Battery Capacity decreasing rapidly

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Level 1

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Battery Capacity decreasing rapidly

I have a new 11" Air, and i have noticed something very concerning.
The capacity of the battery (the maximum amount of charge it can hold) is dropping rapidly.
In the 3 days I have had it, it has already dropped to 97%.
It charges fine and lasts as long as it should, but the max capacity it can charge to is dropping so rapidly that it'll be down to zero in 3 months!

I am using System Profiler/Power to interrogate the battery, and if I compare it to my MacBook Pro 13, the difference is stark.

The MBP13 after 7 months of use and some 50 charges is still showing around 100.2% capacity - in fact, it has hardly budged at all since it was new.
The Air was at about 99.5% when I first powered it on, but it is dropping very fast.

Any ideas?

Shame, otherwise i love it!!!

Message was edited by: Imran999

Message was edited by: Imran999

MacbookPro, Macbook Air 11", iOS 4, iPhone(s) 4G, 3GS, 3G

Posted on Oct 31, 2010 9:40 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 22, 2017 7:44 AM in response to Katalinush

There are a lot of factors on why the battery capacity can drop:

Too high (> 35°C) or too low (< 10°C) operating temperature.
Drained down to 0% charge too many times.
Not storing it half-charged for a long-term (more than a week).

I'd been in the same situation and have written a utility app that pops up an alert on some of these conditions so we can avoid it. I thought it maybe useful to share it here: link to github.

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Answer 2

(n_n)

Level 2

355 points

Nov 1, 2010 12:07 AM in response to Imran999

Hi,

Try this http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490

It may help.

Cheers.

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Answer 3

Imran999 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 2, 2010 7:50 AM in response to (n_n)

Hi n_n,

Thanks for your recommendation, I did this yesterday, and yes the maximum capacity has increased and is now about 99% - still not 100% (or beyond) as I would like to see, but an improvement on the 97% it had fallen to!

The real test is to see now whether it drops as rapidly as it was dropping before. Hopefully not!

Thanks for your help, really appreciate it.

I have to say, the 11" Air is an amazing computer, i just love it!

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Answer 4

(n_n)

Level 2

355 points

Nov 2, 2010 6:29 PM in response to Imran999

Hi,

:))))

Fyi, now my MBA battery cycles are 124 and health is 90% (4602mAh) and sometime it may drop until 83% and bounce back to 90%. So I guess you shouldn't worry too much.

Enjoy using the prettiest laptop on earth!

Cheers.

Message was edited by: (n_n)

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Answer 5

Imran999 Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 4, 2010 9:09 AM in response to (n_n)

Hi,

The battery conditioning hasn't really helped unfortunately.
n_n if i could have 4602mAh i would be happy!
I am at 5 cycles now, and only at 4587mAh, and most worryingly, dropping daily.

124 cycles, wow!
Looks like i'll be down to zero by 124 cycles!

Any other suggestions?

thanks

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Answer 6

(n_n)

Level 2

355 points

Nov 4, 2010 9:52 PM in response to Imran999

Hi,

hmm.. if you dont mind, I suggest you to carry your power adapter with you and plug it in to any power source when you start booting your MBA to prevent your MBA from using the power form the battery. This will greatly reduce the cycle count. I think the cycle count is more important than the health because Apple wrote a software to monitor the health based on the cycle count. Meaning, the health of your battery may in fact good, but the cycle count is, say above 300 and thus software ask the owner to change the battery.

If you think that this way may work for you, remember to calibrate your battery every 3 months.

Hope it helps.

Cheers.

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Answer 7

Dec 27, 2010 5:17 AM in response to Imran999

I'm experiencing the same issue with my 11inch mba. It's merely at 38th cycle and the battery has dropped to whopping 91% of the original capacity. Every now and then it seems to drop big amount and at this rate it won't hold 80% during its first 1000cycles as advertised. Should I just take it to the apple store now?

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Answer 8

drsailer

Level 4

1,537 points

Dec 27, 2010 6:17 AM in response to Euisung Lee

More than likely they won't do anything as it's not out of spec yet. And, the new Airs have 80%/750 cycles; the 1000 cycles is for the MacBook and MacBook Pro models.

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Answer 9

Dec 28, 2010 5:09 PM in response to drsailer

drsailer wrote:
More than likely they won't do anything as it's not out of spec yet. And, the new Airs have 80%/750 cycles; the 1000 cycles is for the MacBook and MacBook Pro models.

I think so too. I didn't know that air battery has 80%/750 cycles ratio, but at this rate it won't be long before it hits below 80% anyway. I don't think it can even be up to the old standard of 80%/300 cycles. Thanks for the info.

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Answer 10

LHSLHS

Level 1

0 points

Dec 30, 2010 2:16 AM in response to (n_n)

How can I check on the battery cycles for my MBA like what you have stated on Nov 2nd?
thanks 🙂

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Answer 11

(n_n)

Level 2

355 points

Dec 30, 2010 3:27 AM in response to LHSLHS

Hi,

System profiler->power.

Or else you can download iStat Nano http://www.islayer.com/apps/istatnano/

Cheers. 😉

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Answer 12

Apr 7, 2014 11:20 PM in response to (n_n)

I dont think thats very good. Because all these new MBA's should have 80% charge capacity for 1000 cycles according to them or atleast 700-800 would do but at this rate it is pathethic. Even im facing the same issue and looking for help.

Maybe try resetting the SMC should help a bit rather than caliberation because thats not recommended.

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Answer 13

Apr 11, 2014 9:25 AM in response to Nishdesai95

Unfortunatelly the same problem i have it also. My MBA is 2 months old and only 16 loadcycles, but the design battery capacity already dropped to 95%. I doubt this is the way it should be. Most of people in the forum are talking about Mavericks bugs. I can't say is that cause i upgrated to Maveriscks from the first time i start the MBA. We are waiting for an Apple answer about this issues.

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