Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Good work, mygodinho. Now that the problem is acknowledged, we can work with Apple to get it resolved. It's not them vs. us, as a couple of folks here have painted it. We're in this together, 99% of us.

One question. Did Apple's folks assume the MacBook battery is the problem? Or simply that there is a problem? It's an important distinction. Many people have spoken about having the same problems (low battery life, overheating, etc.), on Pros and also on Airs. The one common denominator is the OS. I draw no conclusions, just suggest that Apple should consider all possibilties.

I did sent email to Tim Cook week ago unfortunately as expected no answer. It is frustrating that Apple engineers can replicate the problem in their labs - 100 % , however this support calls are pure gimmicks to demonstrate "care for the customer" - the problem is there and it only takes to upgrade SL to Lion.

To start Apple so far are shy of officially acknowledging the problem, which is the first step in demonstrating real care for the customer.

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I, too, received a response within days of my email to Mr.Cook.

The young lady who called me, also from Apple Exec relations in Austin , TX, offered to connect me to an engineer but I demurred, largely because my Mac's Apple Care already was expired and I was afraid of incurring costs.

But the woman took my info seriously .Stated she herself was not a technical person but would pass along my report.

So our emails are being taken seriously.

Considering Csound1 and your contributions it is no wonder people have left.

mulligans missus wrote:

I see those who have serious concerns have moved on towards repairing their issues and left this tread as Comedy Central.

I have also submitted my information some time back. I suspect they are looking into it but without a solid solution to date.

Hi All,

I just read that 10.7.3 was released today. Has anyone applied it and have you noticed any change in battery performance?

I'm pulling down the combo update (to make sure nothing lost in incremental) 1.3Gb right now. I'll post back results later.

milwaukee_bronze wrote:

Hi All,

I just read that 10.7.3 was released today. Has anyone applied it and have you noticed any change in battery performance?

Yes (from the combo) too early to see any differences (other than momentary) but overall it seems to be no different.

10.7.3 applied. A couple of reboots and working for 30 mins and for me, it's worse right now - ouch. However, I'm a pragmatist and perhaps I need to do a couple of things (not that I should have to) and/or allowing the MAC to settle down. CPU usage is virtually unused, only THIS app running, running very quiet, no fans or heat and I'm showing just 4 hrs (I was getting 7 before) and going down pretty accurately as I use it per the "time left"

So, I'm hoping just some recalibration needed and I won't report back this is the norm! Else I'm going to be one unhappy chappy!

I downloaded it earlier this evening. I'm showing 95% 4:19 remaining. Chrome is running two tabs open: this one and Gmail. Seems like battery life estimate is worse than previously. I'm very disappointed. Noone at Apple seems to think there's a problem. I've gone into the Apple store and have replicated the same results on their machines. They seem to think that 3-4 hours while running Safari just doing light browsing is acceptable.

In my case it looks like 10.7.3 finally solve the problem! After spotlight and other processes have been finished, battery life becomes like it was on SL. Mail, Safari 7 websites (WiFi), System Monitor are running and battery shows 93% 8:39 remaining time. Before update it was 6:00 maximum. (macbook pro 15 early 2011)

P.S. battery power usage 8.4-9.5 Watt, before update it was never lower than 11!

Everyone, please, please, please....the estimated battery time left is irrelevant. It continually changes as you use the computer.

The only thing that matters is how long your computer is actually able to remain on battery while doing light browsing. In my case if I turn may MBP on and open one browser I can't go for more than 4 hours. The meter says 5:15 left, or 6:25, left, but at the end of four hours, no matter what that meter said, the battery is dead.

Not only does Apple not have a grasp of this issue, they continue to advertise "up to" 7 hour battery life for web browsing. I have a one month old MBP 15 and MBA 13, and neither one have every been able to get anywhere near 7 hours. My meter has said 10 hours left at times, but at the end of 4 hours, my battery is dead.

htmanning wrote:

Everyone, please, please, please....the estimated battery time left is irrelevant. It continually changes as you use the computer.

Everybody knows it. Before update estimate time was fluctuating between 3 to 6 hours at full battery, now from 6 to 10 hours, so definately something is changed in a good way.

[ML] wrote:

Everybody knows it. Before update estimate time was fluctuating between 3 to 6 hours at full battery, now from 6 to 10 hours, so definately something is changed in a good way.

You can get the same result with the SMC reset. Or the logout, log back in trick. I've seen my meter go as high as 15 hours after the SMC reset, but the meter is irrelevant. Time your battery for actual usage and see if it went up. That's the only thing that matters.

htmanning wrote:

You can get the same result with the SMC reset. Or the logout, log back in trick. I've seen my meter go as high as 15 hours after the SMC reset, but the meter is irrelevant. Time your battery for actual usage and see if it went up. That's the only thing that matters.

Yes, SMC reset makes same result, but only for few first minutes. Now I'm using my MBP more than one hour and it shows 7:55 estimate time. But I agree with you that the right way is to time actual usage battery time, that's what I'm doing right now;)

HTmanning, HTmanning, HTmanning. The estimated battery life is VERY relevant. I don't know where you've been living for the past 3 years but one thing I give Apple credit for is that the stated battery life / meter and the rate in which it goes down is actually quite accurate. I do agree with you, that in the wrong hands or not understood, this number can me irrelevant but I give most people credit for knowing how batteries work. After all battery saving tech has been on phones for years and people are used to understanding it more.

Everyone knows, if you do roughly the same things on the computer over say a 10 or 15 minute period and intend to do approximately the same things for the rest of the stated battery life then actually it's an awesome reflection of what to expect. Years ago, you would have been right but today, even the PC vendors / battery technology has caught up. It's the same with my mobile phone. It's close enough for me to have been relying on it for work

I actually fell for the trap early on in these LION problems because for 3 years as a MAC user I came to rely on the battery indicator in my traveling working life. Then, believing that perhaps you guys know better, actually would sit and work for sometimes literrally the actual hours the battery life would last (as it said it would hours before). So, as I said, give Apple and the battery technology and people some credit, used properly, it's a GOOD number. Of course, recaliberating a battery can effect battery life expectancy per charge, but it's consistent once done so.