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Any of you iMac owners finding that your wireless keyboard is eating batteries?

L

Lumpydog

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 3, 2007
373
108
My Apple wireless keyboard started wailing through batteries about a month ago. Around the time I upgraded to 10.6.2 or added the magic mouse... not sure which.

Batteries used to last months. Now, a week - max. I'm talking about the small Bluetooth Apple wireless keyboard with no right-hand numeric keypad...

Others are reporting this in Apple's forums: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2230866&tstart=0
 
On my Mac Pro I've seen increased battery consumption. Before 10.6.2, I used to be able to last a couple months of casual use, now after replacing batteries 3 days ago, I'm at 91% on the keyboard.
 
Like thegoldenmackid suggests, I would opt for rechargeable batteries> Saves money & the environment in the long run.
 
One week later and another set of batteries needed after the current set went from 100% to 0% in 7 days.

I appreciate all of the "get rechargables" comments, but you're missing the point of the post - the wireless keyboard has a problem since 10.6.2 - it's wailing through batteries - rechargable or not.
 
Don't have an iMac (Mac Mini) but I've only replaced the batteries in my wireless keyboard once since I bought it ~9 months ago.
 
Do you shut off your BT keyboard/mouse when you are away from the computer for extended periods of time >30min-1hr? I shut mine off if I know I won't be back and I have 95% on my keyboard and 100% on my mouse after 4 months of use.
 
53x12 said:
Do you shut off your BT keyboard/mouse when you are away from the computer for extended periods of time >30min-1hr? I shut mine off if I know I won't be back and I have 95% on my keyboard and 100% on my mouse after 4 months of use.
Click to expand...

I never shut mine off, if you were asking me :D
 
me 2

I have noticed this also.

immediately after I installed 10.6.2 it told me my batteries were low also.. Then when i rebooted it told me it couldn't find the keyboard and to press the button to the right of the shift. I did this and nothing however my keyboard worked fine. I tried replacing the batteries and every time i rebooted after that I would get the same error..
 
FINALLY! I thought I was going nuts!

My new iMac (still 100% after almost 2 weeks) and my older 2008 iMac works perfectly with the wireless keyboard.

However, my 2008 Mac Pro is chewing through batteries. So much that I have gone back to using a wired keyboard. Batteries (3 of them) were lasting me less than 1 week.

Apple, what did you do???
 
Still on 10.4 here, but no complaints about battery life. I get about 1-2 months on a charge, and I use this keyboard to play WoW on a daily basis.

My biggest complaint is that it takes three batteries... so I always have one odd battery laying around. :p
 
Which OS are you running? I don't have a wireless keyboard but I do have the old wireless Mighty Mouse and with Leopard, I was getting months before the battery went. With Snow Leopard, I put in a new set of batteries and about 2.5 weeks, the batteries are dead or the OS is reading it as dead and won't power the mouse anymore. Perhaps it's the OS? I've since gone back to using my DeathAdder.
 
Aloha everyone,

I replaced my iMac i5 on Thanksgiving Day (the first one had a bad USB port), and now, some three days later, my keyboard is reporting 100%, but my Magic Mouse is only reporting 96%. At this rate, I'll have to replace the batteries every three months. That's not too bad, is it?
 
After 6 days of heavy use on my i7 w/10.6.2 the keyboard still shows 100% battery and the magic mouse 87%. I use the mouse a lot. Batteries are so cheap it really doesn't matter to me. My wife uses a lot more batteries in her portable devices. Cheapbatteries.com sells Duracell AAs for 35 cents each when you buy 24, thats $8.40 plus shipping (I suppose). Locally they run around $12.00 for 16 or Ever Ready gold 12 packs for $10.98. I didn't realize that Duracell AA and AAA batteries are made in China, go figure. The 9 volt, C and D cells are made in the U.S.
 
Trek2100 said:
After 6 days of heavy use on my i7 w/10.6.2 the keyboard still shows 100% battery and the magic mouse 87%. I use the mouse a lot. Batteries are so cheap it really doesn't matter to me. My wife uses a lot more batteries in her portable devices. Cheapbatteries.com sells Duracell AAs for 35 cents each when you buy 24, thats $8.40 plus shipping (I suppose). Locally they run around $12.00 for 16 or Ever Ready gold 12 packs for $10.98. I didn't realize that Duracell AA and AAA batteries are made in China, go figure. The 9 volt, C and D cells are made in the U.S.
Click to expand...

I think my keyboard still has the original batteries in it, and it is over a year old, although I did go without use for about 8 months or so and just sat on a shelf powered off.

Walmart has Ray-o-vac 24 pack AA's for around 10 bux I think. They seem to last as long as Duracell's in remotes and such. My Microsoft Bluetooth 5000 mouse used up it's supplied batteries in about a month and a half, although that was with heavy use. I will see how long the Ray-o-vac ones last. Unfortunately it does not have a software percentage indicator like the Apple wireless devices, although it does have an indicator that flashes when the batteries are low. A Magic Mouse may be in my near future, or possibly a Mighty Mouse from eBay or the like as I really miss the Mighty Mouse.

Chef Jay
 
Lumpydog said:
One week later and another set of batteries needed after the current set went from 100% to 0% in 7 days.

I appreciate all of the "get rechargables" comments, but you're missing the point of the post - the wireless keyboard has a problem since 10.6.2 - it's wailing through batteries - rechargable or not.
Click to expand...


Another week and another set of batteries...

Someone asked if I turn off the keyboard ever. Nope. Never have. Batteries used to last 3-4 months. Now, 7 days. Come on Apple - fix it.
 
Lumpydog said:
Another week and another set of batteries...

Someone asked if I turn off the keyboard ever. Nope. Never have. Batteries used to last 3-4 months. Now, 7 days. Come on Apple - fix it.
Click to expand...

Thirteen days and the keyboard still shows the battery level to be 100%. Only turned it off for 4 nights and all the rest of the time the computer has been in sleep mode at night.
 
Trek2100 said:
Thirteen days and the keyboard still shows the battery level to be 100%. Only turned it off for 4 nights and all the rest of the time the computer has been in sleep mode at night.
Click to expand...

Thanks for weighing in... I believe you have the newer wireless keyboard (two battery model) correct?

My guess is that those having problems are with the MM and the (relatively)
older 3 battery keyboards
 
Lumpydog said:
Thanks for weighing in... I believe you have the newer wireless keyboard (two battery model) correct?

My guess is that those having problems are with the MM and the (relatively)
older 3 battery keyboards
Click to expand...

I have the 3 battery. Replaced about 2 weeks ago, 60% current level. Avg. 4 hrs/day of use.
 
Lumpydog said:
Thanks for weighing in... I believe you have the newer wireless keyboard (two battery model) correct?

My guess is that those having problems are with the MM and the (relatively)
older 3 battery keyboards
Click to expand...

Yes, I have the new keyboard with 2 batteries. Hard to believe that after now 14 days it still shows 100% and magic mouse at 84%. Of course the mouse is used a lot more than the keyboard due to surfing, etc.

Due to the number of people on the forum that are having problems with the new iMacs I'm starting to get paranoid. Tomorrow is day 15 and beyond the send back date if I experience one of the problems, oh no:(:(:(

So far, still loving it and no problems:).
 
Problem solved...

I went back to my wireless Mighty Mouse. The batteries on my wireless keyboard are back to lasting months instead of a week.

I'm pissed about it - for two reasons - 1) Apple took something of mine and broke it - because I tried to buy and use a new product from them. 2) The Magic Mouse sucked ass anyway. No squeeze to Expose and no middle click to dashboard.

Apple Fail
 
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