Rebuilding iBook Battery Pack (project is done)

1. Jef Atkinson - 14 June 2004

   thanks to all that replied to the below question... as promised i said i'd pass along notes / photos for others to follow...

   the good news: the rebuild is complete and I still have my fingers, toes and eyes!

   I've posted some general steps to my .mac page, it will be up for quite awhile so use it as a reference.

   http://homepage.mac.com/amcintosh/PhotoAlbum38.html

   bad news: apple's power management doesn't see it correctly, so it reports 0% charge even though it goes for 3+ more hours. I've reset the PMU, but still no change... if anyone knows a trick into getting the iBook to see the stronger battery, let me know.

   the stats:

   8 Li-lon 2000mAh Batteries (apple used 1350mAh in original pack) $39.90 off ebay, www.batteryspace.com
   time: about 2 hours
   problems: hard to solder to smooth battery terminals, 0% charge error. good: i have a stronger battery than what apple sells, saved $100.

   I'm not responsible in anyway for these instructions, do this at your own risk of life, limb and your Apple iBook/Powerbook. Li-Lon has a way of exploding if handled incorrectly. :) (but that seems more related to if you try and charge them in a traditional battery charger) but you have been warned none the less...

   enjoy!

2. Tom Stiller - 14 June 2004

   I read of a procedure for "recalibrating the battery's microprocessor". The procedure is to allow the computer to run on battery until it shuts itself down, then charge it fully. I used the procedure to extend the "apparent" life of my aging clamshell iBook's battery.

   There are 10 kinds of people in the world:
   those who understand binary, and those who don't.

   Tom Stiller

   PGP fingerprint = 5108 DDB2 9761 EDE5 E7E3
   7BDA 71ED 6496 99C0 C7CF

3. Laurent Daudelin - 16 June 2004

   I did a rebuild of a Pismo battery and had the same problem: the Pismo wouldn't charge it. I ended buying a new one for $109. Later, somebody mentioned that if you restart, boot in OpenFirware and do, if I remember correctly, "nvram reset-all", then that would also clear the battery's memory. I didn't try it since I got 2 new batteries and I thought I had wasted enough time with that rebuild...

   -Laurent.
   -- ================================================================= Laurent Daudelin Logiciels Nemesys Software mailto:laurent.daudelin@ihatespam.net <http://nemesys.dyndns.org> Replace ihatespam with verizon to reply
   +++++++++++ Sent using an Apple Newton MessagePad 2100 ++++++++++

4. Martin Trautmann - 16 June 2004

   On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 10:00:16 GMT, Laurent Daudelin wrote:

   I did a rebuild of a Pismo battery and had the same problem: the Pismo wouldn't charge it. I ended buying a new one for $109. Later, somebody mentioned that if you restart, boot in OpenFirware and do, if I remember correctly, "nvram reset-all", then that would also clear the battery's memory. I didn't try it since I got 2 new batteries and I thought I had wasted enough time with that rebuild...

   probably
   cmd-opt-o-f (booting in open-firmware for new start) reset-nvram
   set-defaults
   reset-all

   How the PMU reset is done will depend on your machine. For a PowerBook 500 it was e.g. cmd-opt-ctrl-power (5-10 seconds).

   For the iBook it might (!) be shift-ctrl-opt-power in the switched off state and a removed battery. Resetting the PMU inccorrectly might damage your iBook! Thus check www.apple.com before...

   Kind regards
   Martin

5. Jef Atkinson - 16 June 2004

   I'll try the reset-nvram and post in a few days what happens...

   For some reason it is working much better... I get about a 2 hour charge, Apple's power management now seems to be working... It took about 2-3 days though...

6. Jef Atkinson - 16 June 2004

   Tom Stiller wrote:

   I read of a procedure for "recalibrating the battery's microprocessor". The procedure is to allow the computer to run on battery until it shuts itself down, then charge it fully. I used the procedure to extend the "apparent" life of my aging clamshell iBook's battery.

   I did what you suggested and it seems to be MUCH better... not sure if that was the trick or just waiting until the new batteries acclimated themselves... hope to post final results to my web page in a few days...

7. David C. - 17 June 2004

   Jef Atkinson <ja@life.net> writes:

   thanks to all that replied to the below question... as promised i said i'd pass along notes / photos for others to follow...

   the good news: the rebuild is complete and I still have my fingers, toes and eyes!

   I've posted some general steps to my .mac page, it will be up for quite awhile so use it as a reference.

   http://homepage.mac.com/amcintosh/PhotoAlbum38.html

   bad news: apple's power management doesn't see it correctly, so it reports 0% charge even though it goes for 3+ more hours. I've reset the PMU, but still no change... if anyone knows a trick into getting the iBook to see the stronger battery, let me know.

   the stats:

   8 Li-lon 2000mAh Batteries (apple used 1350mAh in original pack) $39.90 off ebay, www.batteryspace.com time: about 2 hours problems: hard to solder to smooth battery terminals, 0% charge error. good: i have a stronger battery than what apple sells, saved $100.

   I'm not responsible in anyway for these instructions, do this at your own risk of life, limb and your Apple iBook/Powerbook. Li-Lon has a way of exploding if handled incorrectly. :) (but that seems more related to if you try and charge them in a traditional battery charger) but you have been warned none the less...

   You say that you need to pry the cover off. You don't have to. You can buy triwing screwdrivers. Do a web search for a set of security screwdriver bits. Here's one such set from Sears:

   http://www.sears.com/sr/javasr/product.do?pid=00947486000

   Otherwise, it looks good.

   -- David

8. Bob Wilson - 19 June 2004

   Jef Atkinson wrote:

   I've posted some general steps to my .mac page, it will be up for quite awhile so use it as a reference.

   http://homepage.mac.com/amcintosh/PhotoAlbum38.html

   bad news: apple's power management doesn't see it correctly, so it reports 0% charge even though it goes for 3+ more hours. I've reset the PMU, but still no change... if anyone knows a trick into getting the iBook to see the stronger battery, let me know.

   I could not tell from the photo but are there active electronic circuits in the battery pack? From the edge on, it looks like there may be some sort of surface-mounted componets on a card. If so, do you have any detailed photos of them?

   The WallStreet NiMH battery pack apparently contains some sort of "smart" logic. Apple sent out a battery 'reset' program that was supposed to address a problem with batteries needing a reset and I notice they also mention 'iBook."

   http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60655

   One problem serial battery packs can have is one cell or in this case cell-pair, could be weak and they would prevent getting the full charge from the other cells. Did you do any initial cell measurements of open or some form of loaded voltage before starting?

   Thanks,
   Bob Wilson

   ps. Congratulations on an excellent project!

9. JonesR - 20 June 2004

   I read of a procedure for "recalibrating the battery's microprocessor".

   The procedure is to allow the computer to run on battery until it shuts

   itself down, then charge it fully. I used the procedure to extend the "apparent" life of my aging clamshell iBook's battery.

   When I did this with an iBook replacement battery, the battery was no longer seen... thus it would not charge.

   Battery Reset 2.0 also did nada in making it visible.

   I am a bit afraid to buy yet another battery for my first gen clamshell iBook.