Genius!

[space-time]

7:20 PM: wife complains her MacBook doesn't charge. I troubleshoot... different outlet, unplug, replug, no go.
Grab my Powerbook, go online, make an Appointment at Genius bar (30 min away) for 8:15 PM.

7:30 PM: leave house... 7 min later I notice I forgot my wallet. What if a cop stops me (hasn't happened in years), or if I need an ID at the Apple Store, or if I want to make an impulse purchase (iPad?) turn back.

7:45 PM: leave house again, this time with wallet in my pocket:

8:15 PM: I step into the Apple store, crowded, but I manage to get to the Genius which is waiting for me.

He boots the MacBook from his AC adapter, he puts my AC adapter to his machine and it works... but the LED light on my AC Adapter stays ON even when disconnected from a MacBook. He also notices a trace of a spark on the MagSafe, so he just replaces the AC adapter.

During the troubleshooting, he booted the Macbook from an iPod Nano, and the battery is OK, but his eyes pop open when he sees 992 cycles and 96% health

I mention that the MacBook doesn't go to sleep. He opens Energy saver, and tries differemt setting, it won't sleep.

He booths from his network, same thing, MacBook won't sleep. He admits it's w hardware problem: could be sleep sensor, Hard Drive cable, RAM, and he suggests to send it in for repair, about a week. I say No thanks, I need to ask wife, will probably send it in later when we go in vacation. He gives me another page with the summary of the sleep issue.

8:45 PM: I am back in the car

9:15 PM: got home

pretty amazing when the whole issue was solved in under 2 hours. Having a Genius available on a short notice within a short driving distance: Genius. Having a happy wife: Priceless.

[Mini 9]

One of our multiple iPod Touch's home button stopped working. Drove up to Apple Store. They put my name in for 6:50. Sat and watched the queue on the screen behind the Genius bar. Name got to #1 position after 40 minutes.



then...


disappeared.

Had to wait another 10 minutes for my 'turn'.

Had to wait another 10 minutes for another China-suicide-made consumer good to replace the faulty one.

[jdc]

I have to ask, why is this 'bad'?

>>> and the battery is OK, but his eyes pop open when he sees 992 cycles and 96% health

heres my wifes Core Duo



battery...

[space-time]

jdc wrote:
I have to ask, why is this 'bad'?

>>> and the battery is OK, but his eyes pop open when he sees 992 cycles and 96% health

no, quite the opposite, the battery is VERY good (or WAS very good, I don't know how long it will last though). But the reason the b attery has so many cycles already in 2 years is that the MacBook will not go to sleep, and if left OPEN on the table, it will drain the battery. It sleeps fine if I close the lid.

[Ken Sp.]

space-time wrote:
[quote=jdc]
I have to ask, why is this 'bad'?

>>> and the battery is OK, but his eyes pop open when he sees 992 cycles and 96% health

no, quite the opposite, the battery is VERY good (or WAS very good, I don't know how long it will last though). But the reason the b attery has so many cycles already in 2 years is that the MacBook will not go to sleep, and if left OPEN on the table, it will drain the battery. It sleeps fine if I close the lid.
Did you do the "Battery Conditioning" tips of running it down to shut down and then fully recharging? Or did she just use it "however" all the time?

Whatever you did--worked, and we want to know the secret-Please

[jdc]

"however" it sounds about right.

no "conditioning" ever. I dont think its ever fully drained. It stays plugged in 24/7, off the charger for maybe a couple/few hours every other day or so -- its not really moved much.

havent restarted since the last update. never gets shut down, just goes to sleep or gets the lid closed...

still gets 3+ hours on a charge...

[space-time]

Ken Sp. wrote:
[quote=space-time]
[quote=jdc]
I have to ask, why is this 'bad'?

>>> and the battery is OK, but his eyes pop open when he sees 992 cycles and 96% health

no, quite the opposite, the battery is VERY good (or WAS very good, I don't know how long it will last though). But the reason the b attery has so many cycles already in 2 years is that the MacBook will not go to sleep, and if left OPEN on the table, it will drain the battery. It sleeps fine if I close the lid.
Did you do the "Battery Conditioning" tips of running it down to shut down and then fully recharging? Or did she just use it "however" all the time?

Whatever you did--worked, and we want to know the secret-Please
I did the cycle many time, but not on purpose. Like I said, if the MacBook does not sleep, she leave it open and then 4-5 hours later the battery is fully drained. Then I sometimes plug it in and go to bed and in the morning the battery is fully charged. I think this happened hundreds of times already.

search the forum, I posted pictures about this several times before.

[Mini 9]

The guy next to me had his battery bulging in his MacBook. They said it was okay, but NOT to charge it while it was inside the MacBook. Even took it out there saying, leave it out. ????

[sekker]

Computer insomnia can be a terrible disease to treat!

My experience has been software issues most of the time. My last memorable one was due to an Apple OS update - a clean install on an erased hard drive showed the problem after update but not with stock os installer. You might want to check the boards to see if there is an issue with your specific model MacBook and the os you are using.

Sleep issues are a real pain on hackintoshes, too.

Certain hardware dongles and other USB devices can also install drivers that prevent sleep on some machines even when not connected.

As for your battery - that's amazing. I typically have only 80% life after as few as 200 cycles.

I presume your wife just closes the lid when she's done? I suppose that works, too.

[space-time]

The genius booted the computer from the Apple Store network (via an Ethernet cable, hold down N when booting, and the desktop had the Genius bar logo). I am not sure if that was OS 10.5 or 10.6.

The MacBook had sleep issues from the very beginning (10.5.1 IIRC) all the way to 10.5.8, I highly suspect it's the CRUCIAL RAM I added which replaced the OEM sticks.