koppelman

I have searched 5 pages of Empower threads and did not find an explanation for my experience.

I have used a Macintosh approved Empower cable to power my PowerBook G4 from the Empower port on 4 flights so far. On two flights it has worked like a charm.

On the remaining two flights I have had a peculiar experience......

• The green power light on the Empower port is illuminated.
• Plugging in my computer generates an icon on my menu bar composed of what appears to be a pitch fork. It is definitely not the icon of a battery. This same icon is displayed on the two flights when the system worked flawlessly.
• After three hours of viewing a DVD, my battery has discharged to 40% of full charge. The pitchfork icon is still displayed.
• If I were to play the DVD when using the battery alone, the battery would completely discharge after 90-120 minutes.

Therefore, it would appear that the presence of the Empower source of energy is providing some power but is not sufficient to prevent the battery from needing to contribute energy to the operation. As mentioned above, this has happened on 2 out of 4 flights.

Is is possible that on some occasions, the power emanating from these Empower ports is not up to proper specifications.

Of course the problem may in fact lie with my computer.

koppelman

synergypi

I've used in-seat power cables for my G4 powerbook (Kensington cable) and now Macbookpro (Apple cable) with minimal problems, SFO <->NRT. The battery does not charge, but neither does it drain.
The icon you see is normal and indicates a power connection. However, in one or two cases IME, the seat Empower connection was poor; i.e. intermittent loss of power - the socket connection was at fault. If you are watching a DVD this would not be obvious in full screen mode, but if you were doing something else, you may see that the battery/charging icon was not stable.
You may also be correct - the Empower system does not supply sufficient energy to take care of all power requirements when viewing DVDs. In that case, you could turn the brightness of the screen down to reduce power requirements.
I would suggest, however, prior to travel: burning your DVDs to an mp4 file using Handbrake (free program) - this will reduce optical drive power needs completely!

SFO 1K

Empower does not provide sufficient power to ensure battery power is not sometimes used. However, in my experience on dozens of flights, consumption is in the neighborhood of 20%. I always use Mac The Ripper (Handbrake is another option as stated above) to copy DVD content to my hard drive, and then watching movies takes much less power. When the flight's over, I delete the copy. Each DVD can take as much as 7 gigabytes on your drive.

SFO 1K

Can I add the irony that all three of us who have posted are from San Francisco? Apple really has the market at home, doesn't it?

vksun

It's a rare flight in FC for me that the EmPower jack hasn't actually been covered up and disabled. UA is heading down the road of US when it comes to how they treat their FFs.

SFO_FT

I have a Thinkpad, which is a power hog, and used to experience the same conditions as you when using Empower on UA (and others). The solution was to modify my batt maintenance settings so that the PC doesn't try to automatically recharge. Works like a charm. Also, have found that on some planes (incl some UA planes) the thing will still recharge, but at a much slower pace.

vt2k

You might want to ask this in the Technology Forum instead of UA as it's not specificed to United. Other fliers, not just the FFers on UA might have better info for you.

Moderator2

Moving to the technology forum, per request of OP (via PM).