New MBA Owner

[sheppy1]

Hi guys, just thought I'd create a little thread about my new(ish) MBA. Today I picked up, what I think is a newer model MBA, basically it's a store ex display model and I don't know how long it was on display for, it doesn't have a single mark on it or have any problems at all but the battery has completed 110 cycles.

I was slightly wary about buying one of these to begin with as I had a quick browse around this forum and saw lots of people talking about all of the problems they were having, problems such as light bleeding from the edges of the screen, faulty hinges, overheating and so on, even after reading all of this I still decided to buy one, after all I did get rather a good deal, anyway I am pleased to say that I haven't had any of the problems that I read about, my MBA appears to be in perfect condition and the only problem I can find is the rather weak battery life, I fully charged it to 100% earlier and it went down to 0% within about 2-3 hours, I have no idea if this is normal but it isn't much of a problem as most of the time I will be within reach of a plug socket.

Anyway that's about it, just thought I'd introduce my self to the MBA forums and talk a little bit about my new baby

 

[halledise]

Hi guys, just thought I'd create a little thread about my new(ish) MBA. Today I picked up, what I think is a newer model MBA, basically it's a store ex display model and I don't know how long it was on display for, it doesn't have a single mark on it or have any problems at all but the battery has completed 110 cycles.

I was slightly wary about buying one of these to begin with as I had a quick browse around this forum and saw lots of people talking about all of the problems they were having, problems such as light bleeding from the edges of the screen, faulty hinges, overheating and so on, even after reading all of this I still decided to buy one, after all I did get rather a good deal, anyway I am pleased to say that I haven't had any of the problems that I read about, my MBA appears to be in perfect condition and the only problem I can find is the rather weak battery life, I fully charged it to 100% earlier and it went down to 0% within about 2-3 hours, I have no idea if this is normal but it isn't much of a problem as most of the time I will be within reach of a plug socket.

Anyway that's about it, just thought I'd introduce my self to the MBA forums and talk a little bit about my new baby

welcome young sheppy!
you have purchased a great little Mac which performs far better than those that don't own one realise.

go to / 'about this Mac' / to see what specs you have.

as for the battery, allow the Air to run down altogether (screen saver on and 'sleep never') and allow it go to sleep then leave it overnight if possible.

wake it up in the morning by attaching power cable and pressing power button once (takes a while) then allow it to charge for at least 8 hours.
(you can use it during this time if you wish or else shut it down and allow the charging to take place.

some would disagree with me, but this is the best way to recalibrate your battery.
mine's on 400 cycle count and is still rated at 96% health by CoconutBattery
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27425)

all the very best!

 

[sheppy1]

welcome young sheppy!
you have purchased a great little Mac which performs far better than those that don't own one realise.

go to / 'about this Mac' / to see what specs you have.

as for the battery, allow the Air to run down altogether (screen saver on and 'sleep never') and allow it go to sleep then leave it overnight if possible.

wake it up in the morning by attaching power cable and pressing power button once (takes a while) then allow it to charge for at least 8 hours.
(you can use it during this time if you wish or else shut it down and allow the charging to take place.

some would disagree with me, but this is the best way to recalibrate your battery.
mine's on 400 cycle count and is still rated at 96% health by CoconutBattery
(http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/27425)

all the very best!

Thanks for the warm welcome, I had a look at the specs and I have the 1.6Ghz model with a 120GB HD. I've checked my battery health with coconut battery and it's showing to have 93% health, this isn't surprising though as the laptop is stores ex display model and it's been sat there with the charger plugged in, on display for about a year now and I'm guessing that's not very good for the battery, I shall do what you have suggested though in an attempt to improve the battery life

 

[Spacekatgal]

It's a great laptop! I think you'll really grow to love it!

Bri

 

[sheppy1]

HeHe, I've only owned it for a day and I already absolutely adore it, MUCH more than my old basic white Macbook which I owned a few years ago, there is just something about the Air. I am actually looking at buying the Snow Leopard upgrade later on today as I hear it drastically improves loading times and also recovers a lot of much needed HD space.

I let the battery run down to 0% and left it that way for a while, I then fully charged it to 100% which took an absolute age and now It's showing between 2 and 3 hours battery remaining, I'm guessing that's not good lol

 

[halledise]

at least you have a RevB with nVidia graphics onboard and a SATA drive rather than the PATA of the RevA, but geez they must've used it as a demo for a long time cos them babies were discontinued in mid-2009.

hopefully you got it fer a bargain price.

unusual with 93% health you're still only getting 3 hours max from a charge.
(a long charge time usually means battery is healthy)
I'd talk with the Apple Store where you purchased it and see what sort of a deal they can do for you to replace the battery.

10.6 should definitely improve things for you.

here are your specs:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...core-2-duo-1.6-13-nvidia-late-2008-specs.html

 

[Scottsdale]

Congrats. Welcome to our elitist club, LOL! Hope you enjoy yours as much as the rest of us do!

 

[sheppy1]

at least you have a RevB with nVidia graphics onboard and a SATA drive rather than the PATA of the RevA, but geez they must've used it as a demo for a long time cos them babies were discontinued in mid-2009.

hopefully you got it fer a bargain price.

unusual with 93% health you're still only getting 3 hours max from a charge.
(a long charge time usually means battery is healthy)
I'd talk with the Apple Store where you purchased it and see what sort of a deal they can do for you to replace the battery.

10.6 should definitely improve things for you.

here are your specs:

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...core-2-duo-1.6-13-nvidia-late-2008-specs.html

Yea I here that this model is one the better ones and I actually bought it from PC World where I work so I really doubt that there is anything that I can do except going to Apple and paying for them to replace the battery, I have just installed Snow Leopard now though so hopefully this will improve he battery life a little bit. Thanks for the spec sheet too

Oh and it was only actually out on display for about 3 or 4 months, the rest of the time it was in the warehouse so it has no marks or scratches on it at all and the only problem is the slightly poor battery life

 

[sahni130]

Yea I here that this model is one the better ones and I actually bought it from PC World where I work so I really doubt that there is anything that I can do except going to Apple and paying for them to replace the battery, I have just installed Snow Leopard now though so hopefully this will improve he battery life a little bit. Thanks for the spec sheet too

Oh and it was only actually out on display for about 3 or 4 months, the rest of the time it was in the warehouse so it has no marks or scratches on it at all and the only problem is the slightly poor battery life

Congrats on you purchase! How much did you pay for it (if you don't mind me asking)?

 

[sheppy1]

Congrats on you purchase! How much did you pay for it (if you don't mind me asking)?

Not at all, I paid £500, that's about $730

 

[MrMacintoshBlog]

Congrats!! was it from an apple store? I always wondered what happened to the display models.

 

[sheppy1]

Congrats!! was it from an apple store? I always wondered what happened to the display models.

No, it was from PC World, the display models at PC World just get sold off once the new stock has run out, I don't know what they do with them at the Apple store

 

[cloroxbleach4]

Very good deal! Congrats

 

[sheppy1]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone .

I just wish that I could afford Applecare for it though because as it is an ex-display model I fear that it may develop faults a lot sooner than a new model would and at the moment it is out of warranty and I have no cover on it so I'd be pretty much done for, I'd have to shell out a fortune for Apple to fix it for me

 

[gyus]

About your battery - there is no need to cycle your battery like that. That is an old wives tale dating back to the days of NiMH battery packs. Li-On batteries (or their derivative) have a set amount of useful cycles (ie full charge to full discharge) and no memory effect.

 

[sheppy1]

About your battery - there is no need to cycle your battery like that. That is an old wives tale dating back to the days of NiMH battery packs. Li-On batteries (or their derivative) have a set amount of useful cycles (ie full charge to full discharge) and no memory effect.

Right, Ok I guess there isn't much I can do about the poor battery life then...It' not that much of a problem though as I won't be taking it on long journeys or anything like that, I will mainly be using it in my lectures when I start Uni

 

[bowlerman625]

Enjoy your new toy!!

 

[bowlerman625]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone .

I just wish that I could afford Applecare for it though because as it is an ex-display model I fear that it may develop faults a lot sooner than a new model would and at the moment it is out of warranty and I have no cover on it so I'd be pretty much done for, I'd have to shell out a fortune for Apple to fix it for me

Check ebay. I was able to get my AppleCare policy for about 1/2 the normal cost there.

 

[sheppy1]

Enjoy your new toy!!

I shall i've not stopped playing with it since i got it yesterday, got everything setup the way I wanted it on Leopard and then I decided to buy Snow Leopard so I installed that a few hours ago and I've just been playing about seeing what new stuff i can find (I've owned a Mac before so I had already had a play about on Leopard), so far I'm really impressed with Snow Leopard, it's a lot faster than Leopard, I like the minor UI tweaks and updates and I love how it managed to free up about 10GB of HD space for me too ...Oh and one more thing I love about this thing is the keyboard, it's an absolute joy to type on, I very rarely hit the wrong key and it's soooooo comfortable too

 

[sheppy1]

Check ebay. I was able to get my AppleCare policy for about 1/2 the normal cost there.

Ooooooo really, I didn't realise you could buy it off there, I just thought it was a type of insurance that was just applied to your Macbook, how does it work if you buy it from eBay then? do you get some sort of card with a code on it that you use to register the Apple care on the laptop?

 

[bowlerman625]

Ooooooo really, I didn't realise you could buy it off there, I just thought it was a type of insurance that was just applied to your Macbook, how does it work if you buy it from eBay then? do you get some sort of card with a code on it that you use to register the Apple care on the laptop?

First off, you want to make sure you are dealing with a legit seller. There are a number of them out there. When I bought mine, I was sent an email containing the code I needed to use to register the policy. It was very easy and like I said, about half the cost of what Apple sells it for.

 

[sheppy1]

Check ebay. I was able to get my AppleCare policy for about 1/2 the normal cost there.

Ok so I've had a look on eBay and it seems to be selling for 1/4 of what it retails at, I have no idea how that works...anyway, in the listing it says that you must still be within your first years warranty for you to be able to apply AppleCare to it, I don't think I'll be able to use it then will I, as my Macbook is over a year old and has been used as a display model, I even checked the warranty status on their website and it says that the 1 year warranty has expired

 

[ReallyOldGuy]

You will love it even more the longer you have....great price. Congrats and good luck!

 

[bowlerman625]

Ok so I've had a look on eBay and it seems to be selling for 1/4 of what it retails at, I have no idea how that works...anyway, in the listing it says that you must still be within your first years warranty for you to be able to apply AppleCare to it, I don't think I'll be able to use it then will I, as my Macbook is over a year old and has been used as a display model, I even checked the warranty status on their website and it says that the 1 year warranty has expired

Yes, you are correct. You do need to be within the original one year warranty when you purchase AppleCare.

 

[sheppy1]

Yes, you are correct. You do need to be within the original one year warranty when you purchase AppleCare.

Awwwww that sucks, looks like I'm out of luck with that option then, I always thought that the 1 year warranty was always effective from the day you bought the product, is this true?