2011 Macbook Pro battery drainage

Whatever other program you're' running might take a lot of power and make the fun go crazy. Your firefox window also might have a lot of graphic on it this may drain the power, like unnecessary flash player advertisements. I will recommend you block your flash player and see if the problem will go away.

Hey people ! i just got my new MBP 15" 2011 about a week ago and im getting the same kind of problem faced by many of the people here in this thread, the lifespan of a fully charged battery is not as expected as that advertised (7 hours). It ws really frustrating to see the percentage of the battery keeping falling every 3mins or so, so i just decided to turn off the percentage and i investigate what was the problem. It said in the guide book that comes with the MPB that the first step u should do with ur new mac is to charge the battery, then connect internet and bla bla bla ... i didn't do that, i just simply turned it on and used it until the battery was out and i fully charged it again. So i thought, maybe this might be the problem? Not charging it fully before use ? idk, what did u guys do with ur MPB when u first got it ?

I only like 4hours or so jsut by browsing internet alone and listening to music on youtube. I mean that like the most basic thing u can do to a laptop right ? using the internet and whatever, i didn't even use any high performance programs or anything yet apple claimed that the battery can go up to 7 hours. They were probably playing chess or something. I know like u guys said above that it depends how u use it but from 7h to 4h ... that a pretty big drop and it is really disappointing.

I used to be a PC user but i heard mac runs really fast and has really good battery life and all so that's why i changed to mac. It is really fast but the battery ... not so good.

Quoting from this website http://forums.macrumors.com/showpost.php?p=9875442&postcount=23

"If you have a battery that has failed to meet its expected lifespan, assuming your battery is properly calibrated (so the readings are as accurate as possible), you may have a defective battery. If so, contact AppleCare to see if they will replace it." I have applecare plan, and maybe if this continues, i'll probably have to go check with them so if u have it as well i suggest u check it with apple.

Also go to  > About This Mac > More Info... > Hardware > Power > Charge Information

if u're using a 15" then check the Fully Charge Capacity. Mine is 7117 (mAh). Post urs so we can compare.

Reply soon. Thx

i am using gfxcardstatus now and it help me a lot with switching integrated video card. but skype and flash videos uissues still draining fast & heating the laptop.

battery calibration is nice to do if you have time, i did once and it seem to make an improvement for few days.

supersarper wrote:

i am using gfxcardstatus now and it help me a lot with switching integrated video card. but skype and flash videos uissues still draining fast & heating the laptop.

battery calibration is nice to do if you have time, i did once and it seem to make an improvement for few days.

Flash can be a pain. Ya know, adobe has a web site to clean up flash.

http://www.macromedia.com/support/documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_man ager06.html

I use it every so often. I find my macbook is better after.

Battery Calibration I know from Apples point of view is no less than once a month (min).

I recently purchased my first MBP, i got the stock 2.2Ghz 15" Model.

I also noticed that the battery life wasn't anything like what i expected it to be; sub 2hrs just web surfing and finding my way around the OS.

After reading this thread, i downloaded and installed gfxcardstatus; for the first little while i just watched the little indicator so i could get an idea of which Apps swtched the discrete graphics on.

Firefox is a battery killer. It kicks the discrete graphics on before the window even pops up, and keeps the card turned on even when the Firefox windows have been closed and the App status bar is the only thing left.

Whereas Safari, seems to be optimised for integrated graphics, i am yet to see it kick the discrete card on at all.

So, i used gfxcardstatus to force the MBP to stay on integrated graphics and low and behold, i automatically got up over the 4 hour mark. Even Firefox is quite capable of running only on the integrated, so im not quite sure why it kicks the dedicated on by default. I cannot find any settings within firefox to fiddle with this.

Yesterday, i also upgraded to the new Lion OS as soon as it became available. This combined with gfxcardstatus has now increased my battery life up over the 6 hour mark for web browsing using the WIFI, including full shutdowns and restarts. That also includes Video Streaming in Safari.

So, my two cents is download and install both the new Lion OS and Gfxcardstatus.

They certainly seem to have helped me out a lot.

Love my new MBP.

Can u explain me more about the difference between intergrated only and discrete only? I have those options on my gfxcardstatus plus Dynamic Switching. What is that ? Which one should i choose when i play video games on my mac?

Thanks

@Son.dang

Just Quickly to try and clarify for you:

Integrated Graphics - HD3000 is graphics that are built right into the i5 and i7 series CPUs, uses system RAM for Memory

Discrete Graphics - AMD 6490M/6750M (2011 model) is the dedicated Graphics card built into the MBP, has its own RAM and takes away graphics processing from the CPU and System RAM

Integrated Only - Forces the MBP to only use the HD3000 Integrated Graphics; it cannot trip the Discrete on

Discrete Only - Forces the AMD 6490M/6750M card on and does not use the integrated at all

Dynamic Switching - Allows the MBP to decide for itself (App Dependant) whether to use the Integrated Graphics or turn the Discrete Graphics card on.

If you want to preserve Battery Life and are just doing Internet/Email/Docs, i would use "Integrated Only"

If you are gaming or don't worry about battery life, better leaving the "Dynamic Switching" so that your MBP can use either as it needs to.

I made the move from a PC to a Mac and to say I’m disappointedis an understatement. Aside from the absolute shambles in getting the Macbookpro delivered (3 days off work), the battery life falls way short of what isadvertised. Since this was one of the main reasons I bought it I’m prettyhacked off.

My 15 inch Macbook pro is about a month old and barely usedsince new. I have now run three tests on it, the most recent one after havingbeen through the whole process that support told me to go through to kick startthe battery (ie, fully drain, leave for a number of hours then fully charge).

Each time I have done nothing more than open a ‘Pages’document, turn off Bluetooth and open a Safari window. I then leave it,jiggling the scratch pad once an hour or so. I don’t actually do any work onit. The most recent test doing this delivered 5 hours of battery! If I do anywork on it or watch a DVD I can see the battery level tick down every 30seconds!

This is pathetic. What annoys me even more is thesanctimonious attitude of Apple staff - it seems like nothing ever goes wrongin Mac world! And, to be frank, I find some of the replies here (and on toomany other Mac forums) patronising. Yes, of course we know it depends what youdo with the Macbook but to not actually do anythingand still only get 5 hours is nowhere near what was advertised.

Maybe someone in Macland is brave enough to hold up theirhand and admit that yes, sometimes you get it wrong. Yes, sometimes there arefaults with Mac kit. (Oh, you can’t get a signal on your iPhone? You must be holdingit wrong!). At least with Microsoft you expect **** service so you aren’tdisappointed!

I agree with you, apple staff tend to try to make you believe that nothing is wrong with your machine when in fact there is. I just recently bought my new MBP as well and the battery is the biggest disappointment. However, the rest of the MBP compensates for the lack of battery life, i guess that's how i still like my MBP :/ i havent bought the new OS X Lion yet, but apperently it'll improve your battery life. Also, try calibrating, it might help as well.

I just wanted to add to the list and also acknowledge my Macbook Pro (2.33GHZ, IntelCore2Duo) was running for a few hours under Leopard.... Then upgraded to Snow Leopard and it was dying really fast --- then NOT CHARGING and bubbled my battery at 238 cycles. Then I upgraded to Lion in hopes of it being fixed (despite what I been reading online about the battery horrors)... And now, I got a new battery because we all know "bubbled batteries" are defective... After fully charging the battery... I noticed it stated 4:50hrs for usage span... Then in 30 minutes, went down to 2:45hrs... Then it dropped to about 1:90hrs, and now I see 2:45hrs... I've been on it for about an hour... I presumed, soon, my battery will NOT CHARGING AGAIN.......... Here is my gameplan. I will FULLY charge the battery and remove it. I will not use the battery for a few days. During this seperation, I will check the battery to see it's lifespan status (pressing the button on the battery) to see how much drainage occurs with it just sitting there (to confirm my newly purchased APPLE battery is not defective)... Not sure what good this test will do but I've no option and do not want another "bubbled experience" and have to spend more money on a battery --- again. I've gone thru 3 batteries on this laptop since LEOPARD.

one more thing people, i noticed that while on intergrated mode, youtube videos or flash functions in general usually crash every now and then. Once it does, you can't simply close the tab and re-open it, you have to quit the entire firefox and open it again. Here's how it looks: (trust me no viruses or anything, oh i forgot, they can't do anything to macs 😀)

has anyone of one guys encountered this

http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa390/protonosd/Screenshot2011-08-10at112723 PM.png

I was getting miserable performance (1% drain per minute) while browsing the web and had no idea why until reading this forum. After using gfxcardstatus, I found that it was Chrome and Firefox (because of the flash plugin) --- and I wasn't on pages using flash. Closed those browsers and saw an immediate improvement, so from now on I'll make sure I am forcing integrated mode when using them.

Anyways, I know Apple has way better quality laptops with better battery life then most PC lsptops but Apple is also

famous for for over exaggerating there what there new products are capable of. As an example when they first started

using there new batteries in 2009 they were saying "UP TO 10 HOURS OF USE" then that number was replaced with

the magic number 7. This should really be replaced with 5 hours to be more honest with there customer base.

Yeah, well I have found that 7 hours is a far stretch by any means! Even when your not doing anything except using facebook and chatting with a friend on aMSN I only get like 5 hours. And thats with the display dimmed to half brightness, bluetooth turned off and no videos, downloads or any heavy internet use. How anyone can get 7 hours of use off a single charge on the new 2011 Macbook Pros is beyond me?

My new Macbook Pro 15" 2.2 Ghz with 8 Gb RAM lasts for one hour on full battery, just browsing the internet on Firefox.

I have just calibrated my battery by fully charging, fully depleting, letting sit for an hour, recharging fully in SAFE MODE, then unplugging battery.

Brightness 50%, Videos do not run in safe mode. 4 Firefox tabs with no images except website headers.

It took 29 minutes for my battery to deplete to 90% just now. If that rate of depletion remains constant, my battery life in safe mode with one low memory program running without keyboard illumination is 290 minutes = 4h50m. This is the maximum potential. I have had 24 cycles and my full battery charge is 6533 mAH.

I was told that you can watch movies for at least 3 hours on this computer. There is no way that will happen.

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