deep breaths... AAGGGG WHAT HAPPENED?

SooTyLaD

SooTyLaD

SooTyLaD

Soldato
Joined
19 Oct 2002
Posts
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i decided that last night i would calibrate my battery like the manual recommends...

it was running from main all day, so early evening i disconnected it and let it run down... when it ran out of juice it went to sleep mode, where i left it all night ( manual says 5 hours but it did about 8)

this morning:

(the macbook is closed)

• took it into the study

• plugged in my monitor / power / keyboard / mouse

• pressed summmat on the keyboard and the display came up on the monitor

• went in the shower, when i came back to my study the macbook is off :(

the little led on the plug is showing orange, if i press the power key, it flashes green for a bit (kinda like it really wants to be green but just cant do it) - then ends up just orange again :(

any help much appreciated... is my new toy dead? is this my punishment for posting so many noob questions? :(
 
update...

the led on the plug went from flashing between orange and green... to just green, so i figured it might have sorted itself...

so i opened the macbook, pressed power and to my joy i heard the cd drive have a think and the screen went grey and i got my apple logo...

the computer then died and the plug started alternating between orange and green again :( I thought while plugged in macbooks run off AC?? so this just shouldn't be happening i.e. it shouldn't need a nominal amount of charge to start up right?

balls to this, i aint calibrating it again for love nor money :(
 
To calibrate, you're suppose to leave it to run out of juice and then charge it up to green light again without using/opening the mac - least that's how I've interpreted the manual on Apple's site.

I've done it about 4 times since I've got my Mac over a year ago and never had an issue.

Close your mac, let it charge till full before opening it again.
 
well, thats answered it then, something is definately wrong :(

when i switched it on the last time, it was showing a solid green light which indicates fully charged right? its obviuosly not fully charged cuz only half an hour ago or summat it was 100% dead in the middle of a calibration cycle :(

EDIT: read through the apple troubleshooting stuff, and i've tried reseating the battery (didn't work), the resetting the SMS (AC plug out, battery out, power button for 5 seconds, plug all back in), and that also was a no go... in fact after trying to switch it on after the reset, the battery indicator thing on the plug didn't know where it wanted to be... flickering between a weak and strong amber light, having a quick play with green, then going back to orange... mad :(

and to think apple recommend you do this???
 
Last edited:
WotDa said:
What advantage does calibrating the battery have? Is it worth it? :o
Click to expand...
well, i can catagorically say no its not worth it... just been on the phone to apple tech for 45 minutes, and my macbook is dead :(

new one next week, so no no NO its not worth it, proppa dissapointed now, and i've lost faith in how robust these things are... you are supposed to calibrate to maximize the battery life, but now i wont have the balls to do it again :( so the battery will just have to get by without ever being fully discharged cuz i'm not having this again...

damn.
 
I think when you completely drain the battery it can cause problems on the li-ion batterys that the macbooks use.

contact apple for free battery :)
 
dont know as a new battery would sort it now, the macbook seems screwed... tried switching it on with no battery inserterted just running off AC, this didn't work, should it?

i did manage to get then to give me a free incase neoprene sleve though so every cloud and all that...

i have two problems tho, i have company files on there which really needed to stay confidential, and also when i put my osx disk 1 in, that was the last i saw of it cant seem to get it out now...

not a good day!
 
yeah you are right it should work with just the charger plugged in and no battery.

What you could do is buy a new hard drive and put that in the macbook, take the current one out and keep it. When your replacement macbook comes swap the drives over

not the best solution... but it seems like your dont have many options ATM
 
Robotica said:
yeah you are right it should work with just the charger plugged in and no battery.

What you could do is buy a new hard drive and put that in the macbook, take the current one out and keep it. When your replacement macbook comes swap the drives over

not the best solution... but it seems like your dont have many options ATM
Click to expand...
i like the idea of keeping the hdd for security reasons, but i'm sure they'd hammer me for it wouldn't they? charge me or something?
 
I dont think they would if you just replaced it with one the same size an doubt they would even notice!

if they do just tell them, it is a user replaceable part :) - o yeah best be sure its not a broken hard drive you have:D
 
Robotica said:
I think when you completely drain the battery it can cause problems on the li-ion batterys that the macbooks use.

contact apple for free battery :)
Click to expand...
When my battery died and I got a free swap at a Mac shop the genius told me I should run it completely flat once every month or so. Use it till it's almost out then shut the lid and let it drain the rest on standby overnight then give it a full charge. Can't say I've ever done it though. Plus my new battery doesn't seem to have as much life as my old one.
 
Robotica said:
I dont think they would if you just replaced it with one the same size an doubt they would even notice!

if they do just tell them, it is a user replaceable part :) - o yeah best be sure its not a broken hard drive you have:D
Click to expand...
you know what, i'm taking the hdd out and keeping it... i'll put it in another computer at a later date to wipe it... they can have it back after i've done that if they really want...
 
Better to finds out now and get a replacement than during some time critical use of the Macbook.

I calibrate every so often as it give the same soothing sense of nerdyness that defragging gives on old windows machines. Possibly akin to the feeling of polishing your car.
 
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