to replace the battery because the original was only getting 2-2.5 hours of life. The new one (now one year old,) gets me 4-4.5 hours.
 

sk3pt1c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
918
6
a simulacrum
yeah but the 12 powerbook has a lower consumption than the 17 :)
anyway i figured out how the thing work,ok
60% and 2:30 so it's ok
 

Nermal

Moderator
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,595
3,934
New Zealand
OutThere said:
why would you want to lock yourself into "only open source". You're limiting yourself pointlessly...use what's best and only buy software that's worth buying...only using open source eliminates tons of closed-source free software, as well as a lot of low-cost closed source software. I can understand avoiding MS office, but not a whole lot else.

Plus you'd need to dump OS X and change to Linux or similar, if you want to use *only* open source. At that point, why use a Mac?
 

sk3pt1c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
918
6
a simulacrum
another question
i can't seem to add programs to the dock
i tried to add skype to it from the applications folder and it won't allow it
i can remove items from it but not add
what's up?


ps.is that icon from krakow comics?:)
 

adk

macrumors 68000
Nov 11, 2005
1,937
21
Stuck in the middle with you
I don't think anybody's mentioned this, but you also have to put your processor at reduced speed (in system prefs - energy saver). This will cut your processor down to 25%, which is really all you need when you're doing simple things.
 

freeny

macrumors 68020
Sep 27, 2005
2,064
60
Location: Location:
sk3pt1c said:
another question
i can't seem to add programs to the dock
i tried to add skype to it from the applications folder and it won't allow it
i can remove items from it but not add
what's up?
Are you adding a folder or an app? if the app is inside a folder then its a folder you are trying to add. apps go on the left of the seperating line and files and folders on the right.

Otherwise im stumped:eek:
 

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sandman42

macrumors 6502a
Oct 23, 2003
959
59
Seattle
Another thing to consider...

When I bought my iBook way back when, what they (third party Mac retailer) didn't tell me was that it was older over-stock. The battery was already x months old at the time, and Li-ion batteries do have a shelf life, regardless of their recharge cycles. I was lucky if the battery meter read 3 hours, and in practice I always got less than that.

After a year or so like that I eventually bought a replacement battery -- suddenly I would read well over 5 hours on the battery meter, and I could get close to that in actual practice.
 

n0otro

macrumors member
Dec 23, 2005
43
0
I just bought a 1.5ghz 15" powerbook off of Ebay, and the computer is great, but the battery life has been rather pitiful so far.

I keep bluetooth turned off, and only turn on airport when i'm within range of a signal. I've turned the brightness down to the lowest setting possible.
I don't use any attached peripherals and only have 512mb of ram with a 40gb 7200rpm HDD. The most the battery meter has given me so far is 2:10 minutes. At first I thought "oh, thats why i got such a good deal on ebay." But i purchased an extra battery three days ago from the apple store, plugged it in without turning it on and left it to charge overnight. I was anxious to see the next morning how much more battery life i would have, but was dismayed when the meter told me i only had 2:30 minutes. I'm in the process of calibrating the batteries, i'm hoping that will give me at least another hour or so on my battery life.

Does anyone else have a 15" 1.5ghz powerbook that is experience this? or do they generally get more battery life than what i'm getting?
 

adk

macrumors 68000
Nov 11, 2005
1,937
21
Stuck in the middle with you
KevAllen83 said:
Where is the "reduce processor usage" option in energy saver? I'm not seeing that anywhere

I can't get my screenshot to upload, but once you get into energy saver you have to hit the options tab near the top, and then there's a dropdown menu at the bottom.
 

yellow

Moderator emeritus
Oct 21, 2003
16,018
6
Portland, OR
I use my 15" AlPB for some pretty heavy lifting, but I really can't get more than 2.5 hours out of it. It's just something I've learned to cope with. Battery tech is pretty far behind that of portable devices, so this is a necessary evil until some alternate portable power source is created.
 

sk3pt1c

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 29, 2005
918
6
a simulacrum
after reducing brightness and setting up the custom setting in the energy saver,everything is ok.i can get 5 hours off it if i wanted to but the truth is i never use it for 5 hours straight so it's ok.
 

Seasought

macrumors 65816
Nov 3, 2005
1,093
0
I too get about 2.5 hours of battery life on mine. I have the airport and bluetooth turned off and I've tried adjusting my performance settings. No 5 hour run here.

The iBooks, according to what others have written on these forums, supposedly get much better battery life.
 

ortuno2k

macrumors 6502a
Nov 4, 2005
645
0
Hollywood, FL
If you're going to be doing light work like typing or web browsing, I suggest changing the Energy Settings to "Better Battery Life."
And no, it won't give you anywhere near 5 hours. Just make sure you turn off the wireless card and bluetooth if you aren't using. Also reduce brightness on LCD and turn off backlit keyboard (if you have one and don't need backlight)
That should give you a few more minutes :)
 

Marlon_JBT

macrumors 6502
Sep 22, 2003
259
0
Detroit, Michigan
ehurtley said:
I have a rev.a 12" PowerBook, and when it was new, I could get 5 hours of life. With AirPort and Bluetooth turned off, screen brightness on the lowest setting. Now that it's a few years old, I've had to replace the battery because the original was only getting 2-2.5 hours of life. The new one (now one year old,) gets me 4-4.5 hours.
Same situation. I can squeeze 2.75 hours with Airport on though. Screen brightness as low as possible, processor reduced. Nothing processor intensive.

When new, 5 hours was easy as pie though. :D
 
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