15" MacBook Pro i7 battery life mediocre

Is English not your native language? I don't believe any native English speaker would willfully misinterpret "up to 8-9 hours" to mean "between 8 and 9 hours" as you insist on doing. There is no stated minimum — only a stated maximum of 8-9 hours. To suggest otherwise is to make it clear that you simply can't read English.

So let me ask this question. If It can be up to 8-9 hours, how come after charging it to 100% and I pull the power cord, it says for time remaining on battery is never more than 6 hours?

MacBook Pro is almost 1 week old....

What do you have set as "Log-in" items in your accounts System preferences panel, Paul? Any third party menu-bar "add ons" or the like installed?

The most common causes of this problem appear to be third party apps and background processes that invoke the discrete GPU, and therefore diminish battery life.

Tweetie, Path Finder, Skype, 1Password, Clips, HyperSpaces, and NetNewsWire are a few that are known to do so and which are commonly set to run immediately on start-up. No doubt there are others. There is a suggestion that anything that has core animation layers set on its windows views will do so (see http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11420927#11420927).

Cheers

Rod

I have the following:
growlmenu
ituneshelper
microsoft au daemon
istat menus helper

Mmm, I would doubt that the first three of those would be the problem, but I'd try removing iStat Menus helper, restarting , and seeing if this makes any difference.

Before doing this it might be worth checking which GPU is actually running by heading to Apple Menu> About this Mac > More info...>Hardware >Graphics/Displays to see if the NVidia GPU is, in fact, running straight after you boot up, though. (It should list both the Nvidia GPU and Intel integrated graphics - the one which is running is the one which indicates it has a display connected)

While you are there in the hardware section of System Profiler, take a look at the "power' section, too, to check that the battery health information and full charge capacity are OK.

You should also check, using Activity Monitor, for any other processes that may be chewing up CPU cycles and therefore battery charge life. (see http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473 ) Any process using more than just a few percent of the CPU after you have booted up but before you have deliberately opened any applications (apart from Activity monitor), should be regarded as suspicious.

Cheers

Rod

It's definitely the graphics chip - mine kicks in as soon as I fire up almost any application. I'd rather have seamless (i.e. no logout) manual switching, rather than automatic that kicks in far too often.

Yes, in many cases it is, no doubt, the graphics chip switching problem, but in others reduced battery life will involve processor hogs, or even attached bus powered peripherals and the like, just as they have always done.

Unfortunately, as with so many things to do with computers, things that look very similar in outcome can have a variety of different causes.

Is your NVidia kicking in immediately after start-up, or only when you run specific applications?

Cheers

Rod

Hey Rod.
after start up, activity monitor looks ok except for the kernel_task which I try to kill. (just kidding).
battery display showed just over 6 hrs remaining.

here is a snapshot of the battery....
Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: W0014P7M3BX0A
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: bq20z451
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0201
Hardware Revision: 000a
Cell Revision: 0157
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 6752
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 6970
Health Information:
Cycle count: 3
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -998
Voltage (mV): 12264

and neither display shows a display connected....

Intel HD Graphics:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 288 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0046
Revision ID: 0x0012
gMux Version: 1.9.21
Displays:
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 512 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0a29
Revision ID: 0x00a2
ROM Revision: 3532
gMux Version: 1.9.21
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes
Display Connector:
Status: No Display Connected

I went from a late 08 duo core 2.53 with replaceable battery which regularly allowed 2.5 hours per battery (I carried two). Enamored of my associates 09 machines (all getting 4+ hours), I made the jump last week when the i7 processors came out.
I have calibrated the battery twice and do what I do every day in terms of running apps. I have been lucky to get 1.5 hours out of this battery.
Something is definitely wrong with the new machines - hardware or software, the problem needs to be fixed.
I don't have the time to run snapshots of my terminal, etc, and appreciate those that are doing so.
Apple, please make this the machine we expected.

this describes my computer exactly i am wondering if your problems subsided once they changed out your battery or if at least they solved your issues. I am also getting about 3 and 1/2 hours out of my MBP with light use, screen brightness at about 25% no keyboard light and only running simple tasks. I tested it running a hulu vid and the underside became alarmingly hot i am thinking this is definitely a battery issue, as my expected times are also wonky to the point of seeming like a hardware/software malfunctions.

I ended up removing all the entries from my startup and it kicked down to the integrated card...

Intel HD Graphics:

Chipset Model: Intel HD Graphics
Type: GPU
Bus: Built-In
VRAM (Total): 288 MB
Vendor: Intel (0x8086)
Device ID: 0x0046
Revision ID: 0x0012
gMux Version: 1.9.21
Displays:
Color LCD:
Resolution: 1680 x 1050
Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Built-In: Yes

and then the remaining time on the battery went up to 9 hrs.

Sorry paul, I should have been clearer with my instructions. The fact that the Nvidia is shown as "on line", and "Built in" says "yes" in your first data post indicates that the NVidia is the card in use at that time.

Cheers

Rod

paulchat55 wrote:
I ended up removing all the entries from my startup and it kicked down to the integrated card...

...

and then the remaining time on the battery went up to 9 hrs.

THat's very interesting, Paul.

I'm sure you are completely fed up with messing with this stuff, but the interests of fellow Mac users and plain curiosity compel me to ask whether you have thought of adding them back one at a time to see which of them it was (or they were) causing the graphics switch. My bet is still on iStat menus, but I'm far from certain. 😉

Cheers

Rod

Rod or others, I have been following the thread for a couple of days and it is mostly illuminating. I took delivery of my i7 on Thursday and have been busy setting it up. Battery life is nothing special, but I am using it heavily: how would I know if the "super graphics" are running? I cannot find this in the mini-handbook and saw nothing in this thread (or is it so obvious when it happens?).