Okay now Im worried: Battery.
I have a white 30GB 5G iPod. The first time I charged the battery, it seemed to go from the Charging to Charged status pretty quick. But whatever. Then I used it for a couple days, got about 6 hours of battery life. Consider, though, that I played a little video, ran a slideshow, listened to music, and also messed with it a lot, keeping the backlight on a lot of the time. Over the course of a couple days.
But I just did my second charge, and it only took a little over 90 minutes for the Charge indicator to read Charged. Apple reports 80% charge at 3 hours, 5 hours for full. 90 minutes doesn't seem right.
Does it take longer to charge a more depleted battery than one that is not so run down? Perhaps the charge indicator wasn't accurate and I recharged with quite a bit of battery life remaining (it showed a little less than a third left and was red). And does it continue to trickle charge even though the battery indicator reads Charged?
I have a 3G that shows Charged after only 2 hours instead of the specified 4, and I get great battery life out of that. I have a mini that takes *longer* than the specification to charge, and the battery life on that mini has never been great -- well under 8 hours.
I'm going to leave the 5G plugged into my PowerBook for the full 5 hours, then see how long it seems to last in regular use -- without doing a flat-out battery test. But does this sound like a potential problem, or just inaccurate battery indicator and charging indicator?
Yes, I've read the battery life post. But what's the experience with 5Gs?
[1643 byte] By [
san] at [2007-11-10 22:09:06]
# 1 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
the estimate Apple tags onto batteries for full charge appears to be exaggerated. in other words, your ipod will charge faster than what the estimate is.
what you really want to do is run a test on it:
60% volume, 128 kbps encoding... all the standards for your songs, and let it run until it dies (have it shuffle your library or something)...
then you'll really see.
DON'T FORGET TO LET US KNOW!!!
# 2 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
I will test it, hopefully over this weekend. That's the experience I've had with my 3G: it charges very quickly but the battery life is fine. I guess it's hard to tell with a new iPod, you're messing with it all the time, and it's not a good picture of battery life under regular usage.
I've also heard that in order to test Apple's battery life specifications, you have to make a playlist that's no larger than the RAM buffer on that model iPod. Because if it has to access the hard drive, that cuts battery life, and apparently Apple doesn't factor regular disk access when it does it's maximum battery life estimates.
san at 2007-11-15 12:46:21 >
# 3 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Of course it factors disk access.
I'd just steer clear of Albumart in the test.
Have you done any battery calibration yet san? The test might be a good time to calibrate the battery. Run it down til it completely and utterly passes out
# 4 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
oh that's a good idea. may just need a soft reset and a battery cal.
san at 2007-11-15 12:48:26 >
# 5 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Originally posted by san
oh that's a good idea. may just need a soft reset and a battery cal.
san and rusty, this will not make a difference. these batteries have no memory whatsoever. just run the test kiddo.
# 6 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
yannick, I'm willing to take your word for it, but aren't they the same type as in the Apple PowerBooks? And they recommend calibrating those once in a while.
Anyway, assuming calibration does no good, I do remember with my 3G that a soft reset would some times correct inaccuracy in the battery life gauge and with the charge completion indicator.
But I will run the test. May wait until Tuesday when my dock arrives, so I can leave it connected to a stereo system and can hear when it conks out -- instead of having to have the headphones in or check it off and on all day.
san at 2007-11-15 12:50:25 >
# 7 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
battery calbration in notebooks primarily gives more acurate battery level. The Lithium battery itself does not have any memory effect.
So i am assuming it is the same for the Ipod battery. calibration will give you more accurate battery level reading.
ravic at 2007-11-15 12:51:29 >
# 8 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
ravic. I think you are right. Might affect the iPod's determination of whether it is finished charging or not, too. So calibration won't improve battery life, but will improve perception of battery life, and might make you charge longer, too.
Thanks all for the help. I'm not too worried. I'll test it. Even if it is a weak battery, that one-year warranty is good yet for a long time. If I have to send it back, I'll likely wait until the chaos of product launch has died down.
san at 2007-11-15 12:52:21 >
# 9 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Originally posted by Rusty Clown
Of course it factors disk access.
I'd just steer clear of Albumart in the test.
Have you done any battery calibration yet san? The test might be a good time to calibrate the battery. Run it down til it completely and utterly passes out
Would using album art on the ipod actually make a difference on how fast the battery would waste?
# 10 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Originally posted by justblaize
Would using album art on the ipod actually make a difference on how fast the battery would waste?
It will affect it a little, as the iPod will need to buffer some extra information from their database (If only they just decoded it from the actual MP3 then this wouldn't be a problem) but it should be a very small hit. Shouldn't be noticeable actually.
# 11 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Originally posted by EvilDude
It will affect it a little, as the iPod will need to buffer some extra information from their database (If only they just decoded it from the actual MP3 then this wouldn't be a problem) but it should be a very small hit. Shouldn't be noticeable actually.
that's good to hear.
# 12 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
thats true.
# 13 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Anecdotally, I seem to be using the battery at a rate that will equal 9 hours battery life. But that's only according to the battery gauge, which is apparently notoriously unreliable and will sometimes read "empty" while the iPod plays on for hours.
I'll officially test when I get my dock next week. I assume the iPod is smart enough to turn itself off in a very low power condition, rather than allowing the battery to fully discharge. I don't want to torment the battery trying to test it.
san at 2007-11-15 12:57:30 >
# 14 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Hey, wait a minute. Sometimes I amaze myself. Why not test the battery with video? 14 hours, if it makes it on audio, is a long time investment for testing. But 2 hours for video, no problem. Apple may not accept it as an accurate measure of battery performance for warranty repair purposes, but it's a least a quick test to recommend a full test.
It's rated at 2 hours for video. I figure if I get 110 minutes or better, the battery is fine.
san at 2007-11-15 12:58:36 >
# 15 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Thought this was interesting: from http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61475:
[In the battery test instructions from Apple]
Import the contents of an audio CD that contains average length songs (3 to 8 minutes) using the MP3 Encoder set at 160 kbps or AAC Encoder set at 128 kbps. See "iTunes 4: How to Choose Import Options" for further details.
Long playlists don't seem to be valid battery tests. Apparently shuffling songs isn't supposed to be used in max. battery life tests either.
san at 2007-11-15 12:59:28 >
# 16 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
I have a 5G 60GB and I watched my first full movie today. I had about an 80% charge when I started so I didni't know if I would finish the movie. To my surprise, I got through the movie (Hotel Rwanda - great movie) and signal was red by the time I got done.
Seems accurate enough.
dehlz at 2007-11-15 13:00:33 >
# 17 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
It probably is accurate. Accuracy seems to vary from unit to unit, depending. You can usually reset and get the battery gauge right again, anyway. I actually had to come look up the soft reset because it's no longer menu and play, now it's hold on, hold off, menu and center button! Gah!!!!
san at 2007-11-15 13:01:30 >
# 18 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
I think I owe an update. In the event, I did not run a standard Apple test. I used the iPod normally -- normal for me -- until the battery gauge read about half. Then I decided to go ahead and run the battery down to low battery shut down so that I could charge it all the way and *then* do the test. I did this with a single-CD repeating playlist. During both types of use on that single charge, I got 12.5 hours battery life over 3 days of periodic use. 12.5 over 3 days? That's so close to rated battery life the test is now pointless. And had I used the standard Apple test, I would have certainly had 14 hours battery life, quite possibly over 15 hours.
I am however going to go ahead and deplete the battery to low battery shut down again on this fresh charge, this time using the iPod normally all through; the iPod ran for almost 3 hours with the battery gauge at empty, so I may as well fully recalibrate the gauge since I've bothered with the time to do this.
The upshot of all this is: My 30GB White iPod's battery is fine; I'm getting rated battery life on a mere 90 minute charge! And I have succumbed to the iPod battery related compulsive behavior that may soon be a legitimate psychiatric diagnosis. For more on that, read here: http://www.vsa.cape.com/~danh/ipod.htm -- this web page should cure you right quick, better than a patent tonic.
Thanks for all the help, iLoungers. I'm going to go back to mostly ignoring my iPod's battery.
san at 2007-11-15 13:02:35 >
# 19 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Didn't run a standard test, but I charged my machine up overnight and then left playing it on shuffle.
No headphones plugged in.
After exactly 13 hours the machine died on me.
Given that Apple probably repeat one song to minimize disc access this is (hopefully) not bad.
I'm not too concerned, unless any of you are getting 15+ hours under same conditions.
# 20 Re: Okay now Im worried: Battery.
Nope. You're good. Apple's test is actually repeat one playlist that is smaller than the RAM buffer size, to minimize disc access. Same difference. 13 hours on shuffle is just fine.
san at 2007-11-15 13:04:35 >
