Apple Macbook Battery Help
Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed
There are a few tips I have when it comes to keeping track of your battery health and performance. You can do these things from inside your Macbook, or by using a great little application I discovered.
On the battery itself, there is a tiny little ‘button’, for lack of a better word. If you push this, a guage will light up, telling you how much charge is left in the battery. This works whether the battery is installed in the machine, or taken out of it like I have here.
Inside your Macbook, you can go up to the left hand corner, and click the Apple logo. Choose the “About this Mac”, and head to the System Profiler. Once there, click on the “Power” section. You’ll see all the battery information listed to the right. You can find out about:
- Charge information
- Charge remaining
- Full charge capacity
- Battery health
- Voltage
- Amperage
- Exact model information in case a replacement is ever needed
There’s also a program available called coconutBattery. coconutBattery isn’t just a tool which shows you only the current charge of your battery – it also shows you the current maximum capacity of it in relation to the original capacity your battery had as it left the factory.
You also get information about the battery-loadcycles (how often did you fully load your battery), the current charger (coconutBattery even warns you if you plugged in a wrong charger for your Notebook) and last but not least information about the age of your Mac. Best of all, you can save the current state of your battery, and then track its performance over time. Oh… and did I mention this program is absolutely free?
Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:
What's your #1 source for Internet needs? GoDaddy has new domain names, transfers and renewals as low as $1.99. Plus, check out their hosting plans, Web site builders, secure certificates and much more. Plus, as a listener of The Chris Pirillo Show, enter code CHRIS3 and get your .COM domain name for just $6.95 a year. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy!
28 Comments
wikili
January 1st, 1970
at 12:00am
KillerClam73
November 1st, 2007
at 10:51am
cool
oilersfan1215
November 1st, 2007
at 11:39am
hey is in negative
If your on a mac press
Control+option+command+8
KillerClam73
November 1st, 2007
at 5:51pm
cool
oilersfan1215
November 1st, 2007
at 6:39pm
hey is in negative
If your on a mac press
Control+option+command+8
vahnx1337
November 2nd, 2007
at 1:22am
Is there a similar program, or where can I find a good battery program like that for Windows XP.
Smokie
November 1st, 2007
at 6:53pm
Another great video as usual. You may also try istat pro it is another good dashboard utility that monitors your macbook’s stats. istat monitors cpu usage, memory usage, battery, uptime – load, computer temps (just about every temp in the computer), processes, fan speeds, hard drive space, and network info.
wafflemou
November 2nd, 2007
at 2:40am
Nifty, it has nothing on the Ubuntu battery monitor though, it records the status automatically and can make a nice graph out of it, it also tells you if you have a recalled battery.
Not saying its better than the Mac one, but the nix one is free.
nyrjets225
November 2nd, 2007
at 7:10am
what is the battery life on the macbook pro
17 inch
vahnx1337
November 2nd, 2007
at 8:22am
Is there a similar program, or where can I find a good battery program like that for Windows XP.
wafflemou
November 2nd, 2007
at 9:40am
Nifty, it has nothing on the Ubuntu battery monitor though, it records the status automatically and can make a nice graph out of it, it also tells you if you have a recalled battery.
Not saying its better than the Mac one, but the nix one is free.
nyrjets225
November 2nd, 2007
at 2:10pm
what is the battery life on the macbook pro
17 inch
TheTNC420
November 3rd, 2007
at 6:13am
Hand motions.
TheTNC420
November 3rd, 2007
at 1:13pm
Hand motions.
mattsuzanna1992
November 22nd, 2007
at 3:39am
aaack its the haunted talking hand!
hehe
NH|Computer|Geek
braineno
November 30th, 2007
at 11:54pm
neat! Macbooks rule the Earth!
Macbook1193
December 25th, 2007
at 7:38am
how did he get a black theme
Alex4744
December 27th, 2007
at 3:05pm
I just bought a macbook and and fter charging it a few times it says its full at 99% and wont go to 100% what is wrong?
supermanxevan
January 3rd, 2008
at 3:13pm
call apple and if your under warrenty they may send you a new one
Snipereye64
January 26th, 2008
at 10:37am
go to system prefs, appearance, and you can change it there
RatchetRenegade
February 1st, 2008
at 4:55am
Or just press Ctrl+Alt+Cmd+8
muk546
February 14th, 2008
at 7:11am
i have the same problem i just ignore it who cares ?
Chazdaspazzzz
March 5th, 2008
at 12:39am
There’s nothing wrong with it. It stops there to prevent it from overcharging. Missing just 1% is nothing to worry about.
musicfuse
March 6th, 2008
at 5:48am
Do you have any problems with heat from the macbook? because the ones i’ve seen in person were not even warm at all but the reviews i’ve read said they get really hot sometimes.
BananasWithThat
March 6th, 2008
at 5:49am
No i dont have problems with heat. ometimes it gets hot when you use it for a LONG time so you shouldnt have to worry.
Rtvoll
March 13th, 2008
at 12:27pm
nothing is wrong it is normal for it to be fully charged at 99% it is totally normal
eaglei64
May 10th, 2008
at 11:03pm
i have that too but when i unplug the ac adapter it goes to 100%
Fredrik
June 18th, 2008
at 1:17am
If you don’t have Apple Care but purchased your laptop within the last two years, read this article about free replacements: apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/
I spent 40 minutes (mostly on hold, the rest arguing because they were very reluctant and passed me around a lot) and on top of it I got a negative reply in the end.
The page in question was wrong they said. “sorry, we see how you could expect a replacement, but we have a list of serial numbers and yours is not on there…”
I am so disappointed.
My next mac will be bought from a 3rd party with a decent warranty. I thought apple cared about customer satisfaction and the high quality of their products but they just don’t want anything to do with you after the sale is made.
For all you apple employees that can’t (you probably can) believe this, the support case number was 100536246.