Improving apple notebook by calibrating your battery

Jul.17, 2009 in batteries shop

You can calibrate your iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro computer’s lithium ion battery for best performance.

The battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The apple laptop battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate and to keep the battery operating at maximum?efficiency. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months after that. If you normally leave your Apple portable computer connected to AC?power and very rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month. The website?www.apple.com/batteries?has more helpful information regarding batteries and offers an iCal calendar to remind you to calibrate your battery.?

Note If you’re not sure which model of PowerBook you have, see PowerBook G4 Computers: How to Identify Different Models for assistance.

Products Affected

iBook, MacBook Pro, MacBook, PowerBook, MacBook Air

iBooks and PowerBook G4s other than the apple a1008 battery(15-inch Double-Layer SD)

Plug the power adapter in and fully charge your computer’s apple a1012 battery until the battery indicator lights turn off and the adapter plug light goes from amber to green, which indicates that the battery is fully charged.
Disconnect the power adapter and use your iBook or PowerBook. When your battery gets low, you will see the low battery warning dialog on the screen. Continue to use your computer until it goes to sleep. At that point the battery has been sufficiently drained for calibration.
Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

You have to fully charge and then discharge your battery only once to calibrate it. After that, you can connect and disconnect the power adapter when the battery is at any charge level.

Tip: When the apple a1022 battery reaches “empty”, the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually holds a reserve beyond “empty”, to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, any open files could be lost. Therefore, it is important that you find an electrical outlet and connect the adapter before the forced shutdown occurs.

PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD), MacBook (all models), apple a1039 battery (all models), MacBook Pro (17-inch) (all models) and?MacBook Air

The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) and any model of MacBook or MacBook Pro has been updated because of a new apple a1057 battery released with this computer. With these computers, follow these steps to calibrate your battery:

Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
At this point, save your work.? Continue to use your computer; when the apple ibook g4 12-inch series battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Tip: When the battery reaches “empty”, the computer is forced into sleep mode. The apple ibook g4 14-inch series battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond “empty”, to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer’s memory contents have been saved to the hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.

You can calibrate your iBook, PowerBook, MacBook, MacBook Air, or MacBook Pro computer’s lithium ion battery for best performance.

The apple powerbook g4 15inch battery has an internal microprocessor that provides an estimate of the amount of energy in the battery as it charges and discharges. The battery needs to be recalibrated from time to time to keep the onscreen battery time and percent display accurate and to keep the battery operating at maximum?efficiency. You should perform this procedure when you first use your computer and then every few months after that. If you normally leave your Apple portable computer connected to AC?power and very rarely use it on battery power you may want to perform this process once a month. The website?www.apple.com/batteries?has more helpful information regarding batteries and offers an iCal calendar to remind you to calibrate your battery.?

Note If you’re not sure which model of PowerBook you have, see apple powerbook g4 17-inch battery for assistance.