Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Hi Nick,

I also have a new Macbook pro 15' 2011 and I cannot carry arround a heavy mac and only have a 2 to 3 hr life.

I am considering going back to snow leopard. How did you do this?

Thanks

Downgrading is very easy if you have a os x 10.6 disk you need to launch this and then do an archive and install takes about hour and everything is back to normal.

I think this issue is only linked with Core 2 Duo MB and MBP but by the sounds of things it's effecting the first gen Core i5 & i7 too?

Has any one got this issue with second gen i5 & i7 (sandy bridge) MBP's. I checked the ones in the Apple store at half screen brightness they were all giving between 9-12 hours.

Yep I got it with the first gen i7 MacBook Pro (2,66MHz). Battery life went from 4-5 hours to 2-3... I checked processes, I checked the citrix issue, I made sure spotlights isn't indexing. Just browsing with only the integrated grahpics card on gives me about 3 - 3,5 hours of battery life. If I start doing more - it goes down to 2 hours. And it is real battery life - it dies after this time. Battery health is 94% with 273 cycles.

It is at least affecting the first generation i5 MBP (Mid 2010).

I am using the Sandy Bridge Core I7 on the early 2011 mbpro, 15' 2.2ghz. It is affecting the battery life just as bad, if not worse. Battery usage is about 2 to 3 hrs. That's with normal browsing and integrated graphics, half dimmed lights.

@a4rons: If I do a time machine backup in Lion, can I still access this when I go back to snow leopard?

I got mine on Friday and I am not get the battery life advertised. Mine gets about 3 hours just browsing and using iTunes. New MacBook Pro 13.3" 320GB HDD, core i5 with 4 GB ram

Turned back to firefox from safari and got 1.5 hours extra on estimated time itself.

1. Turn off smart zoom, look up, which works only in safari

2. Turn off hot corners which can be acessed by gestures

3. Turn off full screen swipes to access desktops and use mission control for the same

My 2011 13" Macbook Pro came with install disks. But if you back up your Mac with Time Machine, here's another method: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2389334,00.asp

yes that would save you having to run all the updates.

Yes, it affects my Sandy Bridge Macbook Pro.

2011 I7 MBP Sandy Bridge 2.2Ghz. Only a couple of months old, but I have calibrated the battery two times since owning (I do it about once a month).

I just unplugged with 97% showing on the battery meter and continued surfing for about 40 minutes. I hit a number of forums I frequent. Battery dropped down to 90% in that time. Shows about 7hrs remaining.

A couple of points worth noting:

1) Running 802.11n wireless.

2) Using gfxCardStatus with Integrated only on battery.

3) No Adobe Flash installed.

4) Using Safari with AdBlock (and I block social toolbars on the sites I frequent).

5) Brightness set to 50%, keyboard backlight off and used trackpad for entire session. Bluetooth enabled, but not in use.

6) Stock "Energy Saver" settings.

7) OSX Lion (installed as an in place upgrade over SL). No time machine enabled on this machine.

I read an interesting conversation, don't recall where, that discussed the processor hit from the new invisible scroll bars. I have since enabled Always Show Scroll Bars and my battery life and overall temperature of the MBP has improved. Nothing scientific about this testing, just normal use.

I'm not saying it is Lion's fault, it could be a coincidence, but after installing Lion I experienced a lot of power anomalies like those reported here -- and eventually my MacBook Air's battery was fried.

I tried every method possible for forestalling a crash and correcting the system software and firmware, but some combination of remedies and the basic problem killed the patient.

I confirmed with Apple Care that the power/battery situation is terminal (no pun intended).

Tomorrow the Air goes into an indie Apple-authorized repair shop that's totally objective on this issue. I will report back its conclusions.

I really don't want to rely on Lion prior to an update that fixes this problem one way or another. I'll probably reinstall SL (which never gave me a similar problem over the last 18 months) and wait it out.

Hi,

normally you have to use you SL disc who was delivered with your MBP.

I did the downgrade for 5 days now, and it´s not so simple as usual. I had to erase everything, and at the end it still show you this ugly Linen background and ask you if you want to download Lion. It´s a little bit scary, because the HDD supposed to be empty. But i took the Time Machine option and after 2 hours i had my old SL on it, but the Account wasn´t working anymore.

My advice is take the time, a six pack of good beer, maybe a good movie and make the change.

For the Battery issue i´m back to my old 8 hours for internet and 3-4 hours when i work on it. And it´s not an helicopter anymore.

TrexGroove