MacBook Pro 2011 Battery Re-Charging Issue

I'm on the same boat guys!

Tha same happend's to my MBP when I work with Final Cut Pro.

MBP 2011 I7 2.3GHz/8gb/17''/500gb 7200RPM

Does anyone with SSD drive noticed this issue?

I have the same problem. Whenever I'm doing anything heavy (WoW e.g.) the computer doesn't charge...

Using a 2011 15'' MBP i7 2.2GHz/4GB/750GB.

I recently purchased a 2011 MBP 15" i7 with 8GB RAM specifically for Final Cut Pro and to Boot Camp Windows 7. My MBP didn't charge when I plugged it in during a Log & Transfer of 13GB of Canon 5DMkII footage using the Canon E1 Plugin. I thought something was wrong with the power outlet in the wall until I noticed the amber charge light finally turn on at the end of the transfer (which also transcoded the original footage into ProRes LT).

Then I found this thread.

So I decided to try a test. With the charge light amber at about 46% charge on the battery, I fired up the game, Portal 2, and loaded "The Surprise" chapter. Nearly right away, the charge light turned green. I played for about 15 seconds and then quit to the main menu of the game. Charge light immediately turned amber again.

So, I can confirm similar behavior on what *was* my favorite laptop of all time.

What has me concerned isn't the battery not charging under high system load, I can understand diverting all power to the task at hand; rather, it's the possibility that under high load that both the power from wall AC and the laptop's battery will be used together. My takeaway is that if I want to use my Macbook Pro for Pro use, I can only do so in some circumstances while I also have battery power. Transcoding a meager 13GB of footage shouldn't cause this to happen. Worse still, I saw my battery deplete during the transcode session. For road warriors, the last bastion of safety with a laptop is the coveted AC outlet; as long as the laptop gets plugged in, you're good. With a MacBook Pro, there is no such safety.

Having never had an i7 laptop before, I have to wonder whether or not PC laptops exhibit similar issues. Giving Apple the benefit of the doubt, this could simply be the way it is for high powered CPUs in laptops.

Well, that's my experience so far. Hopefully, someone can shed some light on this issue.

Another +1 here.

I had planned on punishing my 17" MacBookPro8,3 with some cpu intensive tasks over its life. I really hope this doesn't hold it back or ruin my battery.

I upgraded to the 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 processor.

Same problem here. I thought I was going crazy because my battery on my old Mac gave me better performance.

Same problem here. I have a 2011 15" MacBook Pro with a 2.3Ghz Core i7, 8GB RAM, High-res glossy, and the 512GB SSD and when I am working in programs that use the graphics card heavily my computer either stops charging or even starts draining. I was working in Motion last night and when I was rendering out video my battery drained about 5-6% in 15 minutes.

Hopefully this issue will be addressed.

In response to another thread (https://discussions.apple.com/thread/2802782?answerId=15162995022#15162995022) that dismisses the behavior, I wrote the following:

Respectfully, I disagree with your claim that nothing is wrong.

While I understand the behavior is by design, most users - myself included, believe that when the laptop is plugged in, it's charging and can operate indefinitely as long as it's plugged in. Instead, a Macbook will, in certain circumstances, shut down completely if under heavy load for too long. Heavy load isn't just rendering complex 3D designs or transcoding HD video - things many users will never do - but it does include activities as seemingly trivial as playing videogames or watching Netflix where playing for too long when the battery is significantly less than full exposes the user to a very possible shut down.

Just this evening, my MacBook Pro (2011) nearly died while transcoding video in Final Cut Pro - while it was plugged in. This is a real problem for a pro user on the road. Simply being plugged in is not enough when historically it has been.

Again, I understand that the MacBooks exhibit this behavior by design, but it is a design that is counter to most people's experience of electronics.

Rather than have this simply be "the way it's designed," how about Apple consider providing an option that reduces the maximum system load to a lower threshold that will allow for effectively indefinite runtimes (keeping in mind engineering concerns like heat dissipation)? I'd be willing to deal with lower clock speeds (and the resulting lengthier processing times) in certain scenarios of my choosing if it means my project won't be exposed to an unwanted shut down like it nearly did tonight. This is feedback I intend to submit to Apple after tonight's episode.

While I'm no longer concerned that something's wrong with my MacBook Pro, I don't believe the current "normal" behavior is good enough for a $2,000+ laptop for professionals.

I went ahead and purchased the AppleCare warranty because I intend to use my laptop like a pro needs to be able to do. I expect somewhere down the road that the battery is going to fail earlier than expected because of the addtional cycles placed on the battery during high loads.

ShawnLive wrote, in part:

Rather than have this simply be "the way it's designed," how about Apple consider providing an option that reduces the maximum system load to a lower threshold that will allow for effectively indefinite runtimes (keeping in mind engineering concerns like heat dissipation)? I'd be willing to deal with lower clock speeds (and the resulting lengthier processing times) in certain scenarios of my choosing if it means my project won't be exposed to an unwanted shut down like it nearly did tonight.

This option is available to users of 15" and 17" MBPs who have installed Cody Krieger's excellent gfxCardStatus utility:

http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus/

It enables manual switching from the power-gobbling discrete GPU in those machines (which is automatically activated by graphics-intensive applications and processes) to the integrated GPU, which draws far less power, when the user is content to have his or her most demanding work done more slowly.

Of course this isn't an option for 13" MBP users, with only an integrated GPU and no way to lower its power demands. A 13" MBP is the wrong tool for the most graphically demanding uses. As many posters have commented here in the past, it doesn't deserve its "Pro" label. It's not in the same league at all as its larger, more expensive siblings.

That's an interesting script! I'll have to try that out.

The downside side is that it looks like an all or nothing proposition - run integrated or discrete GPUs. I'd like to be able to simply throttle back the discrete GPU to the point the laptop can still charge or at least not discharge while under load to still get some discrete advantage. Going integrated is a bigger step down in performance than I'd like, but I'm curious how big the performance actually would be. I think I'll test it this coming week.

Thanks for the tip!

Maybe if they kept the existing behaviour and automatically scaled it down when the battery was exhausted.

I noticed that the voltage of the battery for the 2011 17" MBP is much higher then that voltage of the first 2009 17" unibody MBP, same watt/hours though (I thought this was interesting)

Slightly different but in a similar vaine.....

Is it normal after a first charge to get a battery time fluctuate so much from 9 hours to 6 hours to 7 hours to 5 hours during 99% to 91% within half hour or so? First charge so no idea what to expect. When does a warning come up to tell you when to plug charger in during the cycle, or doesn't it?

I also have a 2011 MBP 15" 2.2GHz, 8 GB ram, hi res screen and am noticing the same thing. Without this issue, this would easily be my favorite laptop of all time - but as someone who is frequently producing audio, editing HD video, and gaming, it is extremely frustrating to know that when plugged in my computer can still die. I just got my computer today and have ALREADY discovered this issue; what will the next 2 years look like. Very frustrating, especially having spent nearly $2500 bucks on this computer.