Short stops while charging

[YoNoSoyTu]

For some months, while I charge my Early 2006 MacBook battery, the
orange/green light from the AC connector starts turning green for a
moment, then orange again.

A friend of mine show me MiniBatteryLogger and I decided to give it a
try.

While charging MiniBatteryLogger starts showing Growl notifications
telling "Charge finished", "Charge started" (or something like that, I
use the spanish localization) at the same time my connector light
blinks. The log is like this:

----
2008-01-16 22:05:30 +++ Recarga batería iniciada +++
2008-01-16 22:05:30 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 163, enchufado: sí,
cargando: sí
2008-01-16 22:05:55 +++ Battery has been charged +++
2008-01-16 22:05:55 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 166, enchufado: sí,
cargando: no
2008-01-16 22:05:56 +++ Recarga batería iniciada +++
2008-01-16 22:05:56 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 158, enchufado: sí,
cargando: sí
2008-01-16 22:06:26 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 190, enchufado: sí,
cargando: sí
2008-01-16 22:06:56 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 191, enchufado: sí,
cargando: sí
2008-01-16 22:06:59 +++ Battery has been charged +++
2008-01-16 22:06:59 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 174, enchufado: sí,
cargando: no
2008-01-16 22:07:01 +++ Recarga batería iniciada +++
2008-01-16 22:07:01 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 157, enchufado: sí,
cargando: sí
2008-01-16 22:07:33 Carga: 92%, amperiaje: 186, enchufado: sí,
cargando: sí
-----

As you can see between "Battery has been charged" and "Recarga batería
iniciada" (meaning "Battery has started charging") only past 1 or 2
seconds, and the "disconections" happens every minute or so, but can
not happen for 2 minutes, or happen twice very fast in 10 seconds or
so. The problem seems to be worse when the battery is nearly charged.

My MacBook is one of the first, and I already suffered Random Shutdown
Sindrome, the battery is 21 months old and has 92 cycles, but has only
52% of the original capacity. As I can see in the online battery data
archive is one of the lowest capacities for that cycle count.

The battery recall problem that Apple started with the battery 1.2
update do not say anything about problems similar to mine, but I feel
that my battery is somewhat failing and not working properly. Apple
web page <http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/
batteryupdate/> says that MacBook batteries has an additional year of
warranty. Should I contant Apple about my problem? Should I mention
that I have used MiniBatteryLogger? Anyone had have this problem?
Anyone have remplaced his/her battery using this program?

Thanks (and great program, by the way).
Daniel.

PD: It would be nice that the data archive included how old were each
machine, so we can cross-reference battery age and cycle count (or
other variables).
And I also can help with the spanish localization of the program,
which has some little errors and weird word choices.

[claudio]

On Jan 16, 10:24 pm, YoNoSoyTu <drodrigueztroit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> For some months, while I charge my Early 2006 MacBook battery, the
> orange/green light from the AC connector starts turning green for a
> moment, then orange again.
>
> A friend of mine show me MiniBatteryLogger and I decided to give it a
> try.

Cool! You have a great friend ;)

> The battery recall problem that Apple started with the battery 1.2
> update do not say anything about problems similar to mine, but I feel
> that my battery is somewhat failing and not working properly. Apple
> web page <http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/
> batteryupdate/> says that MacBook batteries has an additional year of
> warranty. Should I contant Apple about my problem? Should I mention
> that I have used MiniBatteryLogger? Anyone had have this problem?
> Anyone have remplaced his/her battery using this program?
>
> Thanks (and great program, by the way).
> Daniel.

Thank you, Daniel.

I'm aware of at least a couple of users who substantiated their
complaints for faulty batteries by providing evidence collected with
MiniBatteryLogger (either graphics of sudden fall of charge, or logs,
or both).

I mean, it is not a forensics tool, but it clearly shows phenomena
that are otherwise difficult or impossible to account for.

I suggest you to record a session with the problem you are
experiencing, option-drag the chart to an email (this will export the
chart as an image) and send it to Apple support folks with a brief
description.

> PD: It would be nice that the data archive included how old were each
> machine, so we can cross-reference battery age and cycle count (or
> other variables).

The archive actually contains the date of purchase of the battery, but
since it is a value entered by the user I do not trust it. Maybe in
newer batteries such information is built-in, but I couldn't tell (I'm
still using a glorious iBook G...@1.2GHz).

> And I also can help with the spanish localization of the program,
> which has some little errors and weird word choices.

Haha my Spanish is a bit rusty! Thanks.
Best regards, good luck with your report.

--
Claudio Procida
http://www.emeraldion.it

[Case Larsen]

here are my graphs which i will be submitting to apple support...
within a 10 hour period, capacity drops from 4567 maH to 3268 maH
(after full recharge stops).

thanks for the tool... very frustrating getting only 50% of rated
lifetime from a less than one year old battery.

-case larsen

[YoNoSoyTu]

Thanks for your comments.

The things got worse yesterday and today trying to do a complete
calibration of the battery. I'm going to contant Apple Support and ask
for a remplacement battery.

Thank you very much for this program, it has helped me to clarify my
problem.

Daniel.

[claudio]

On Jan 17, 12:33 pm, "Case Larsen" <clar...@ilanyo.com> wrote:
> here are my graphs which i will be submitting to apple support...
> within a 10 hour period, capacity drops from 4567 maH to 3268 maH
> (after full recharge stops).
>
> thanks for the tool... very frustrating getting only 50% of rated
> lifetime from a less than one year old battery.
>
> -case larsen

Glad to help you.
I suggest you to zoom and shift the chart to highlight the relevant
process, then option-drag the chart to a blank email: this will export
the chart as an image ready to be attached.

[claudio]

On Jan 18, 2:44 pm, YoNoSoyTu <drodrigueztroit...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for your comments.
>
> The things got worse yesterday and today trying to do a complete
> calibration of the battery. I'm going to contant Apple Support and ask
> for a remplacement battery.
>
> Thank you very much for this program, it has helped me to clarify my
> problem.
>
> Daniel.

You're welcome!
I'll ask you to review the Spanish localization when I'm done with the
upcoming version 1.8.2.

Best regards,

[Steven van Heuven]

Hi guys,

*** bloody h#ll, how do I attach images to this?! Believe me, they're
good. Never mind then. ***

I'm also suffering from the 'intermittently charging'-problem.
Additionally, I get occasional charge drops (e.g., during 90 minutes
of standby (!), the state of charge of the battery drops from 20% to
0%, whereas it would normally drop from 20% to, say, 18%). See
attached annotated image. The on/off-switching is very clearly visible
in the image, as is the power drop. I'm not sure if any of this is
normal, but it causes (or is somehow related to) very long waiting
times during the final part of the recharge (e.g., first 75% in 45
minutes, last 25% in 4 hours).

Please note that the flattening charge-curve that is displayed in the
image is offset to the low side (i.e., starts leveling very early) by
the (also displayed) state-of-charge-drop. The battery apparently is
nearly charged, but thinks that it's only at 80%, or something. None
of this makes much sense as an explanation, though.

I'm using an early-2006-MacBookPro, running 10.5.1, original battery.

It should be noted that NONE of these problems affected the last-of-
the-series PowerBook 15" that I owned before this MBP, which clearly
and generally was a much more robust, reliable and mature machine...

Thanks for any info on this, and thanks for MBL - it's great. I'll try
registering it again.
Steven

***

[svheuven]

Hi guys,

*** hmm, I'm re-re-re-trying to post this, and again I can't find the
option to attach the images I made, sorry. ***

I'm also suffering from the 'intermittently charging'-problem.
Additionally, I get occasional charge drops (e.g., during 90 minutes
of standby (!), the state of charge of the battery drops from 20% to
0%, whereas it would normally drop from 20% to, say, 18%). See
attached annotated image. The on/off-switching is very clearly visible
in the image, as is the power drop. I'm not sure if any of this is
normal, but it causes (or is somehow related to) very long waiting
times during the final part of the recharge (e.g., first 75% in 45
minutes, last 25% in 4 hours).

Please note that the flattening charge-curve that is displayed in the
image is offset to the low side (i.e., starts leveling very early) by
the (also displayed) state-of-charge-drop. The battery apparently is
nearly charged, but thinks that it's only at 80%, or something. None
of this makes much sense as an explanation, though.

I'm using an early-2006-MacBookPro, running 10.5.1, original battery.

It should be noted that NONE of these problems affected the last-of-
the-series PowerBook 15" that I owned before this MBP, which clearly
and generally was a much more robust, reliable and mature machine...

Thanks, Steven

[claudio]

On Jan 19, 2:26 pm, svheuven <svheu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> *** hmm, I'm re-re-re-trying to post this, and again I can't find the
> option to attach the images I made, sorry. ***

[cut]

Hello Steven

I can't figure how Case Larsen managed to attach pictures. I never
actually tried so I feel really newbie here.

You could post the charts to an image hosting website (e.g.
imageshack) and then include the URL in the message.

Regards,
Claudio