In preparation for a holiday trip, I had to pick up a new MacBook battery as the original one is on its last legs.

A good program that will show you how pathetic your battery has become is coconutBattery which I found via Simplehelp.

You can get coconutBattery here.

So yesterday I went to the Apple Store and bought a new MacBook battery. Replacing the old one is very straightforward. Shut down your MacBook, place a coin in the slot, do a quarter clockwise turn, and the old battery pops out. The new battery had a piece of clear plastic on both sides that needs to be peeled off. pLace it in position and then give the slot a quarter counter-clockwise turn to lock it into place.

After installing the new battery, it’s a good idea to follow Apple’s battery calibration steps. Here’s the basic run-down:

1. Plug in the power adapter and fully charge your battery. You can tell when the battery is charged when the light on the charger changes from orange to green. I left the MacBook off while doing this first charge so it would go quicker. It still took a few hours.
2. Allow the battery to rest in the fully charged state for at least two hours. Use your computer with the adapter plugged in.
3. Disconnect the power adapter with the computer still on and start running the computer off battery power - basically drain it until it goes to sleep (another few hours).
4. Turn off the computer or allow it to sleep for five hours or more.
5. Connect the power adapter and leave it connected until the battery is fully charged again (yep, another few hours).

The amount of time for each step actually adds up to nearly a day (twenty something hours, if you’re keeping track). I really cut it close by buying this battery the day before the trip. Anyhow, I now have a fresh battery that will serve me well throughout the trip, and an energetic computer will provide ample entertainment in the event our flight gets delayed and we’re stuck somewhere between Chicago and Sheboygan.

Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.

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