Only holding a 2 hour Charge

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Level 1

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Only holding a 2 hour Charge

I've had my macbook for about 6 maybe 7 months. At first it held about a 5 to 5.5 hour charge, then one day it dropped down to 2 hours and hasn't been able to hold a longer charge since, that was a month ago. I recently took the time to install updates, when I restarted my computer the battery life had jumped from two hours all the way to 6 which was exciting! But the next time I charged it it was back to only holding a 2 hour charge. I restarted my computer again and again the battery life jumped back to 6 hours. I don't have the time to restart my computer every time I charge it.

I checked my preferences and as far as I can tell I'm doing everything possible on the energy saving front. I also make an effort to not leave my computer plugged into the charger when its not charging so the battery life doesn't diminish anymore. I'm at college and don't have access to an apple store, is there anything I can do to boost my battery power without exchanging my battery?

Posted on Mar 2, 2010 4:47 PM

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Answer 1

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Mar 3, 2010 7:37 PM in response to mescapin

I'm presuming that your MBP is a 13" model from the "device name" info in the battery specs, mescapin.

You have a done a LOT of cycles on that battery for one that is only 6 or 7 months old!

Its actual maximum capacity, at 95% of the original, is holding up quite well given the number of cycles you have gone through - far more than most people with computers this age.

My suspicion is that your problem actually relates to a background process "hogging" the CPU. see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473 for information about how to check for this.

But you might want to rethink your battery strategy to some extent. These batteries need regular 'work" to keep them at their best, so it is not a good idea to run them on battery all the time, but at the same time it is not a good idea to run them right through from "fully charged" to "low" every day. At the same age my own MBP 13 has racked up 95 cycles (through an hour or so's regular battery use each day) and still sits at 99% of original capacity .

Try a bit more time on the charger (even when the battery is full) and a bit less on battery power, without going to the opposite extreme of leaving it on the charger all thetime, of course.

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 2

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Mar 4, 2010 10:15 AM in response to mescapin

One more thing to consider is your computer habits. If you are doing something processor intensive such as gaming and have lots of applications open, your battery won't last very long. If you're just doing something non intensive like preparing documents with as few applications open as possible, it will last longer. Also check for a process run amok as Rod suggests.

Here are also some tips on batteries:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1764220

Good luck!

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Answer 3

S.U.

Level 6

9,601 points

Mar 3, 2010 7:15 PM in response to mescapin

Welcome to Apple Discussions!

What does it say about your battery in the System Profiler? >About this Mac>More Info>Power>Battery Information. What is the condition and cycle count?

A sudden drop in performance may be an indication of a bad cell or something like that. If the condition says "Check Battery", then the battery is on the fritz and will need to be replaced.

Good luck!

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Answer 4

mescapin Author

Level 1

0 points

Mar 3, 2010 7:23 PM in response to S.U.

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: DP-bq20z451-3abf-3cd7
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0003
Hardware Revision: 0002
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 4051
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5170
Health Information:
Cycle count: 245
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -1122
Voltage (mV): 11781

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Answer 5

Xephelos

Level 1

0 points

Mar 5, 2010 2:43 PM in response to mescapin

I agree with Rod.

I have noticed that when running lots of programs on my MacBook (take note, this is not the Pro, but I believe this applies anyways), my battery life drops from about 2:20 to around 1:10. That's around a 50% decrease in Battery life.

So you should make sure that the programs you're running aren't taking up the processor.

On another note... 245 cycles in 6-7 months?! Wow! I'm at 360 right now but I've had this MacBook for 3+ years!

My MacBook Pro is like only at less than 10! And it's been 2 months already!

Xeph

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