Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer’s battery for best performance

So my laptop battery was on the fritz. My computer was shutting down without warning and then a ‘Service Battery’ line item appeared in my battery drop-down menu. I went to the Genius Bar at my local Apple Store and was advised that it was indeed on the fritz and had only been charged approximately 41 times out of an estimated 250 possible charges. They gave me a new battery ($129 retail) for free (sweet). I was in and out of there in about 15 minutes which was also pretty sweet. I also got some knowledge about the proper use/care for a battery which is a little more detailed than I’d like. Here’s how to keep you MacBook Pro battery happy. Oh, they provide a link to a Calendar event that updates automatically and advises you when to charge your notebook.

From the Apple Knowledgebase:

PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD), MacBook (all models), MacBook Pro (all models), MacBook Pro (17-inch) (all models) and MacBook Air

The battery calibration for the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) and any model of MacBook or MacBook Pro has been updated because of a new battery released with this computer. With these computers, follow these steps to calibrate your battery:

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your PowerBook’s battery until the light ring or LED on the power adapter plug changes to green and the onscreen meter in the menu bar indicates that the battery is fully charged.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. You may use your computer during this time as long as the adapter is plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter while the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power. You may use your computer during this time. When your battery gets low, the low battery warning dialog appears on the screen.
4. At this point, save your work.  Continue to use your computer; when the battery gets very low, the computer will automatically go to sleep.
5. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
6. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again.

Tip: When the battery reaches “empty”, the computer is forced into sleep mode. The battery actually keeps back a reserve beyond “empty”, to maintain the computer in sleep for a period of time. Once the battery is truly exhausted, the computer is forced to shut down. At this point, with the safe sleep function introduced in the PowerBook G4 (15-inch Double-Layer SD) computers, the computer’s memory contents have been saved to the hard drive. When power is restored, the computer returns itself to its pre-sleep state using the safe sleep image on the hard drive.