Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Please post on this newer common thread now as well.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135250?start=120&tstart=0

Forbes has picked this up and the more people we see posting, I think the more attention we might get from Apple..

http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2012/07/31/mountain-lion-kills-battery-l ife-like-lion-did/

Franc_Iphone wrote:

 

Well it looks like people going to Mountain Lion from Snow Leopard are seeing the same problems as we've been having for over a year.

 

I've posted over there. They are trying all the same old garbage we've tried (and failed) for the last year. PRAM / SMC / Fresh builds and all that...

 

MAYBE, Apple will step up - but judging by what Apple told me, they can't fix it. It's the way the GPU now works.

 

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135250?start=30&tstart=0

Yes, Apple contacted me a year ago and said they were aware of the problem. Since they have been unable to fix it, I think they are obligated to downgrade the battery life they advertise. I bought two brand new machines that both had less than 3 hours battery life running Safari and Mail—far less than the advertised claim. Apple recently had to backtrack on false advertising in Europe with their iPads (and 4g networks). Now, they should be forced to backtrack with the outrageous battery life claim.

The point is this: a laptop is for portability. Quite useless if it won't stay on for a cross-country flight or half a day from the office. Given that they are the most expensive laptops in the world, yes, it is more than a little surprising. As Forbes magazine recently wrote on this issue: "Not good, not good."

Wow.  I really hadn't noticed this for certain until last night.  I thought my Macbook Pro 2.3ghz quad-core i7 was running down AWFULLY quick, but I've just moved and I wasn't sure how well it was charged beforehand, etc.  Last night I had unplugged it from charging all day and had it largely sitting still with Safari open while I ate dinner.  Went to surf a couple of websites and battery was down to 28%.  This all took place in roughly 1.5 hours.  I've never paid much attention to it before because this machine has been able to run on battery for about 4 hours in the past.  Often I've had it disconnected and used it all evening only to realize it wasn't plugged in when the battery warning popped up.  Something has definitely changed for the worse since I upgraded to Mountain Lion.  I love the OS, but it's definitely put the hurt on my battery!

right now I have almost 5 hours of battery life (only safari is on). I have Macbook Pro i7 2.3GHz early 2011 with 7200RPM drive and 16GB DDR3 1600MHz memory. I will monitor the battery and post again if this changes.

We will all be poised in front of our monitors awaiting your results.

I see your sarcasm   Anyway...... I will just post of something strange happens. After all the more peolpe report a problem the bigger the chance to have some results

Bonyo wrote:

 

I see your sarcasm   Anyway...... I will just post of something strange happens. After all the more peolpe report a problem the bigger the chance to have some results

That may be so, but this is not the place to report, try this instead

Ich habe vergleichbare Probleme.

beim Macbook Pro 13" Early 2011 - 16GB RAM - SSD 512GB ca.2h weniger laufzeit im Batteriebetrieb.

Hauptsächlich beim Surfen - Bei Videowiedergabe tritt der Fehelr nicht so stark auf

Let me translate mcgeist's post:

"I have similar problems.

with my MacBook Pro 13'' Early 2011 - 16GB - SSD 512GB approximately 2 hours less bettery time.

Mainly when surfing the web - Watching videos I don't recognise it that much."

Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

I'm not Genius(tm), but if Apple Engineers were to simply check the RPM of the fans on the early 2011 MacBook Pros, they'd find that the default setting in OSX 10.8 is for roughly 3200-3300 rpm versus the 1900-2000 under 10.7. This would certainly account for the reduced battery life.

Usually, I associated this with a runaway process, but according to my htop output, it doesn't look like it. Instead, it seems that the update changed this default setting.

Please fix ASAP, or release 10.8.1.

mel.llaguno wrote:

 

 

Please fix ASAP, or release 10.8.1.

Olease tell Apple

http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html

You are only talking to other users here, not Apple.

Cheers

Pete

Did not change my fan default setting.  They are humming along around 2000 and battery life is about the same than Lion: ca. 5hrs. running only Safari and Mail.

I think I'm going to try a reinstall on ML before I try to revert to a Lion download. I've had the same troubles as everyone else in this post. My exhaust fan has been noisy as all ****. iStat shows that it is at a perfectly normal RPM speed, and Activity Monitor shows 97-98% User and CPU idle. My battery life is horrifying. I am beginning to regret the upgrade. I never had these problems on Lion.

Mid 2012 MBP.

Miy fan is doing the same thing. With nothing running at all, excluding Finder, the RPM ranges from 1997-2001, which is normal, but it would normally be silent. My brother has the same computer, and his is dead silent.