10 August 2009

MacBook Battery Management and Calibration

images.jpeg

Over time, notebook batteries lose their ability to keep a charge and the battery included with a MacBook is no different. Apple recommends calibrating your battery every couple of months and free software is available to monitor the condition of your battery and determine if it's time to replace it.


Calibrating your battery


Follow these steps to calibrate your battery every couple of months.

  • Plug your notebook in and charge your battery to 100%.
  • Leave your computer plugged in for 2 hours.
  • Disconnect from power and run the computer on battery power. Allow the computer to sleep when it runs out of juice.
  • Turn the computer off and leave it off for 5 hours. Do not plug it in during this time.
  • Reconnect your computer to power and recharge the battery to 100% again.


Monitoring your battery


Senora Graphics makes a great free utility that reports your battery's original and current capacity, current charge and remaining charge cycles. You can download it here. It reports that my relatively newish laptop battery has 85% of its original capacity remaining; my girlfriend's older laptop only has 45% left. She gets a new battery while I get to live with mine.
q

No comments:

Post a Comment

About Me

My photo
Brooklyn, New York, United States