Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

I've been writing an email for an hour, Safari, Skype, iTunes (nothing playing) and iChat open.

Started with a full battery. Now meter showing 57%. No unusual activity in Activity monitor. Macbook warm to touch.

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Jon Baumgartner wrote,

Bob Jacobson wrote:

 

In its App Store descripton of Lion, Apple claims Lion is user-rated at "4+."  But the stars actually show "3+," which is just better than mediocre.  It's been stuck there for months.  Apple OSs of the past didn't get 3s, they got 4s and 5s consistently, especially as they improved with time.

FYI, "4+" doesn't mean 4 stars. 4+ means it's suitable for users age 4 and up. Click on the "4+" link and you'll see explanations for that, plus 9+, 12+, and 17+.

Thanks, Jon.  I didn't catch that.  So the "applicaiton rating" in this case is essentially useless.  What does it mean that Lion OS is "suitable for users age 4 and up"?  Bizarre.  Why rate OS, utilities, and tools at all?  Bonkers.

My apologies to Apple for suggesting it was confusing the issue of Lion's quality based on user responses. It's not. The 3-1/2 star rating stands without contradiction:  still mediocre.

Bobby!

Try to stay on topic!

I had the same problem (MacBook Pro VERY Short battery life)  It also had a defective 15" High Res anti-glare screen. I got the screen replaced. The _battery_ problem went away.  My conclusion is that the screen had a short in it, and the resulting high current drained the battery really fast.

I believe we can use About This Mac -- System Information -- Power -- Battery Information -- Amperage

to display the average current drain on our battery.  If your machine has a "current leak" aka, a "short," then this number will be abnormally high.

My current drain (which I believe is normal) is:

Amperage (mA):          -1471

If your current drain is between 1300 mA and 1500 mA while using this site (Safari and not much else running) then I think you are in the normal range.

My defective screen had the current drain over 10,000 mA. Maybe this is what is happening to you?

CT wrote:

 

Bobby!

 

Try to stay on topic!

CT, do you spend your time trying to push people's buttons?  Have you noticed that such exchanges are turning off readers?  The name's Bob.

Jon was explaining for me the rating system for apps in the Apple Store.  This was because we were discussing ratings related to Lion which, you may have observed, is relevant to the discussions in this forum.  Clear enough?  Let's try to stay on topic.

Okay, I've been getting 3-4 on a full charge so I checked my battery drain with only Safari running.

Obviously this appears to be high...

Battery Installed:          Yes

  Amperage (mA):          -2628

  Voltage (mV):          11761

2.3 Ghz i7 MacBook Pro 15" with SSD

Yes, that sounds too high. I really don't know what is normal, though.

What I think we need to do, to get an accurate baseline of current draw, is to take several data points over a longer period of time (refreshing the report each time), and plot that on a graph to get a picture of how much current is normal.

Awaking from sleep, my machine shows about -969 mA, for example. 

Right now, 5 minutes after waking from sleep, it is:

  Battery Installed:          Yes

  Amperage (mA):          -982

  Voltage (mV):          11732

MacBook Pro, 15"

  Charge Information:

  Charge Remaining (mAh):          5483

  Fully Charged:          No

  Charging:          No

  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          6683

  Health Information:

  Cycle Count:          53

  Condition:          Normal

  Battery Installed:          Yes

  Amperage (mA):          -1519

  Voltage (mV):          11893

I'm getting 3 1/2 hours on full charge (max). Currently at 2 hrs : 45 and 82% remaining.

There you go... -1519 mA is about right for a MacBook Pro at cruising speed. It draws much less, and way more, depending upon what it is doing, and also, probably how hot it is.

It also appears that 11700 to 11900 mV is about where the normal voltage range is.

Of course, we can computer power from those two numbers.

A historical plot of these values would be nice to see for each machine. I think there is a lot of diagnostic value in this.

We need some way to automatically record this battery data. Is there a utility app that would work?

> Is there a utility app that would work?

I don't know of one. Surely there is a battery data analysis tool already in existence. I'll look around.

>We need some way to automatically record this battery data.

[mA graphed over time, for example]

Yes, it would be very helpful. I would think it is exactly the type of thing that Apple would be using for QA/QC. Anything out of the ordinary (current draw profile too high) would be very telling. 

The screen and graphics system would probably be the main source abnormally high current draw problems, since it operates at higher voltages. It was in my case. We can use current draw as a probe for these problems.

The Genius Bar fellow saw a screen defect on my MacBook Pro, so that's why it was replaced. But, I think it was an electrical short that caused the problem, and that was also evidenced by the abnormally high current draw. Which will not always be "visible."

Was just sent the "Welcome to your new Mac survey," good timing. This was my message, keeping in mind I had to cut it down from 1100 words to 500:

This was an amazing upgrade, and a $3000 second chance for Apple to make up for the abysmal 13" macbook, but I regretted the buy immediately because of the battery charge issue. Being an old PC user, I wasn't too upset until I found out that I am unable to go downgrade to SL without a huge hassle after I had already formatted (my fault, I expected Lion to be less obtuse than Windows xp). After a subsequent Lion reinstall and resetting the SMC, the battery life is approaching "mediocre."

It was more colorful before the edit, but there you go.

Well guys i just bought my mac not long time ago, and i had the same problems, and it is because of the new updated software, it's true

but it's not really that the battery has gotten shortened, nor it is that the computer is taking too much energy than it used to, it's just as simple as, that you have to give it more time while checking the battery ( when it says " calculating time left " )

what i did simply is :

1) calibrated my battery

2) waited till fully re-charged

3) open "Energy Saver Prefrences" and wait

and that's it ... used to get ( 4:36 left, and now it's back up to 8:15 ) you will see that nothing is wrong, it just needs more time than before

A.Muaz, been there, done that, got the scars. No, this doesn't work. It appears to and leads you into a false sense of security. You won't get that, and it will quickly go back to being bad (like before the next recharge). Sorry to tell you we have ALL fallen for that trap.

It's well proven (I've tried EVERYTHING over 4 months. The only thing that works to get some life back is GFXcardstatus....

...and to add, Apple are working on a fix.... they wouldn't be if it was that easy