# My Battery Needs Replacing?



## macbook_girl (Aug 26, 2010)

My macbook is really old (67 months), since I got it used. Under battery it says Condition: Replace Soon.

I used coconutBattery, and it says Mac model: MacBook2,1. 
Battery loadcycles: 618
Battery temperature: 30.6*C

Current charge: 1031 mAh
Max charge: 3208 mAh

Current capacity: 3208 mAh
Design capacity: 5020 mAh

I'm not really familiar with any of this stuff. Could someone please explain what mAh stands for and what it means? How much time do I have to get a new battery? And how many cycles are left?

Thanks so much!

-macbook_girl


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MacBook
Mac OS X 10.6.8
Processor - 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

80 GB space


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## Headrush (Feb 9, 2005)

mAh (milli-ampere hour) is in simple terms how much "power" the battery is capable of providing over a set time period.

For learning more about your battery cycles, this should help: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1519?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

After reading the above, that doesn't necessarily mean you have to get a new battery if the time you use it on battery is still sufficient.


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

The physics side of it:
The milli (m) just means you're talking about a thousandth of the unit, just as a millimeter is a thousandth of a meter.
The Ampere hour (Ah) is a unit of charge equal to 3600 coulombs. 
How long that will run your computer for depends on how much current the computer draws. 
If it runs at one amp, 1 Ah would run the machine for one hour.
If it runs at 2 amps, 1 Ah would run the machine for half an hour, and so on.
Having other devices attached to the computer would make it drain faster, as would turning on things like wireless adapters. 


As to when you should replace it, that depends on how long it actually lasts for you. Basically when you find yourself fully charging it and then running the battery down down almost completely during use, look at getting a new battery (and in the mean time, save your work frequently!). If it still lasts for an hour and you only ever run it on battery for 15 minutes at a time, you don't have to bother with it just yet. 

Battery cycles aren't a mysterious quantity that it suddenly stops working after a certain amount of use; batteries do just degrade over time. Once it's degraded too far to be useful, change it.


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