[cmeyer42]

OK, here goes! I've had my PB for about 1.5 years. I bought it as a desktop replacement after leaving the Wintel arena. About 8 mon. ago the battery started charging at "funny" intervals, like at 98% instead of 94% (charging = plug switching from green to orange). It woudn't stop charging until it reached a FULL 100%. And no, the leds on the bottom of the battery weren't blinking. I had Apple check this when my SuperDrive died and they replaced the battery harness. No change in battery. At this time I couldn't send it back in due to college needs (data structures and network prog. classes, etc.). But just recently, I was surfing the web and my processor fan was running about every 15-30 sec. after shutting off. Checking the heat, I noticed that the battery was hotter than the proccessor while charging, and that's what was running the fan so much. It cooled after it charged up (light is green). I took it in for service (i have AppleCare) and after getting it back I was told that it was "normal wear and tear" and no replacement. OK, well then I was told that I should remove the battery when running it on the AC adaptor when I was not charging the battery, (Side note - I run my 'book on a 19" Monitor in non-mirrored mode, which requires the AC adaptor to be plugged in.) and this is what caused my problem in the first place. BUT, i have read in the Apple forums that this is unnessassary. So which is it? And would a Third-party battery be any better?

[BarracksSi]

Does this battery fall under Apple's battery recall?

[cmeyer42]

I don't think so since they didn't replace it. this last shop visit was last week, sent it in on 6/20, and it is a 17" PB. I could check the SN though.
Main thought -- did I cause this by using the AC adaptor for long periods of time without removing the battery? I keep hearing and reading conflicting views on this matter.

[awilso]

Originally Posted by cmeyer42 OK, here goes! I've had my PB for about 1.5 years.

Sorry to say this but if you have been running a lot on battery for the 1.5 years it sounds like you need a new one. Generally it gets like that when it struggles to get a full charge. How long does rundown take. I was getting to around 59 minutes on normal use when this happened. I got a new battery and all the problems went away.

Hope this helps

[cmeyer42]

Originally Posted by awilso Sorry to say this but if you have been running a lot on battery for the 1.5 years it sounds like you need a new one. Generally it gets like that when it struggles to get a full charge. How long does rundown take. I was getting to around 59 minutes on normal use when this happened. I got a new battery and all the problems went away. Hope this helps

Whoa, sorry! I forgot to include a couple of things, the post was getting long at that point!
The charging problem( charging until a full 100%) is an intermittant occurance. The heating problem just happened once, and that prompted me to take it in for service. And this wasn't just a warm battery that is charging, this was hotter than what the proccessor feels like when the fan is running! and yes the fan was running.

Not being a smart ass when doing this, but this is from my original post:

"I run my 'book on a 19" Monitor in non-mirrored mode, which requires the AC adaptor to be plugged in.) and I was told that this is what caused my problem in the first place. BUT, i have read in the Apple forums that this is unnessassary. So which is it? And would a Third-party battery be any better?"

I run on AC most of the time, due to the above quote. And to the question of "why didn't you get a G5?", I wanted a portable - desktop replacement since this was going to be my only Mac. (kinda wishing i had scored a G5 now!)

but the main point remains - did i do this by running it primarily on AC without removing the battery or is this the charging circuitry on the battery failing?

[awilso]

Now you have me

Another thing that occurred to me that happenned to a friend, was something to do with his charging connection on the powerbook, he had intermittent charging, but I'm not sure thats relevent here. There have been occurrences of battrey re-calls but I haven't heard of one for the 17".

Maybe try and borrow someones battrey and see if it does the same thing to theirs, if it does then you have some sort of circuit problem in the PB itself.

My old engineering days are coming back to me now.

1) Start with the power and check its ok (Get someone elses charger and try)
2) If this is Ok and problem still there try new battery from friend
3) If problem still there it must be the internals - return to Apple
4) Try all of this twice - once with monitor hitched, once without

Sorry I can't be of more help, it sounds a little more complicated than my issues.

Caveat: I'm assuming that this happens even when you are not hitched up to a minitor?

[cmeyer42]

When the heating problem happened, I WASN'T hooked up to my external monitor, that's what is strange about this! Sitting here right now, I'm at 96% and charging (charging icon in the battery monitor, last led on the battery flashing, orange ring on AC adaptor). Battery is as cool as the rest of the case. In fact, the area under the hard drive and the super drive is warmer than the battery right now. (97% and still charging).

Even though I've never heard and experienced problems in the past with leaving the battery in while on AC power for long periods of time (other than a decrease in "life span") I'm just wondering if this is one of those quirks with the way the battery is designed. I just want to know before I buy another battery and find out the hard way that you can't leave the battery plugged in while on AC power for long periods of time. That would suck!!!

WHOA, WHOA, HOLD THE PHONE!!! I've been sitting here checking the heat while my battery is charging up since I decided to leave the battery in and monitor it, and I have found out that the heat is coming from the RAM compartment rather than the battery. (Hmm, I hope it is supposed to feel this hot!). Now I feel REAL STUPID!!! (go ahead and ridicule me, I deserve it for this!!). I obviously got confused on the location of the battery and the RAM compartment, sorry. But my question about removing the battery and the charging up past 94% before switching to trickle-charge mode still stands. (it is at 99% and still hasn't switched!).

[awilso]

He he :-)

Sounds like your battery is wearing out - do a couple of rundowns and see how long it lasts, if your in the 60 - 100 minute mark, its just age. It just means you get less time on battery. I ran mine untill I was only getting 20 minutes before I changes it. I'm sure someone will be able to tell us how to reset the Mac to get the 100% back, but to be honest It didn't bother me that much. Maybe running the battery flat and doing a full recharge might help.

I'm glad your PB is not about to catch fire though. How much RAM do you have? The only time mine gets hot is when I'm doing intensive media stuff. I put a faster disk in which helped and upped the RAM and things got a little cooler. I also prop my PB up at the back to lift it odd the desk, and this has helped cooling as well.

But these things can get quite hot, there have been stories of people getting burn marks on their lap from PB's, so I wouldn't worry too much.

Apart from all of these things I can't think of anything else to help - there are specialist stands and stuff for PB's in order to help cooling.

Glad it's not serious. . .

[cmeyer42]

Yeah, it gets hot when I run something that is graphics heavy. It just seemed a little hot for just charging while surfing the web, it cools down when trickle charging. Oh, 1 GB ram. I built a platform and I have a fan that blows across it to help cool it. Hmm, if the PPC chips are this hot, I wonder about the Intel chips! I've heard that the AMD Athlon will last 30 sec. without a heatsink and/or fan before smoking like burning toast! I know that batteries wear out due to the chemical reactions that occur, so a drop in 20 or 30 min. or more over time is just the way it goes.

I do thank you for not flaming me for such a numbskull mistake, not making sure just what component was causing problems! I still don't remember that part of the PB getting that hot though.