3 hour life with a full battery?

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Level 1

5 points

3 hour life with a full battery?

I have a normal MacBook that I got brand new from Apple last summer. So it's not even a year old yet. In the past couple of days, I would completely charge my laptop and once I took it off the charger, it would have full battery life. The problem is that the full battery life says 3 hours!! I have all of the power save settings on. I also went to the CPU usage under the Activity Monitor.. There are no programs using a high percentage, and the only programs I have open are Safari and Word. What can I do?!

MacBook

Posted on May 23, 2011 10:40 AM

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Answer 1

May 23, 2011 10:56 AM in response to gabwilson5

How bright is the screen? Do you have WiFi on? Is Bluetooth enabled? How long before the computer goes to sleep?

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Answer 2

gabwilson5 Author

Level 1

5 points

May 23, 2011 11:01 AM in response to Templeton Peck

The screen is on the lowest setting before completely turning off. So it's not bright at all! Bluetooth is turned off. WiFi is on, but it has to be, because I'm in a class that needs a connection. I've never had this problem until recently (of course when I actually need my battery to last throughout this 1-5PM Maymester class).

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Answer 3

hexonxonx

Level 4

2,477 points

May 23, 2011 8:02 PM in response to gabwilson5

It's possible that the battery has allot of cycles on it now. My battery has 190 cycles on it and is at 94% health. The battery health decreases over so many cycles and will begin to have shorter and shorter life. You can loo at how many cycles are on your battery by clicking the apple logo on the menu bar and selecting More Info and then about this Mac. Battery will be listed under power. You can also download an app called Coconut battery.

At 94%, my battery lasts about 3.5 to 4 hrs and my MB is three years old.

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