Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Hi everyone,

Just an update to my post 4 days ago - the Apple guy got back to me. Unfortunately, he told me that he wasn't aware of a fix for the battery issue. There is information, however, which even he is stricted from seeing. As a last resort, he did suggest a fresh reinstall of Lion. I haven't tried that yet.

I have not seen any changes in performance, battery or otherwise, with the new EFI update. I have been using Chrome, maybe I should use Safari for a while instead just to see what happens.

I am kind of tempted to install ML now after hearing the optimistic reports about battery life.

Other than that, I have explored every option I can think of (aside from replacing the battery).

<Edited by Host>

The bad battery life annoys me... Thank apple that the bug is fixed in mountain lion. (at least as I have heard)

F_F

both of my OS Lion and ML are clean installs and they have pretty similar battery performance. If I'm you I'd first try a clean install, all updates and basic testing for a day or two before jumping on Dev OS (box full of surprises, bad and good).

7 moths after the first install of Lion I am happy for the first time with my Mac but we really need to hear from the rest of the people on this forum to be more conclusive about latest updated.

Cheers

Seeing the plethora of threads complaining on poor battery performance makes me wonder on whether we can pin down the problem as coming from the hardware, the firmware or just the OS.

Would be interesting to find out from someone who used these computers with only another OS and not MacOSX to see if they complain of bad battery times too. For instance, full time Windows use. Like Bill Gates is rumored to do ever since he discovered these computers didn't crash, like all other brands did whenever he had a public presentation to do.

Update and feedback for everyone after a week of running Mountain Lion.

I have the latest EFI and a clean install of Mountain Lion, was suffering with Lion battery life at 3hrs, now I can get 5.5 to 6hrs, no Flash, 1/34 to 1/2 brightness, keyboard lights off.  This is measured life not via the battery indicator.  Big changes there as well, for the first time since moving to Lion it now reports 8-9hrs something I have never seen for a while.

Moving in the right direction, much happier although still disappointed that Apple did not acknowledge the issue and left us all hanging for such a long time.

Les

15" MBP late 2008 running Lion, battery indicator never showed more than 2:30 hours. After EFI update today, which does not mention anything regarding increase of battery life, I can see the 4:05 again that was normal for me in the Snow Leopard days.

Battery life almost as good as used to be, happy again.

I don't think that Apple will ever admit this issue publicly but I'm sure that they were monitoring this forum closely since Apple and bad publicity are highly incompatible.

Cheers

I'm on a macbook pro 13" Mid 2009 (still with snow leopard), no EFI update notifications via Software Update... Does this mean my machine has no problem, will not be supported by the fix, or simply I have to install lion to see the update notification?

thanks a lot for your help!

Happy to report battery life clean install of ML and EFI update after a few weeks is round about 5.5 to 6 hrs.  Basic web browsing with battery settings optimised is more like 7hrs if you stay away from flash.  I guess by the sudden drop off in postings that peploe are happy?  We all like to complain but don't forget to post the good things also!  Thanks Apple but please learnt we are on your side and it would be nice to know you have a problem and you are working on it rather than keepin us in the dark!!  Thanks people on this thread, its been a blast at times.

lesliefromstockton-on-tees wrote:

 

Happy to report battery life clean install of ML and EFI update after a few weeks is round about 5.5 to 6 hrs.  Basic web browsing with battery settings optimised is more like 7hrs if you stay away from flash.  I guess by the sudden drop off in postings that peploe are happy?  We all like to complain but don't forget to post the good things also!  Thanks Apple but please learnt we are on your side and it would be nice to know you have a problem and you are working on it rather than keepin us in the dark!!  Thanks people on this thread, its been a blast at times.

Yeah this is such a relief that Beta version of next OS X will do what actual official and revised version of OS X is supposed to do!

I'd say this is awesome.

Are you running a beta version of Mountain Lion?

Pete

Yes, beta version plus updates

Then you are meant to be posting in the developers forum, or otherwise you are breaking your no disclosure agreement you agreed to when downloading the developers beta, and not in the public forums.

Pete

Trying a version passed to me, if the store staff just look at you and deny the issue and if Apple will not help, you have to help yourself!  Good news is that they appear to have improved things,

lesliefromstockton-on-tees wrote:

 

Trying a version passed to me, if the store staff just look at you and deny the issue and if Apple will not help, you have to help yourself!  Good news is that they appear to have improved things,

So you are illegally running a Developers Copy that others have had to register for and pay for, and you feel justified in both using it and bragging about it in the Public Forums?

Pete