iBook users experience 10.2.4 battery bug

My iBook 800 gets spurious "low battery" messages when I'm not plugged into AC power, even when the battery is above 75%. Even worse, it just SHUTS DOWN with no warning, not long after this. Once, it did that in the middle of formatting a FW HD, which scared the s--- out of me. Luckily, the drive was not damaged.

Lately, I'm seeing a worse problem where the whole machine freezes when I switch locations... and sometimes the AirPort card stops being recognized until I reboot once or twice.

Hey, Apple, if I wanted problems like this I would've bought a Windoze machine! Let's get 10.2.5 out and fix this shit, mmmkay?

posted by MacNN.com Reader

One of the reasons I bought an iBook was the 5hrs of battery life they claim to have. Well I can tell you after using my iBook Late 2001 (600Mhz) just for over a year I'd say maybe 2.5hrs at most. I asked Apple support about it and they said the battery indicator on OS X is and estimate, after pulling the plug on a fully charged battery I get an estimated of 1hr and 49minutes, and this is with automatic power management (no where near 5hrs). All I can say is 10.2.4 bug is real my battery is down from %100 to %97 in 3 minutes. As for the 5hrs as advertised take it with a grain of salt.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

An inside source tells me that apple is already working on the problem. They have shifted manpower over to tech support and are deleting posts as fast as they can.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

Umm, dude

battery life tends to get shorter and shorter with time, so after one year of use, I would not be surprised that your battery life is 50% less that when you bought your iBook. Same thing with my Ti. If you rely on the battery it is a good idea to buy fresh batteries every year.


Hope that helps.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

My TiBook 400MHz has had problems where when I wake it from a sleep when it is not plugged in, it tells me that my battery is low even if it is full charge, this has happened to me since I have had 10.2. (Since August). Recently I installed a new hard drive and I thought the problem would be fixed. Has anyone else had this problem.

Also, when my battery does get low and I get the message, I can run my machine for 45 min + at 0% power and the machine doesn't go to sleep or shut down until I shut the lid and then it does not wake till i plug it in.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

This is nothing new - there's a long running problem with the iBook batteries. I've already had mine replaced.
As for 10.2.4, the major problem I've noticed is the iBook getting REALLY hot, which must mean that the hard drive won't spin down? I'm not a techie so I have no clue. I just know it'd probably make me sterile if I kept it on my lap.
The good thing is that people at the Apple Store are cool with problems, even after warranty. The bad news is that the AppleCare phone jockies were trained to blow you off if you didn't shuck out $$$ for the extended warranty.
Good luck. But given Apple seems to own every "magazine" dedicated to their machines, I'm sure this will blow over with no problems for Apple. Everything always does.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

I have an iBook 500, the original CD-ROM model. NEVER USE APPLE'S SETTINGS - that's error #1. When properly tweaked in OS 9, my iBook would get 5 hours 10 minutes on a single charge ... I used it like this and it dwindled down over the course of a year to 4 hours 30 minutes. Under OS X I get about 3 solid hours of use before it goes kaput on me. You need to sit and make your own profiles (Apple's suck -- like Automatic will still PUT THE iBook TO SLEEP WITH THE AC PLUGGED IN! I've lost *nemerous* downloads, file copies from the network and BACKUPS thank's to this 'feature').

posted by MacNN.com Reader

My iBook is a first generation, I'm still using the same battery - it's still going. I haven't heard of anyone (and I know 10 local iBook owners) having problems with their batteries. I do know of a Combo drive on the fritz though.

posted by MacNN.com Reader

Lithium Ion batteries do not suffer from the "memory effect" that plauged Nicad batteries as such, their life should remain "like new" for several years. I dont know about the first iBooks but the snow ones (like I own) all use LithiumIon.

That said, my book is less than 2 weeks old, I get NOWHERE NEAR the 5 hours advertised. Even with "low performance" enabled and the system doing absolutely nothing - I get about 3.5 TOPS I timed it just sitting on the table while I watched TV. If Im using the system at all, 2.5 hours TOPS this is half what Apple claims.

Ive been playing with the idea of returning the ibook once a week for a brand new one claiming a "faulty battery" - but this strategy would only piss CompUSA off (where i bought it) and wouldnt really affect Apple at all.

Also, I've not had any problems with 10.2.4. Though I just pulled the power adaptor so I'll keep you updated (PS it went from 100% to 95% while i typed this, and Im only running chimera - absolutely nothing else).

oppps... 94 now!

posted by MacNN.com Reader

They only last 300-500 charges. Kill it every day and you'll get around a year out of it.

They don't have memory (neither did NiMH, but that's a different story), but have a very short life and are intolerant of deep discharges and/or overcharging.

Everyone is having battery issues. Do a google on IBM Thinkpad battery or Dell battery or toshiba battery. It's not just Apple - it's everyone wit LiIon batteries.

I'd think Apple has/had a bad batch of batteries for the iBooks - luckially ours has no issues so far.

posted by MacNN.com Reader