Michael Empric

Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

After upgrading to Lion, my MacBook Pro battery life has been severly affected. After 1.5 hours of light web browsing, my battery has decreased to 40% from 100% after charging all night.

 

Notes: Spotlight completed indexing the hard drive over night, and the laptop remained plugged in charging. The fans seem to be running normally, not at a higher rate. The backlight is at 50% brightness.

 

Thoughts?

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.7), 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 4 GB Ram

Posted on Jul 21, 2011 7:02 AM

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Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

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  • by Omar Mty,

    Omar Mty Omar Mty Aug 6, 2011 10:23 AM in response to Ziatron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 10:23 AM in response to Ziatron

    Yes, that's what i did yesterday.

     

    Do you think that Apple gonna fix that issue or we have to use to it if we want to use Lion?

  • by Sir Allan,

    Sir Allan Sir Allan Aug 6, 2011 10:41 AM in response to Omar Mty
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 10:41 AM in response to Omar Mty

    They must be fixing it...

     

    But it could suit them to make a public statement about this, I feel a little left in the dark with my battery running out!

  • by James Sparks,

    James Sparks James Sparks Aug 6, 2011 11:17 AM in response to Ziatron
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 11:17 AM in response to Ziatron

    So many reasons to dump Lion and this isn't the best... Such a shame Apple blew it with Lion.

     

    Yes, I know I was stupid to be taken in by Apple and expect a day 1 release to work, but I'm new to Macs and thought they could be trusted.

     

    Maybe some pre-release testing might have identified all the bugs, but I guess they didn't have the time or money to do any so it's a massive re-install of Snow Leopard for me until they fix all the bugs - at least in a year or two when it works I'll be able to download it again from the app store as i've already handed over my cash - at least I'd beter be able to download it again!

  • by shiriajin,

    shiriajin shiriajin Aug 6, 2011 3:50 PM in response to CreativeSmith
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 3:50 PM in response to CreativeSmith

    I am having the same problem here. If the macbook is unibody (you cannot detach the battery), it doesn't need re-calibrating. I used to get more than 6 hours on my macbook but after lion battery life dropped to about 1:30 and maximum 2 hours.

  • by jonathanfromorange city,

    jonathanfromorange city jonathanfromorange city Aug 6, 2011 7:27 PM in response to Michael Empric
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 7:27 PM in response to Michael Empric

    Michael,

     

    I would try removing Citrix or its components. Apparently alot of us have either intentionally or unintentionally installed Citrix Access Gateway or one of the Citrix products that has a known issue with 10.7.0.  I tried the SMC reset and some other tricks to get my battery life back to normal and my fan to slow down and my MPB to run cooler.  None of these worked.   Here are a couple of links to try. 

     


    http://http://support.citrix.com/article/CTX130356


     

     

    I would search under Citrix update for mac os x 10.7 and there is also an apple discussion thread athttp://https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3220846?start=0&tstart=0

     

     

    http://https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3220846?start=0&tstart=0

     

    Hope this helps,  Thank you for all the research you do. 

     

    PS I couldn't get the other link to work but the one at the apple thread has the relevant information.

     

    Message was edited by: jonathanfromorange city

  • by jesslorenzo,

    jesslorenzo jesslorenzo Aug 6, 2011 7:56 PM in response to Michael Empric
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 7:56 PM in response to Michael Empric

    Even after upgrading ram to 8Gig, I thought it would help preventing my MBP from paging.  Unfortunately, after a while, as I use Safari under OS Lion, I see the app using up memory and initiating the swap file... Power imediately drops after that and Im back to the old problem.  At 75% battery power, Im left with 2hrs and 50 min.

     

    I'm switching to Chrome and will see how this can save memory leak and battery drain... (sorry for the addional issue on this thread).  Am trying to address look into battery drain but I also found memory leak with Safari.  I have a feeling they are connected.

  • by Pokono,

    Pokono Pokono Aug 6, 2011 8:03 PM in response to jesslorenzo
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 6, 2011 8:03 PM in response to jesslorenzo

    Guys,

    I know for sure that an update will come soon. Apple is apple. I'm also a developer and I understand that is no possible to release an OS without this kind of bugs. Very bad that affect the battery. But they know for sure, and they are working on this. It happened for the iPhone 4 too, and they released an update in 3 weeks.

     

    The best thing to do is to calm down and leave everything like this. In a few days we will have this fricking update. Like always.

     

    When you feel bad about the battery, look around and find some windows people. Look at they computer and you will feel better. Instantly.

     

    I hope this will help someone.

    (sorry for my english, I'm Italian )

     

    Ivan

  • by Bob Jacobson,

    Bob Jacobson Bob Jacobson Aug 6, 2011 9:21 PM in response to Pokono
    Level 1 (132 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 6, 2011 9:21 PM in response to Pokono

    Bravo!  Well put, Ivan.

     

    Even though my Air is on its way to Apple because Lion may have killed its startup sequence, I'm confident Apple will fix the energy problem.  I hope they solve the interface problems along the way and also:

     

    • Bestow on Lion Snow Leopard's processing power and stabilty.
    • Bring back Rosetta or provide a Rosetta substitute while developers scramble to create Lion-compatible apps.
    • Solicit developers to create more apps that matter. 
    • Apple should maintain a directory of other apps that don't appear in the Store, perhaps via MacUpdate or the like, to complement the apps in the Store.  They could make money from apps on the inside, referrals on the outside. 

     

    Then I will love Lion, I promise.  I do favor Apple.  Its service has improved tremendously.

  • by shiriajin,

    shiriajin shiriajin Aug 7, 2011 1:13 AM in response to brentw96
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 7, 2011 1:13 AM in response to brentw96

    Of course he would say that. Admitting that they have a problem with the battery is very much like telling you: sorry, we screwed up. I hope they can fix this problem in their updates soon.

  • by shiriajin,

    shiriajin shiriajin Aug 7, 2011 1:20 AM in response to kon yung
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 7, 2011 1:20 AM in response to kon yung

    Yes that might be true. But still, do we have to disable flash on our browsers just because Apple screwed up? 99% of the websites today use Flash. Disabling flash means not being able to use those websites the way they were intended to be used.

  • by William Kucharski,

    William Kucharski William Kucharski Aug 7, 2011 1:38 AM in response to shiriajin
    Level 6 (15,232 points)
    Mac OS X
    Aug 7, 2011 1:38 AM in response to shiriajin

    Any excess CPU usage by Flash is not in any way the fault of Apple.

     

    Adobe solely controls the Flash plugin for Mac OS X, is solely responsible for its performance, or lack thereof, and has had access to Lion beta seeds for at least six months if not longer, so they can't claim they "didn't know" of any issues with Lion.

     

    Literally, Apple could not affect the performance of Flash even if they wanted to, as they do not control the source code to the plugin as it's a proprietary Adobe product, 100% controlled by Adobe.

     

    Perhaps addressing Lion performance is in Adobe's "to do" queue, right after completing a version of Flash for iOS.

  • by shiriajin,

    shiriajin shiriajin Aug 7, 2011 2:04 AM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Aug 7, 2011 2:04 AM in response to William Kucharski

    I am seriously thinking about installing Windows on my MacBook. I decided to quit using Windows because of all the problems they had. But it seems Apple is not that much  better. Going back to Windows will probably be the right choice. Don't you agree?

  • by TheSmokeMonster,

    TheSmokeMonster TheSmokeMonster Aug 7, 2011 2:43 AM in response to William Kucharski
    Level 4 (3,234 points)
    Aug 7, 2011 2:43 AM in response to William Kucharski

    Not buying it.,,, But wait, I did, and now I'm stuck with it. My MBP is officially a desktop device.

     

    Maybe apple is telling me to buy an iPad... BAH!

     

    Maybe osXI will be "back to the mac" instead of all the iOS nonsence to get the millions of iOS users to cloud our beloved OS.

     

    Maybe there was a reason these iphone/ipad people haven't gotten a Mac to begin with? Maybe alienating the very people who made the company an industry standard in graphic/video/audio production will in turn create a better more open sourced alternative platform with upgradeable video cards that utilizes multitasking instead of being forced to look at one screen while in fullscreen mode or dealing with the archaic spaces. Even after it's face lift and name change (mission control), it's old and useless if you actually use multiple apps at once or have multiple screens. 

     

    I think this was a greedy move on Apple's part and they should have left some most of the iOS features on iOS devices. 

     

    I digress.

     

    Message was edited by: TheSmokeMonster: it's a shame because I was really looking into getting an iMac but since they upgrade their hardware so frequently and now that iOS has take over the MAC I'm seriously looking into going back to PC or maybe Linux... *Frustrated*... Maybe I'll just go back to SL.

  • by jesse131,

    jesse131 jesse131 Aug 7, 2011 3:12 AM in response to Michael Empric
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 7, 2011 3:12 AM in response to Michael Empric

    Well, well, well... I'm lucky I didn't upgrade to Lion yet. But here's a solution to you all!

     

    Create a dual boot between Snow Leopard and Lion!!

     

    This simple solution remains you Slow Leopard with all your files and the possabily to use Lion's features. And, as far as I know, you can import Snow Leopard apps to Lion. Otherwise, if you've already installed Lion over Snow Leopard I would suggest to get to your latest Snow Leopard Time Machine backup and otherwise just backup all your files and downgrade to Snow Leopard.

     

    Right now my Macbook Pro 13" Early 2011 model with a 2.3Ghz i5 processor and 4GB of RAM can run up to 9 hours of battery life when I'm just using Firefox. With more programs open I can get up to 7 hours.

     

    I'll probably just wait until 10.7.1 or create a dual boot (Which is by far the smartest option)

  • by Trexgroove,

    Trexgroove Trexgroove Aug 7, 2011 3:22 AM in response to TheSmokeMonster
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 7, 2011 3:22 AM in response to TheSmokeMonster

    Steve only wants what's best for you. He is really sorry that you bought a MacBookPro - actually he wanted you to buy an iPad, because he earns more money on it.

    Sadly, we still believe that Apple is the company it used to be 10 years ago. In fact, however, Apple works with the biggest Chinese Computer Firm who employs - sorry: enslaves - more than 600.000 people to produce their products, and everyone knows about the working conditions in such companies.

    To believe that they care about anyone is obviously pointless. As we can see in this thread, they get their 30 bucks for this unfinished OS. They are talking about 250 new features, like Mission Control or Launchpad, but they don´t talk about the OS itself. Is it faster? Is it really 64 Bit? Where are the improvements in comparison to SL? No one's talking about the technical aspects that are actually of the most interest to us as professionals who need them.

    They sell this OS like an App for iPhone or iPad. Doesn´t matter if you like it, the most important thing is the money it earns them, guys.

    I do believe that in 5 years you will have to give your credit card number to log into your MacBookPro, and pay for every second you use the OS.

     

    For me, next time it will be a PC, that's for sure. Less expensive and I can do what I want with it!

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