Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Pete,

Be the example you wish others to follow. This is a discussion forum, open to a free and public discourse--not Animal Farm.

Let Apple police the thread to modify/delete posts as they see fit; that is their job and responsibility, not yours to lambast and dictate to others.

John

petermac87 wrote:

 

marysplacestudio wrote:

 

 

Pete,

 

I'm not sure why you feel you need to police, control and moderate people's emotions here—most others here are  mature enough to handle the frustation without having to comment. It really just makes for more sifting to the facts for the rest of us, okay?

 

 

What are you on about? There are Terms of Use we all agree to when we join here. You did read them didn't you? For those full of speculation or ignoring the rules then there are consequences for breaking these Terms. No grey areas. I'm not policing anything. I also wonder how you know of those 'mature' (invisable?) others who don't comment here????

 

Go back and read the Terms.

 

Pete

Obviously others need reminding.

Pete

I just now got to this thread, and not sure why there is so much bickering since argument here doesn't solve this battery drain issue...

For me, I agree that Lion has made my battery drain a heck a lot faster. On average, I get at most 3 hours of battery life from 100%

So just to give you some information

My 15" MBP is a late 2010 model, came with Snow Leopard, and then clean installed Lion

The built-in battery has full charge capacity of 6589 mAh with cycle count of 26 times

My theory is that the battery drain is exacerbated by the discrete graphics card.

If you download gfxCardStatus, I can see that Chrome cause Mac to use nVidia discrete graphics exclusively.

Other applications that can trigger discrete graphics are Skype/VMware Fusion 4. Turning off all the application that trigger discrete graphics can bump up the initial battery life to close to 4 hours. A little better, but not great.

Hi,

Is possible to disable "auto start" of discrete graphics (ati 6750 in my Macbook Pro 15 Early 2011) when launch Skype 5.8 ???

When I use Skype, the battery life is very short! There is any solution to this problem?

Thanks!

Skype requires more power.

Pete

But for What it's worth, Skype (like many apps) didn't seem to require more power on the same hardware under Snow Leopard. Only, on LION. In past years, this would be called a bug but Apple seems to call it a feature!

And, FOR WHAT IT's WORTH (which ain't much because after a year of resolvng this type of issue, Apple have done little).... this is wioth skype "running" and not even connected in a conversation.

Last but not least, For What's it's worth. The new MAC's give 7 hours - Yeah, right !!!!

For what it's worth, I have. Ever seen this issue on any of my five Macs in twelve months of using Lion. I actually had more issues with Snow Leopard than with Lion....... As you say.........for what it's worth (which seems to be little)

Good luck and cheers

Pete

Pete, I am happy for you. Interesting, what issues did you have with SL - I never had ANY issues with Snow Leopard in 3 years across 3 other machines in my company. And yet, we all have battery issues here with Lion. I guess you've help by identifying we must each be doing something so very different. You are lucky (as I was with SL).

Perhaps apple could call on you and compare our machines. LOL. Apple admitted to me, the problem is with the GPU switching (which, by running GFXcardstatus, increases battery life by 30% - good but not back to SL). Some apps are just bad with the new GPU code but there's no spec out there for developers to "fix it" - per the SKYP example quoited here by the poster. Apple have agreed (Tim Cooks's office), replicating what GFX is doing as an option in Apple would be a good idea. They have changed the GPU from AMD in the new machines - perhaps with good reason.

Fingers crossed although it doesn't help with my $4k disappointment nor the others in my org!

Sounds like something wrong with your computer practices. Don't know of anybody having this problem bar the few posting here (many here have not come back so presumably have fixed their issues). I had issues with Toger, Leopard, Snow Leopard and unrelated issues with Lipn. Probably have some with Mountain Lion too.

Cheers

Pete

antonywu wrote:

 

I just now got to this thread, and not sure why there is so much bickering since argument here doesn't solve this battery drain issue...

There isn't any bickering as such. There's people trying to discuss their issues then there is the house troll - currently going under the name of 'petermac87', previously as 'mulligansmissus' before being banned - trying to wind people up.

He has a history of it, and attempting to debate him with facts, appealing to good example or common sense or offer any kind of reasonable argument will provide nothing but further opportunity for him to post more antagonistic posts.

For Level 2 and above posters, I urge you to use the 'Report post' button rather than to reply to him directly.

For Level 1 posters who don't have this option, I advise you to ignore him and only reply to those that are interested in discussing your issues.

softwater wrote:

 

antonywu wrote:

 

I just now got to this thread, and not sure why there is so much bickering since argument here doesn't solve this battery drain issue...

 

There isn't any bickering as such. There's people trying to discuss their issues then there is the house troll - currently going under the name of 'petermac87', previously as 'mulligansmissus' before being banned - trying to wind people up.

 

He has a history of it, and attempting to debate him with facts, appealing to good example or common sense or offer any kind of reasonable argument will provide nothing but further opportunity for him to post more antagonistic posts.

 

For Level 2 and above posters, I urge you to use the 'Report post' button rather than to reply to him directly.

For Level 1 posters who don't have this option, I advise you to ignore him and only reply to those that are interested in discussing your issues.

These options are available for use regardless of who's doing the trollin' Softwater.

Indeed. And I urge you to use them.

softwater wrote:

 

Indeed. And I urge you to use them.

That would dignify the irrelevant, so I'll demur and let you cover it.

As an anecdote, like many of you, I have also noticed a sizeable loss in battery timing since upgrading from Snow Leopard to Lion. I contacted AppleCare about it a few days ago when I had noticed my battery drop within approximately four hours of use. The representative I spoke to, while kind and professional, offered no other explanation than to reset SMC, PRAM, and check for outstanding (runaway) applications. (spoiler: there were none). I was asked what applications I run normally to which my reply included:

a) Google Chrome (approx. 3-4 tabs, usually including Docs and Gmail)

b) Pages and/or TextEdit

c) Endnote X5

There was no explanation given for this loss in battery life outside of the remote possibly that the discrete card is being triggered by one of the applications. I thought of this as well and checked System Information, my system remains on Intel HD3000 internal unless I am using G+ Hangouts (video/audio). Short of this example, there was no other option given. The machine showed a battery cycle count of approximately 147 cycles and health status of "Good."

I should note that the machine also runs 8GB of RAM and the stock 750GB HDD. There have been no other modifications to the machine than a RAM upgrade and brightness is between 40-60%. WiFi is always on yet Bluetooth is only utilized when I am at a desk (eg. plugged in to AC).

I am currently in the process of moving the bulk of my necessary work from the MBP and looking to procure a replacement simply because I haven't the time to deal with this. I have contacted Apple in earnest to resolve this issue with no lack of effort on my part in obtaining a resolution. Simply put: I believe that Lion either requires far more energy demands from the machine than Snow Leopard, the reporting of battery status has changed, or perhaps some mixture of both.

I believe this will be my last computer purchase from Apple for a while... The money I originally spent on this machine has not equaled the level of efficiency I am currently getting or expected to get after one year of use. I would happily have bought an extra battery if "fatigue" was the reason for this dropoff but alas the battery is built-in and unremoveable except by an AASP or Apple technicians, something I was assured would "last the life of the computer."

In my situation, financial cost is trumped by lost productivity so an inexpensive replacement with ample battery life will do for now until I decide how to handle this machine. Sending my MBP in to Apple (as many of you have claimed to have done) only to be told that there's nothing wrong with it is a lesson in frustration I am all too eager to avoid for now. Moreover, any loss in productivity represents an even greater loss to me than simply time spent without the machine.

Google Chrome with video usage would one example to trigger discrete graphics.

However, you can always use gfxCardStatus to force integrated graphics only.

Like you, I also did quite a bit of configuration changes.

1. Switched from 4GB ram to 12Gb (max allowable for my 2010 model)
2. Switched from the standard drive to Samsung 830 SSD 512Gb... it is fast, but it doesn't improve battery life much

I kind wish that there is some type of power management program for Apple MBP, so that it dynamtically adjust the power usage. ThinkPad does this by recommend user with screen brightness, DVDR drive power switch, etc, based on the remaining amount of battery life.