[P1] Battery life issues

[Charles Pearce]

On Oct 31, 2003, at 1:55 PM, Brian Pearce wrote:

> Before you to go to those lengths (and I'm not entirely convinced this 
> is necessary), I'd try the recommended steps that come up whenever 
> this subject is discussed; run the battery down 'till it goes to sleep 
> and then charge it, zap the PRAM, and so on. Some have even suggested 
> jumping two connectors on the battery to reset the built-in circuitry. 
> There's also a file in Library-->Preferences-->SystemConfiguration 
> called "com.apple.PowerManagement.plist," that you can try deleting, 
> and then reboot. One report even suggested turning off the indicator 
> in the menu bar.

Thanks to all who replied, especially Brian Pearce (no relation, that I 
know of). I tried all the above last night and it still will only give 
me about 7 minutes on a charge. I did an archive and install of 10.3, I 
zapped the PRAM, I reset the PMU, I trashed the PowerManagement.plist, 
I turned off the indicator in the toolbar, and I pulled the battery out 
and put it back in. About the only thing I didn't try yet was to bury a 
dead cat under a stump in the cemetery under a full moon while chanting 
the pledge of allegiance to the flag backwards. I haven't tried a 
complete new install of 10.3 yet, either. I am about to the point of 
concluding that I need a new battery. However, I am afraid that if I 
get a new battery and it turns out to be an issue with settings in 
10.3, that I'm going to end up with a battery life of 7 minutes on the 
new one as well. Before that, however, does anyone know which terminals 
to short out? What do I have to lose?

Charles (no relation to Brian, that I know of) Pearce <charlesp at ksu.edu>