---
layout: post
title: Voltage Envy: Learning to leave well enough alone
author: Steven
date: 2006-03-27 11:02:58
categories: 
- Musings
tags: 
- apple
- musings
- software
featured_image: https://www.stevenjaycohen.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/wsi-imageoptim-happy-mac-icon.png
---

	About a month and a half ago, a friend of mine messaged me and was all kinds of happy because coconutBattery reported that his Powerbook battery was reporting that it was better than it was the day it was new. I thought this was funny at the time. And, of course it got me thinking about my Powerbook battery. And, I was wondering how it was doing. So, I loaded up Coconut and found that mine was down to 87% of its original capacity. Normally, this would have been good, but compared to my buddy's battery actually getting better, I was suddenly hit with Voltage Envy.

	In the old days, it was possible to force laptop batteries to regain some of their power. So, I figured that if I could recover 3% and get back up into the 90's, I'd be happy. Well, it seems that the days of inducing insomnia in a laptop to convince it that batteries still had unused energy hiding in them are long gone.

	I have re-calibrated my Powerbook and reset the PMU following every set of instructions I could find on the internet and now, I am down to 82%. So, 6 weeks of mucking about with it and all I have succeeded in doing is losing an extra 5% of my battery life.

	*sigh*