Just got MBP! Should I plug it in? Charging Question!

Hey i have my brand new mac book pro 15.4 on my table. Im afraid to plug it in though haha just want to make sure im suppose to plug it in with 85w and just turn it on or do i wait for full charge. After that once its charged and i unplug it i should let it run down all the way before i recharge it right

 

You can plug it in..The MBP won't explode or anything.

You can run your MBP with the battery in with the AC Adapter if you want to. Some people suggest to remove the battery if you choose to use it on the AC Adapter. I usually let my MBP run down to no power or down to the single digit percentages before I recharge it if I choose to run on battery.

 

will the battery come pre charged?

 

Congrats dell111, where'd ya get it? MacStation?

You can turn it on right away. Set it up while its charging up. When its all done charging up, calibrate the battery. Follow Eluzion's instructions in the post below.

The battery should come pre-charged at about 40% charge. You can check by turning over to the bottom of the MBP (and the MB, for that matter), press the button on the battery next to 5 "dots", and the dots will light up to show about how much charge is left.

 

Yeah you're fine to plug it in and use it. Let it charge all the way up and remain in the full charge state (plugged in) for at least two hours. Then disconnect the adapter and let it drain all the way down til it automatically puts itself to sleep. From there you can either way 5 hours for the computer to totally shut off or just turn it off yourself. Finally, plug it in but don't turn on the computer. Let it full charge (charger turns from amber to green).

That is calibrating you're battery. I think it's recommended to do about every 30-40 cycles.

 

cycles=how many times i charge it? Also would it be bad to calibrate it every time, my plan was only to charge it when it was really low. Oh and thanks for your help sam it was big hassle to get it. I went to macstation but they dont give free ipod or 200 bucks off and if i bought from apple it would take 10 business days which would be 2 weeks so i got my boss whos great guy in toronto to go to apple store and buy it for me and purolator it out and i paid him back for the mpb and printer and ipod which ill get 450 bucks back in rebates plus the 200 bucks off. Best part was shipping took under 24 hours and it was free

 

Well, congrats dell111. Happy to help out and happy to hear you're getting the promotion as well. We really need an Apple Store here in Vancouver, ugh.

And it is good practice to use a battery to pretty low charge and to charge it all the way up again. Although you do not have to wait until it actually falls asleep to recharge it (unless you're calibrating), just recharge when it gets low (such as 10-20% charge left).

 

Basically a cycle is a full charge (drain then charge). You can find out how many cycles you have gone through by clicking on the Apple icon in the top left corner of the screen and clicking "About this Mac". In the window that comes up, click "More Info" then look for Power. It will have all your battery info there.

I wouldn't recommending letting it drain all the way to 0% every time. These batteries are only rated for so many cycles, so letting it drain to 0% every time isn't good since it's really a wasted cycle.

General rules of thumb I follow:
-At least use the battery once in a while (I run on battery maybe twice a week). It's not good to always keep it plugged in. I usually let it drain to about 40-50% then plug in the charger again.
-Calibrate the battery every 2-3 months or so, or after roughly 30-40 cycles (whichever comes first).

 

alright thanks how much are batteries if i want to replace in time?

 

oh and one more thing... screw you windows, oh and is firefox good for osx or should i stick to safari?

 

$129

They're here

 

They're $159 CDN on the Apple Canada Online Store.

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APP...tore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=6C04E0F6&nplm=MA561LL/A

You may be able to find some cheaper on EBay.

Dell111 lives in Canada, Eluzion.

As for the internet browser question, Firefox works fine for the Mac. It great, but I personally use Safari (previously used Camino). Both browsers have similar features but I just like the lack of colourful icons on Safari so I can focus on my web browsing .

 

Everyone has their preferences.

I use Camino, Safari (beta 3), and Firefox.

Camino - uses the same rendering engine as Firefox (gecko) but designed for OSX (more integrated with the OS, like using the keychain manager for passwords).

Safari - it renders fast and it opens quick

Firefox - I use it more for websites that have trouble rendering in Camino and Safari, and also for web developing (firebug). Firefox has tons of plugins.

There's a few others but those are the ones I use.

Edit: Doh, sorry didn't realize you live in Canada. haha

 

lmfao!

I use both. I'm actually starting to prefer Safari - once I heard you could enable Tabs. Safari --> Preferences --> Tabs, check the little box.

Check out http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=126889&highlight=which+browser for some good browser discussions.

Congratulations on the new Apple!

 

it doesnt turn on im so god damn angry right now

 

Its not turning on, dell111? Yikes . Read through the MacBook Pro manual, there is a section near the end that will talk about "MacBook Pro not turning on".

And this article too: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303234

 

I got a new OEM Real Apple battery off eBay for $69 CAD after shipping.... great deals to be had!

 

i hate macs

 

???

You just got a MacBook Pro, dell111.

 

it doesnt work

 

Did you read the article I gave you? Your new MacBook Pro isn't starting up, right?

 

i ahve to wait 2 weeks to get it fixed this is bs

 

ya its dead i no it will just be exchanged but its gonna take forevrer just to look at it

 

You can take the MBP to MacStation, they're an Apple Authorized Service Provider. So is Westworld and Simply Computing on Broadway. Tell them about your issue via email or phone, and if they determine it is a problem they'll fix your MBP for free (because they're an Authorized Service Provider and you're under warranty).

 

i know this is harsh, and probably not a good sign seeing my mbp is coming next week but i couldnt help lol when reading through this thread. from "screw you windows" to "i hate macs" well hope it works out for ya, complain that thats too long, try and get some free stuff.

 

ok well heres what im doing its going to take over a week just to look at it here in vancouver and cost bunch of money to purolate it back to toronto. My mom works for air canada so i fly free, im gonna take red eye out to toronto tonight get in at 7am go to apple store and exchange it for working one and then fly home i should be back by around 3 or 4 tomorrow, maybe ill take some pics or something they better give me a free wireless router or something.

 

Well, good luck dell111. Hope you get something free for your troubles.

 

how is the battery affected if you use the computer with the power cord in most of the time? how does this affect the number of cycles?

 

depends on how hot your system gets, say if your doing something intensive like gaming i'd think about taking it out but i dont think it'll affect things too much anyway, batteries and heat arent the best of friends.

 

The maximum battery capacity will decrease much faster if you just keep it plugged in all the time. You definitely want to use the battery every now and then to keep it "in shape".

 

im shooting for a free case maybe even wireless router

 

hope it works out for u dell111... that sucks.. new macbook pro and u ddnt even get to switch it on ...

best of luck ...

 

not true. your battery is smart enough to know not to charge itself when its full or anything crazy like that.

the only negative would be the potential for additional heat on the battery. however, the battery doesn't really receive a lot of the heat from the system. it should be fine.

i do take out the battery for gaming, though. if the case is going to get hot, you might as well. otherwise it should be fine.

 

flight leaves in 2 and half hours ill post when im at apple store

 

Of course it won't continue charging if it's full, but the fact still remains - you don't want to keep your battery at a full (or near full) state for very long periods of time. Your overall battery capacity will decrease much faster. This is true for any lithium-ion and polymer battery.

You do not want to remove the battery on the Macbook Pro unless you're okay with the processor frequency dropping to 1ghz. There is ways around it though, like with using CoolBook.

 

update at toronto airport its 7am here 4am my time nw to find a way to the mall

 

well, if you remove the battery once its charged, you are in the same position. i guess if you are almost always going to leave it plugged in and don't plan on using the battery very often at all, your best bet is to put it at 40% charge and into the fridge. youll still need to cycle the battery every so often.

 

well im back in vancouver they gave me free 3 year warranty and extra copy of ilife 2008!

 

oh and a working macbook pro ! Love it

 

That's awesome, dell111!! Do you still hate Macs after this?

 

That's awesome! grats

 

very pleased im gonna let it drain down to sleep mode then charge her back up the mac genius guy said that its better to keep battery charged cause tis less cycles or something