Apple Powerbook and iBook Battery Recall

doubleacr writes "The Register is reporting that Apple is recalling batteries in 12 and 15 inch Powerbook and 12 inch iBooks sold between October 2004 and May 2005. Apple has set up a page with info on model number and serial numbers of batteries affected, and also how to get a replacement."

Comments

affected

[Anonymous Coward]

affected, not effected

Re:From the FAQ

[trampel]

It's not quite that dumb. There are/were notebooks that won't run without a battery installed, maybe due to the design of their power circuitry.

I remember the Powerbook 180, for instance.

Now I wish I'd abused mine!

[Ben Jackson]

Mine is about 5 months old, but I've been babying the battery. Wish I'd known I'd be getting a freebie! To find out how many cycles your battery already has:

ioreg -l -w 0 | grep Capacity

I only used 22 cycles. :(

Re:Now I wish I'd abused mine!

[busman]

or for the terminal impaired ..

System Profiler -> Hardware -> Power

Battery Information:

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 4438
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 1262
Amperage (mA): -1726
Voltage (mV): 10921
Cycle Count: 22

Warning: Don't put water on burning lithium

[Johnboi Waltune]

I have one of these recalled Powerbook batteries, and right now it's running at home unsupervised. Great.

I haven't seen anyone else mention it in this thread, but pouring water on burning lithium is an extremely Bad Idea. You'll get an effect similar to pouring gasoline on burning wood.

Most Slashdotters probably know not to pour water on an electrical fire, but I suspect far fewer know burning lithium can use water for a fuel source.

From a FAQ I found about how to handle a lithium fire (this is a google html version since the original was a .Doc file): "Use a graphite powder or a Lith-X (class D) extinguisher to extinguish burning lithium. Don't use water, sand, carbon tetrachloride, carbon dioxide, or soda acid extinguishers in lithium cell fires."