MacBook Pro 2011 Battery Re-Charging Issue

I have a Late 2011 17inch 2.5 ghz Quad core, 8gig, antiglare - I have done what everyone has said, run it down to 80% battery life and put a few VM's up or do netflix - ok did that - your right "not charging". Checked Status report - Battery remained where it was before.

Charge Information:

Charge Remaining (mAh): 8110

Fully Charged: No

Charging: Yes

Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 8379

@ anyrate point is, that my mAH never changed, it just stayed. No power was being drained form the battery. This was one parallels running - WOW - Netflix and a purchased movie from itunes, and to boot time machine was going too.

Started stoping things. First iTunes, then wow, then vm, then netflix - hit netflix started charging again.

So started to put another strain on it, I can have WOW up and going and Ichat and itunes - will charge but will say 20+ hours no biggie whatever. If time machine starts - charging stops - so i check the Charge information say

fully charged: no

Charging: no

Looked at my two mAH : and let everything sit like that for 4 hours. Came back opened up about this mac more info and checked the mAH again and it never changed.

Got with a few other friends who all own 2011 to 2010 macbooks, 2010's did not do it b/c the dedicated graphics had to be changed manually. So I restarted mine and went into energy mode and just took off the auto adjust grapics - problem did not happen again until time machine kicked in - had everything running like before then time machine kicked in and it stopped charging.

If you have a 100% charge though your computer is not going to your battery for more power or draining it at all - but it will stop charging your battery and give all 85 watts of power directly to your machine. "how did i come to this conclusion?"

I let Netlifx and WOW run for 10 hours charge was at 99% and Mah was at 8359 - I closed it and checked it a hundred times, but it was not affecting the battery being drained by the computer itself. It never did go below that.

Test it for yourselfs. If i'm not gaming i can get about 5 to 6 1/2 hours of battery life out of this machine - web browsing or listening to music. I can get 3 - 2 hour movies before battery needs to be charged - tested that, and probably get through another 1 1/2 movie before battery would be dead.

Apple makes a good product- not sure why it's doing this but it is. Oh and btw for those with late 2011 you can test it same way i did. I have Logic Studio and Final Cut - if i run those then i can get about 2 1/2 hours before battery is dead.

That is pretty good IMO.

Just my two cents

Because I'm still on this thread, I thought I'd give an update on my issue. After posting a few months ago, I realized that I used Windows more than OS X so I ultimately sold my MacBook Pro (early 2011) and bought a less expensive Windows-based laptop with better hardware specs while saving money from the sale of the MacBook Pro.

I'm not telling anyone here to sell their MacBook and get a Windows machine because if you love OS X or need software that only runs on it, you don't have a choice. For me, there was only one piece of software on OS X holding me back -- Final Cut Studio -- and because Apple botched the latest version, I no longer needed it. The other part of my decision was that I decided I need a laptop that charges EVERY time it's plugged in regardless of what I'm running. I decided that I need a laptop that NEVER drains the battery when it's plugged in. My new laptop does both.

Apple decided that keeping the power supply small in size was more important than providing enough power to allow the MacBook to power everything inside it. The MacBook's 85W power supply is sleek and tiny compared with the 120W mega-brick that powers my new laptop. The other reason -- if Apple built a larger power supply, there would be more heat to dissipate internally, requiring better airflow. That would mean Apple would have to hack their beautiful form factor to include vents. Apple chose aesthetics over function.

I have no doubt Apple is aware of this issue but it's only actually a problem for so few people that in practice it's effectively not a problem. Apple will eventually integrate better GPUs and CPUs that are more power efficient, eliminating this problem in the future. When that happens, I'll gladly consider a MacBook Pro as a future laptop. Until that day arrives, I have a new laptop that does everything I need and a ton of other things I want.

I have been having the problem with both (Early/Late) 2011 15" MacBook Pro models. First with the 2.3GHz early 2011 MBP, now with the late 2.5GHz model. It seems to kick into "(Not Charging)" every time I log onto Skype and use the HD iSight Camera. I took my 2.3GHz model into the Nearest Apple Store and the Geniuses replaced the Logic Board, MagSafe Adapter and Board, and Battery. But to no avail I was still having the problem, as a result I took the MBP in again and they told me there was nothing they could do to fix this problem and offered me a replacement MBP, that's how I ended up with the 2.5GHz model. The Apple Store staff where more than helpful and seemed very concerned about this issue, but unfortunately they were unable to come up with a soultion. To much power being used and not enough juice from the 85W MagSafe.

I just wish Apple would address this issue, as it seems to be a power consumption problem regarding the GPU. And for any highly intensive multi-tasking for that matter.

Apple! Please address this issue! Thanks in advance.

I just did a test on a:

early 2011 macbook pro 2.2 ghz

500 GB HD 7200 rpm

8 GB RAM

hires antiglare

External DVI-D monitor at 1920x1200

External usb keyboard and mouse.

External 3.5" 1TB hard drive.

Running prime95 at full load.

Running a VMWare VM (Win XP). Running Mcafee virusscan (full scan) - huge cpu hog

All CPU's running near full capacity (including threads).

Fan rotations at 6200 rpm

The macbook is keeping the CPU's relatively cool (low 90's C) [I had the thermal paste reapplied over the summer]

Battery went from 99% charge to 100% charge.

Light on magsafe is green.

I have a feeling this has something to do with the Lion update and firmware update.

I'm on SMC:

Boot ROM Version: MBP81.0047.B24

SMC Version (system): 1.69f3

Software Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 (11C74)

Interesting results, jerrythea, and a bit surprising. They suggest to me that your discrete GPU was very lightly loaded or not in use at all during testing. Most reports of charging stoppage or battery drainage with the AC adapter connected feature very heavy loading of the discrete GPU by graphics-intensive software, usually 3D gaming. I agree with TEVillegas that the GPU seems to be a major player in pushing power demand past the tipping point.

Boy, I'm not very happy with the newly-updated forums' frequent failure to display posts properly or at all. Sorry about the double post.

Yes, this was a purely CPU intensive tests. I do have automatic graphics switching turned off.

Most of my work activities involve CPU-load using multiple VM's. I don't watch too many videos online for a extended period of time. When I feel adventurous, I will try my CPU test combined with playing a HD video.

When you do, please let us know the results.

Though I was already pretty convinced that the discrete GPU played a big part in the problem this thread discusses, I would never have guessed that one could fully load four CPU cores without ending charging, so long as the discrete GPU wasn't active. That says a lot about the enormity of the GPU's power demands.

Ok. I have been running the same test for 10 minutes while also streaming a Netflix movie. I don't think it's HD.

CPU's near 100%

CPU Temps still around 90C

GPU Temp diode around 70C

Battery still at 100%, no degradation.

Ok. I just tried an HD movie on HBOGO, no battery degradation.

Would be helpful to know which version OS X and SMC the users above are seeing this problem on.

This has been running for 15 minutes now, no issues.

System is still responsive and I can continue to work.

Very nice systems!

I find that Firefox and flash seem to be the biggest cause. Netflix on Safari runs fine. Netflix on firefox causes problems. Any flash content on Firefox tends to push CPU into the uncharging state.

Jerrythea: The discrete GPU was in use during your latest test?

I guess if you added a 3d game like starcraft you'd run into issues.

It's amazing that these systems keep running at all given the loads they are put under.

ok. trying with netflix on Firefox now.

CPU's got a bit hotter. Around 89-97C.

GPU around 71C

Battery still at 100%

I did get the thermal paste reapplied to my cpu last July. Could be related to temperature control and the fans?

My fans are at full 6200 RPM.

Prior to the thermal paste, my CPU's would get to 99C easily just doing basic tasks.

What kind of macbook pro do you have?

13", 15" or 17"

I added Facetime to the mix, no issues.

Now, the reason I stumbled across this forum was that earlier today, not doing anything particularly cumbersome, my battery change got down to 97% and the magsafe light went orange.

So, perhaps there are times when the battery is used to supplement power.

BTW, flash causes problems for lots of browsers and computers. It's awful software that is pure spaghetti code. HTML5 is the solution.