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March 5, 2007

hardware

MacBook battery mystery solved (kind of)

Posted Mar. 5, ’07, 8:17 AM PT by Dan Moren
Category | Hardware

That's what I'm talkin' boutOn Saturday I journeyed to the Apple Store to find out what precisely was the deal with the marks on my MacBook battery that I discovered while preparing to upgrade the RAM. The Genius on hand said that he’d seen this on a lot of MacBooks, and that he thought it was something in the manufacturing process. When I mentioned my theory about the the MacBook being reassembled slightly off, he agreed that the keyboard was slightly curved, and offered to have it checked in and looked at more closely, though he didn’t think it was related to the battery problem; he said that it had probably just been put together a little too tight.

Since that would have meant being without my trusty MacBook for a few days, I opted to let it slide. I’ll be keeping an eye on that battery issue, though, as I find myself a little skeptical of the Genius’s explanation. I also mentioned to him the problem I’d been having with my power adapter not getting a solid connection, and he recommended I get a new duck head (the fold-out adapter that clips into the power brick). “They’re surprisingly delicate,” he told me. So, a tip for you, dear readers, the extension cord that comes with the brick is quite a bit more resilient.

Meanwhile, I decided to go ahead and install my 2GB of RAM. As I write this, I’m running my usual complement of apps (Mail, Safari, Adium, NetNewsWire, MarsEdit, ImageWell, VPN client) and despite the fact that most of my RAM is active, everything is very snappy and smooth. Dashboard no longer stutters when I open it, and I can switch between apps with impunity. More RAM may not be the flashiest upgrade you can make to your Mac, but it’s definitely among the most worthwhile.


3 Comments

Ian said:

Indeed. I just upgraded my MacBook to 1.5G and my 24" iMac to 2G and both have had significant speed improvements.

OS X does chew up a lot of memory (I usually have http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107918

March 5, 2007 3:27 PM
Island in the Net Author Profile Page said:

Is 2GB the maximum amount of memory one can add to a MacBook? I have 1GB now where I can purchase quality compatible and reasonably priced RAM for my MacBook?

March 6, 2007 4:10 AM
Dan Moren Author Profile Page said:

2GB is the max for the MacBook. Unfortunately, if you already have 1GB, you probably have it as two 512MB DIMMs, meaning you'll need to buy two 1GB DIMMs and replace both.

I snagged two sticks of Crucial from Newegg.com for around $160. Crucial is pretty reliable, and Newegg's shipping is insanely fast.

March 6, 2007 8:12 AM

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