Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

We have identical machines, and that is including the MomentusXT 750, I have 79 cycles on the 2011 battery and I get 6hrs out of it. The 2009 has 340 cycles and gets between 4 and 5. I have no complaints.

on a seperate topic as I give up with my battery with ML now its running between 89% and 100% but very little use unhooked running on the battery ...

I have the same HD

drive, but it has issues with chattering and going slow, Ive twice now done a full time machine and format on it, goes fast for a short time then goes slow again ?

I'm ok with my aging battery tanking .. im just concerned that if i throw a new one in it's place that is still going to suck because this is a software issue at the core.

I wondered if I had posted this because - "I have a 17" Macbook pro. Am about to get the battery replaced for the third time in four years.  It DID RUN (runs) too hot to touch (hot enough to burn skin), loses 100% of its charge in 1 hour 45 minutes.   I have been through this twice before, same problem.    This power loss is just doing email, and yes Apple, I follow all of your instructions to maintain battery life. Since owning this computer I also had to have the video card"

Yes even the video card problem is the same!!!

Can this be conincidence!

oh and I am on my 2nd charger cable!!!

Who else has notice a nose dive in quality? My old 2004 MacBook had no battery problems/cable problems and who knows the thief who stole it may still be getting good use out of it.

I am using a 4 year old MBP. And my second battery has just packed up - well swollen up! I upgraded to 10.6.8 (Haven't taken the step up the mountain yet as I still refuse to upgrade my CS3 software) My MBP stopped giving me a battery low warning and just shutdown. Then I notice the charge didn't last as long. Then it indicated it required service which apple told me means "Get a new one". After a longhaul flight the battery began to swell and became so bad I have just removed it and have to run without it. "Coincidence" I here you say. Well it is exactly what happened before.

Scary that it has been mentioned that some of the batteries have been known to cause a fire. The fact both mine swelled up during/within hours of longhaul flights should surely be of concern to apple not to mention the airlines. Anyone else with battery problems see battery detirioration/swelling after flying?

The battery problems are clearly known to apple. There are so many comments here and elsewhere. Buy an MBP for over £1,800 and have to buy 3 batteries and two chargers in 4 years and have the graphics card replaced in two (thank apple you acknowledged that was your problem and did it free!)

How long will apple fly high?

I replaced the battery last night. No more "service battery soon" messages and currently showing 6+ hours on a fresh charge. *crossing fingers*

I decided to upgrade to ML recently (even though I went through through two brand new laptops with short battery life) as I needed some ML-only compatible software. Battery life is definitely not as good, however, it's hard to tell since the time left is no longer displayed, and I haven't done a real time clocking yet.

But what I have noticed is that sitting there plugged in, I am losing one percent every 5-6 days or so. So fully charged, it's now reading 97%. Is this Apple's way of showing the natural degeneration of the battery? However, that makes no sense since I rarely take the laptop off of charge...

Seeing the problems that escalated prior to 10.8.2, what differences have you seen to verify the significant change in battery life?

If you leave it a few mins, then mouse over the % it does tell you the time remaining, mine prior to ML was little under 3hrs now ith ML wont charge over 98% and is 1hr 30 mins battery life ... also noticed the magsafe connector the end that illuminates is now getting fairly hot (never noticed that before)....

I'd go and get that to the apple store right away and post a message about the status

Toggling the auto graphics switching setting in Energy Saver worked for me.

Doubled my battery life!!!

Thank you so much to Lazinatorfor this fix

https://discussions.apple.com/message/18874807#18874807

For what it's worth, and im a new mac user (the last mac i had was a performa pc) I have a macbook pro 15" retina and the battery life was awful, I came here hoping for a solution and you guys had a lot of helpful suggestions. Anyway i did the dmc/smc reset, whatever its called, and it worked temporarily but the battery life dropped back down on the next shutdown cycle. This time i did the battery calibration, and turned off location services and **** if the battery life isnt over 11 hours remaining, and 98% after 35-40 minutes of regular internet browsing , email, chat. This combo really seems ot have worked for me! HUGE improvement. Really all i did was let it shutdown from low battery, let it sit overnight then recharged this AM. As well as the location services, which i have no idea if that made a difference, just wanted full disclosure. PS, before this I was struggling to get 3 hours out of it.

Thanks guys!

Finally fixed my issue with Battery Life in Lion/Mountian Lion.... Come to find out my battery was well passed it. 540+ cycles on a 2 year old battery for my 2008 MacBook Pro.

Got a new battery in December and been cycling it. Should have better results in a week or so.

Pixelation wrote:

 

Got a new battery in December and been cycling it. Should have better results in a week or so.

What does "been cycling it" mean?

Starting with a full 100% charge and letting the battery wear down til the laptop powers down to sleep mode, closing the lid (screen), and letting it charge until full.

That is a very bad idea for a Lithium Ion battery, don't do it, you're shortening its lifespan.