I can't find the link to the 17" G4 PowerBook I just bought, but this is the link to the 15" G4 PowerBook battery that I found at a really great price. On a full charge, I am getting over 5 hours of running time with this new battery. I might even buy a second one to keep charged and just swap out each battery, since the price is so low.

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Apple-A1078-A1045-Powerbook/dp/B00267EJKC/ref=pd_sxp_f_pt

Here is the link to the external battery charger I bought to charge my G4 PowerBook batteries when they are not in the PowerBook. It should work with both 15" and 17" PowerBook batteries. This one is much cheaper than any others I could find.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/External-Battery-Charger-Apple-PowerBook-17-A1057-/350213876773

the same path I took in November! I purchased my external charger from Brilliant It failed in seven months but the warranty was for one year. Brilliant backed up the warranty of one year and the new charger is arriving this week. New batteries came local.
Apple stopped production of batteries last year so aftermarket are the only source for new fresh batteries.
Both my PowerBook 5,8's can only charge at a trickle rate. I was hoping it was a software problem but it has remained with Morph 3.0. My intuition says the low rate of charging is the wiring in the charging circuit. I hoped to open up the PowerBook to eye the circuitry and also repack the heat transfer gel.

laters


The charging rate is slow 1% in 24 hours. The battery was at 50% when Morph was first installed 5 days ago. The shell command output says 55% today

http://screaminglight.com/projects/technical/powerbook-g4-power-connector-replacement/

http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/pb15_battery_life.html

[ Edited by osco 14.06.2012 - 02:19 ]

@amigadave
>On a full charge, I am getting over 5 hours of running time with this new battery.

Is this "5 hours" on a PowerBook 5,6 5,7 5,8 or 5,9?
Do you use the computer at all?
Is everything connected inside? Bluetooth, Airport?
SSD disk?
Is the lcd light off?

@amigadave
The reason I ask is because I have a PowerBook 15" 5,6.
When I use this laptop to surf the internet at no heavy sites, the system is almost idle.
I get at maximum 3 hours or less with a new battery, the only thing connected to my laptop is a TP-Link WR702N Wireless router that is draining 1 Watt from my battery. Just to experiment to get the longest battery time, I have disconnected the internal Airport, Modem and BlueTooth. I have also a SSD disk installed and I run my LCD at lowest possible light.

So once again please answer my above post, I want to maximize my battery time.

http://www.girr.org/mac_stuff/pb15_battery_life.html

search osco battery also on the site

@dake,
Quote:

Well, that 5 hour battery life was short lived and was limited to casual internet browsing and reading emails while running MacOSX and using the AirPort Extreme connectivity. I have not changed any Bluetooth settings, but I do have the LCD at it's lowest setting to maximize battery life.

I don't know if I ever actually got the 5 hours of battery life between charges, but the battery gauge at the top of the screen had reported over 5 hours of remaining battery life when I first used that new battery after it's first full charge. It has not reported over 5 hours of battery life again that I have noticed, so it may have been a glitch in the program that estimates remaining battery life.

I do notice greatly improved battery life with these new batteries that I have purchased for both of my PowerBook's, even though I was not unhappy with the old ones I have. I was just happy to see that I could still buy a new battery for these old computers. To answer which models I have, one is a 5.8 and the other is a 5.9.

[ Edited by amigadave 04.07.2012 - 16:38 ]

OWC carries PowerBook batteries and they're an awesome company to buy from (at least in my previous experiences).

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/batteries/

AmigaMac,
Quote:

Those prices are more than double, or triple the price I paid for new replacement batteries.

@osco
Very interesting link!

@amigadave
>To answer which models I have, one is a 5.8 and the other is a 5.9.
That explain why you get longer battery time. Your models should have about an extra hour battery time compared to my model according to Apple.
I bought my batteries from http://www.24.se/batteri-till-apple-g4-15-aluminum-a1045-a1078-p-21061.aspx?externalsearch=1 it's cheap but not as cheap as Amazon.

@AmigaMac
Thanks for the tip but I totally agree with amigadave, it's to expensive.