When I got my 500mhz iBook back in July, the battery held a good 3 hour charge, and coconut battery reported 60% remaining life.
now, I noticed as of late I can only get an hour out of it if I shut the wifi off and turn the brightness all the way down. I checked coconutbattery, and it says I only have 1000mah or so left, and the capacity is now down to only 25%!!
How could the battery have lost so much charge in only 3 months? when I charge it up, as soon as the light turns green, I unplug it.
I have only upped the RAM to 576mb, added an airport card, and upped the HD to 80gb. Could any of those hardware changes have killed the battery?
Is there any way to get it back? I know with the wallstreet, you could reset it's microprocessor, and let it recalibrate it's self. Anything simmilar for my iBook? Or is a new battery in order?
-digital 
You need to buy a new battery.
that's the ibook battery for you. really crappy batteries. the one in my g4 failed after a year. the one in my g3 was dead when i got it (used of course....now in parts). get a new one, but not from apple.
really crappy?
what's wrong with them? just bad cells or something? I guess I could recell it if I have time... make for a good hardware hack project.
but then I know very little about soldering.
to lose half+ it's charge in 3 months is unacceptable.
are the powerbook G4 batteries of the same era and older any better? I was thinking of snatching an 867mhz G4 for leopard sometime down the road.
-digital
I've got several original iBook batteries (early dual-USB models) which continue to hold several hours charge (apiece, not collectively.) I have had some wear out, and that's a normal part of the portable computing experience. I'm just pointing out that experiences vary and my iBook batteries (mostly) aren't crappy.
As for failing to such an extent over a few months, I'd suggest the battery is near end of life and an accelerating rate of failure seems consistent with my own experiences.
Face it, the battery is plum wore out and is ready for retirement.
BTW, it's generally not a good idea to promptly unplug the 'Book once the battery is fully charged. Every additional charge cycle further deteriorates the battery. Best practice leaves the 'Book plugged in unless specifically needing to go portable. Keeping the battery always topped up keeps the number of charge/discharge cycles to a minimum.
dan k
I had a look at coconut battery again, and it says the battery is 74 months old, but has only gone through 199 cycles. I thought these things were rated for 500-1000 cycles. That's not even close to what I am getting now.
I know rechargable batteries don't last forever, but this is seriously an outrage. too bad the 60 day warranty is up, so I can't return it to wegner,
-digital
Apple suggests otherwise:
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
Second sentence under "Standard Maintenance."
Aye, I didn't mean to suggest one should never unplug one's iBook, just that if you aren't going portable at the moment, one should leave it plugged until the next time you go portable. Certainly I agree with Apple's suggestion that every battery needs a bit of exercise on a regular basis (as do we all.) I'm merely of the opinion that it's not the best idea to keep charging it up and then letting it run down.
that is all,
dan k
The average laptop battery lasts 18-24 months (your mileage may vary). The chemistry inside just isn't stable enough to last forever.
You wouldn't expect your car battery to last 74 months, would you?
This is also why you should not buy New-Old-Stock batteries for a laptop. The LiON batteries have a limited shelf life, even if they aren't being used. The shelf life starts to deteriorate after *manufacture* of the cells, not when they are put to use or even when they were put together into a battery pack.
My 600Mhz iBook can still eek out 4 hours on it's battery -- 62 months w/ 291 cycles and 4135mAh of the original 4200mAh.