Duo/2400 List wrote...
>From: Marc Sira <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Subject: [Duo2400] Re: Battery Recondition
>
>>Instead of Battery Recondition, try out Jeremy Kezer's superior shareware
>>($10 registered) BatteryAmnesia program. It first discharges the battery
>>much more fully, giving you more runtime afterward.
>
>I don't know where this myth got started, but Battery Amnesia doesn't do a
>better job than Apple's Battery Recondition. In fact BA is a fairly trivial
>app that doesn't do anything you couldn't do yourself; it's just a
>convenient way of running the Duo for a long period as per usual. By
>comparison BR actually ties in to the Power Manager and runs the battery
>down below the warning and forced-sleep points. This is why it requires the
>Duo to be plugged in while it works (BA only works when unplugged).
>
>Battery Recondition only runs on later Duos (270 on I think) and you have
>to make sure you have the right version for your Duo model and OS revision
>- if you get the wrong one it won't launch or won't actually run down the
>battery even though it appears to be working. Battery Amnesia's main virtue
>is that it runs on any Powerbook - but that's because it does less.
Aw shucks, Marc. BatteryAmnesia was written to run on every PB after the
100, and years before Battery Recondition finally made its first
appearance IIRC. It does no less than BR and doesn't need to be plugged
in to work properly. It is also faster than BR. Try it if you doubt its
claims.
Here's what Kezer wrote in the very early 1990's and has hardly revised
since:
�������������
BatteryAmnesia is a utility for any PowerBook that uses a nickel-cadmium
(NiCad) battery or Nickel-Hydride (NiHy) battery. Over time, these
batteries are susceptible to a "memory effect", which can reduce their
battery capacity. The memory effect can be cured by fully discharging the
battery before recharging it.
The Apple PowerBook manual recommends a method for discharging your
battery by running your PowerBook on battery power until it shuts down,
manually dismissing the low battery warnings that periodically pop up.
The big drawback with this technique is that you have to be present to
dismiss the low battery warning dialogs when they come up. Also, the
PowerBook software will put itself to sleep "softly" before it is
completely discharged.
BatteryAmnesia provides a safe, fast and automatic way to deep discharge
your PowerBook's battery. BatteryAmnesia automatically bypasses the low
battery warning dialogs, and prevents the "soft" sleep brought on by
those dialogs. Instead, BatteryAmnesia will run your PowerBook's battery
down until the "hard" hardware shutdown occurs, which is at a lower
voltage. This provides a better discharge.
Once you tell BatteryAmnesia to begin the discharge cycle, it will drain
the battery as fast as possible, by using as much power as it can. The
screen backlighting is automatically increased to maximum, CPU "resting"
is prevented, and the hard drive is prevented from spinning down.
��������������
While I was indeed (and regrettably) amiss in passing on that casual myth
about BA doing a more complete job of discharging NiMH & NiCAD batts than
BR, it is still in no way worse at it, provides more info as it works,
and works much faster. Especially in machines which can't even use BR, BA
is the best solution IMO. Trivial software? I don't think so. Also, the
unregistered version is fully operational and well worth trying out
before dissing it.
Bob F
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