TheRosta
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Q: MacBook Pro 2011 Battery Re-Charging Issue

Hey everyone, I discovered a problem on my 2011 MBP 17" which I was told that "it's perfectly normal' and I want to see if you guys can reproduce it on your new 2011 models as well (please indicate your screen size).

In summary, I noticed that depending on CPU usage, the battery reacharge time will greatly fluctuate to the point where the laptop just stops charging the battery. I noticed the giant fluctuations in time when I booted one of my VMs which used up like 15-20% overall cpu usage. I was at 5% battery life and the computer was plugged in recharging and the battery indicator all of the sudden went from somewhere around 2.5 hours recharge time to 10 hours to 15 then 20 hours. Then at some point the magsafe light went green and the battery indicator showed 'Not Charging'.

I thought that I may have a bad MagSafe so I tried the one from my 2009 MBP (both are the 85W version) and bam same problem. I figured that this may be due to a design flaw where the power unit cannot supply enough tower to feed a CPU that's being somewhat taxed (i'm talking about 25-50% usuage) and recharge a battery.

Here is a simple way to try to reproduce the problem:

1. Let you battery drain to about 80% or less.

2. Close all open programs.

3. Change your battery indicator icon in the menu bar to display the info as 'Time'.

4. Plug in your MagSafe and let the recharge time in the battery indicator calculate and stabilize (give it about 2 mins to get a stable time value).

5. Open up safari and go to Hulu and play any TV show to drive up your cpu usage.

6. Then open Terminal and type the command 'yes' (without the quotes) and hit enter. The 'yes' command basically causes an infinite loop of the letter 'y' to be display in the terminal window which also taxes your CPU in addition to the video playing in Hulu.

7. Now watch the battery indicator's recharge time value and you should notice that it'll start going up significantly in time and at some point it'll say 'Recalculating' and eventually it'll give up and say 'Not Charging'. I have a 2009 MBP 17" C2D 2.66GHz, and although the recharge time goes up by 20-30% in the exact same test, it at least still charges the battery.

I was able to reproduce this at the apple store on a 17" 2011 model as well but I'm curious if this also happens on the 15 and 13 inch models. I was told by the engineering team on the phone that this is 'perfectly normal'. I guess it falls in the category of malfunctions as designed...

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2011 MBP 17" anti-glare, Mac OS X (10.6.6)

Posted on Mar 18, 2011 4:34 PM

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Q: MacBook Pro 2011 Battery Re-Charging Issue

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  • by allawayr,

    allawayr allawayr May 31, 2011 12:26 PM in response to TheRosta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2011 12:26 PM in response to TheRosta

    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.

  • by eww,

    eww eww May 31, 2011 1:52 PM in response to allawayr
    Level 9 (52,994 points)
    May 31, 2011 1:52 PM in response to allawayr

    allawayr: If you're not satisfied, you have 14 days to return your computer.

  • by allawayr,

    allawayr allawayr May 31, 2011 4:15 PM in response to eww
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2011 4:15 PM in response to eww

    Hey eww -

     

    Thanks for letting me know. I must admit, other than this issue I am really enjoying my macbook pro. I'm going to run some performance tests (i.e. run some GPU and CPU intensive processes) these next couple of days and make a final decision...if the computer lasts long enough while plugged in, I'll be satisfied.

     

    That being said, it's good to know I can back out if need be.

     

    Thanks!

  • by eww,

    eww eww May 31, 2011 4:25 PM in response to allawayr
    Level 9 (52,994 points)
    May 31, 2011 4:25 PM in response to allawayr

    Actually I should have qualified my statement. If you bought it directly from Apple (through an Apple Store or Apple Online Store) and it wasn't custom-configured, you have 14 days to return it. If you bought it through a reseller, the reseller's own policies will control, and they may be different from Apple's.

  • by clovist,

    clovist clovist May 31, 2011 7:29 PM in response to eww
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Mac OS X
    May 31, 2011 7:29 PM in response to eww

    Mbp 2011 15'' hires screen. I have the same problem running win7 (bootcamp) + nfs shift 2 or crysis 2. The magsafe led turns orange indicating its charging when i'm using plugged on the power.

    I'm a bit disapointed. My mbp 2007 didn't act like that.

    My disapointment raises with the thunderbolt issues with external displays. I got no ext display to work :(

  • by allawayr,

    allawayr allawayr May 31, 2011 9:38 PM in response to eww
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 31, 2011 9:38 PM in response to eww

    Eww-

     

    Mine is a custom config (screen, HD, and RAM - tho I should have just done the RAM myself...), but on the bright side I did some fairly gaming today (no bootcamp, though) and it did charge - much more slowly, of course - but that is OK with me, as long as there is no net loss of charge when it is plugged in.

     

    I would love to see a 120W charger though - this one is burning up!

  • by eww,

    eww eww Jun 1, 2011 4:59 AM in response to allawayr
    Level 9 (52,994 points)
    Jun 1, 2011 4:59 AM in response to allawayr

    Well, as I wrote somewhere — I'm not going to go look for it it now — my completely unconfirmed suspicion is that Apple hasn't offered a higher-output adapter because the MBP would be extremely hard pressed to disperse the additional heat that would be generated by pumping more watts through it. If you note the differences in temperature readings (and tangible temps on some of the outer surfaces of the case where there are no sensors, notably near the MagSafe connector) between when the battery is charging and when it's fully charged, and assume that that much additional heat would be produced if the battery were able to be charged even with the machine running flat out, you'll have a pretty good handle on the heat-dissipation problem.

  • by 256fx,

    256fx 256fx Jun 1, 2011 3:28 PM in response to eww
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 1, 2011 3:28 PM in response to eww

    I think its more of a compatability issue with the old chargers, etc.

     

    Apple are a pretty clever bunch, If they wanted to pump more power though it then thats what they would do.

     

    Maybe its time to email Steve ;-)

  • by eww,

    eww eww Jun 1, 2011 4:07 PM in response to 256fx
    Level 9 (52,994 points)
    Jun 1, 2011 4:07 PM in response to 256fx

    It's plain that if Apple were content to build 12-pound, 2-inch-thick "portables" (ha ha - right) like Alienware does, they'd have no trouble blasting away more heat with more and bigger fans. But the very high temperatures at which the 2011 MBPs are reported to be running, compared even with last year's i5 and i7 MBPs, make it pretty clear that Apple is approaching the limits of effective heat dispersion within the confines of the slim unibody design. It may take a new case design to enable the dispersal of another 30-50 watts' worth of heat.

     

    And there's no compatibility issue with the old 85W chargers. Properly handled and in good shape, they all work just fine with every MBP ever made. (All MBPs came with 85W adapters until June 2009, when the 13" and bottom-end 15" with one GPU were released with 60W adapters.) It's the new ones with the right-angled MagSafe connectors that have problems with some of the older machines.

  • by JaDub,

    JaDub JaDub Jun 23, 2011 9:46 AM in response to TheRosta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jun 23, 2011 9:46 AM in response to TheRosta

    Another one here...

     

    2.2GHz 17

  • by banjoboy,

    banjoboy banjoboy Jun 29, 2011 10:17 AM in response to TheRosta
    Level 1 (10 points)
    Jun 29, 2011 10:17 AM in response to TheRosta

    I am on battery #2 and this 6mo battery is having issues now. Battery capacity is half. Apple, this is a HUGE annoyance! Fix this!

    MBP_Bttry_110629.png

  • by Daniel Ooi,

    Daniel Ooi Daniel Ooi Jul 17, 2011 3:36 AM in response to TheRosta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 17, 2011 3:36 AM in response to TheRosta

    I am also experincing this same problem when using my 2.2 Ghz i7 MacBook pro and Ableton Live. However, the battery drains down to the point that the core audio driver bugs out and glitches out the audio playback. Therfore I have to wait till my battery recharges above 5% to be able to continue working within the ableton project. I hope this is resovled cos I can't work under these condition and didn't spend my money on a product that can't perform cpu intense functions!!!! 

  • by arpst0rm,

    arpst0rm arpst0rm Jul 28, 2011 3:47 PM in response to Daniel Ooi
    Level 1 (15 points)
    Jul 28, 2011 3:47 PM in response to Daniel Ooi

    So I just returned a brand new macbook pro 17in for this reason.  The new one has arrived with the same problem.  I was glad to find this thread so I knew I was not going crazy.  The techs at the Genius bar have no idea bout this problem.  That or they just did not tell me.  Even with out high GPU load apps running I have this problem.  With a lowish batter running an external monitor, firefox, and apple mail I have 20 hours to charge, and sometimes not charging.  That is REDICULIOUS!

  • by joel dickson,

    joel dickson joel dickson Aug 3, 2011 3:35 PM in response to TheRosta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 3, 2011 3:35 PM in response to TheRosta

    same issue - macbook pro battery depletes even when connected to ac under any cpu load approaching 30-40% in cubase. this means i have to limit work sessions to periods of 4 or 5 hours to be safe and avoid the computer shutting down all together.  i have been told by apple this is 'expected behaviour' but i find this pretty ridiculous given the machine has apparently been designed with 'pro' use in mind. seems like nothing less than a serious design flaw (i.e. inadequate psu) to me!

  • by craigjacko,

    craigjacko craigjacko Aug 4, 2011 11:57 AM in response to TheRosta
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 4, 2011 11:57 AM in response to TheRosta

    +1 for me. Knock knock Apple? My $2500 macbook pro is currently claiming 20:00 to charge.

     

    2.3 i7, 8 GB 1333, 120 Vertex 3 SSD, 750 GB stock HDD in optibay.

     

    This issue has been on and off since I got the computer ~2 months ago, but in the past couple of days I haven't been able to get a full charge. Sorry I can't sit at my, and I would like to reiterate out of humility, $2500 notebook computer, and expect a full charge in less than 10 hours under a heavy(ish?) load.

     

    Safari, Adium, iTunes, Mail, XLD, and Parallels running Windows 7 with SQL Server Management Studio and Visual Studio. As I write this I have seen my times fluctuate from 11:00 - 20:00.

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