Q: Lion - Horrible MacBook Pro Battery Life

Just had my worst Apple experience (on the phone with Apple Care) since converting from PCs a year and a half ago.  Have previously gone to the Genius Bar and have talked to Apple Care twice before about the post-Lion battery issue. Every person with whom I spoke acknowledged that getting between 1.5-3 hours (max) on a 100% normally functioning battery is unquestionably a problem.
Today I was routed to a Senior Apple Care specialist who reviewed my situation, asked for a system report, etc. I explained I only use Word, Outlook and Firefox (no iTunes, no gaming, no other high powered apps) and only get 3 hours on a good day with 100% charge and that if I did open iTunes or the like, I might get 1.5-2 hours (max).

While every other Apple Care specialist with whom I have spoken has said this is abnormal and that a fix needs to be found, this guy said its just my new normal and that I should get used to it. He  suggested that I might try turning Airport off "when not using it." I reminded him that two of the three apps I use are Outlook and Firefox!!! He said "Ok, so if you're working in Word, try turning Airport off."  Unbelievable.

Other Apple Care specialists have suggested swapping the battery, reinstalling Lion, etc. This guy just suggests getting used to it.  I'm at a total loss...

Battery life no different but for sure my MAC MAIL is working properly with Exchange!!!

For sure I give Genius and so far, the Apple Care people an A+ - it's the people in the back office not feeding them data that's the problem. It does sound like a D- in this case and I hope that's not the new norm!

I did do a clean install of 10.6.8 after disappointing battery life and overall performance on a mid-2009 13" MBP with 10.7.2. I went from the MacBook's original system disc and did a 10.6.8 combo update (followed by a reinstall of my applications. I also did an SMC reset (I tried this a couple of times before the downgrade without any noticable effect). Battery life went from <3 hrs under Lion to 5.5+ (normal for me) with SL.

One intersting thing I noted under Lion: when I umplugged the charger, the battery life indicator would immediately display 99%. This did not happen under SL (100%).

Just for fun this weekend, I'm going to try some power consumpton tests on an iMac I have at work (I run a college computer lab and fairly regulary run engery use testing for the school's sustainability efforts). The 2011 iMac I use as a prototype has a 10.6.8 image and the identical software set/configuration running on 10.7.2 on a different boot partition (gotta love those terabyte drives). It will be interesting to see if the desktops are sucking more power under Lion, as well. Will report back.

--Ric

Sorry Leslie.  In Activity Monitor can you select View>Columns>Virtual Private Memory and repost the snapshot?

No offense....but look at all of the crap you have running. You cant really expect decent battery life. Skype???

Reading your post, I am not sure if you are pro apple or pro 'this *****' but really?

I have a Genius bar appointment tomorrow, will give the locals an earful, will see what they have to say about it.

Back to Snow Leopard, only selected updates (not 10.6.8) and again that nice feeling that you have a great machine in your lap. Another thing that I noticed with recent updates (both Lion and SL) that Mac wouldn't be instantly ready on wake up like used to be. It is now!

When I took the screen shot above keyboard light was on 1 bar, screen on 5, anti virus, WiFi on, Chrome (with flash content), Caffine, gmail notify and preview were active.

If you want battery to last longer and you are tired of reading this forum try the same.

Sincerely yours

Dr Chandra Troll (son of McDave and W. Kucharski)

I have not read this entire thread but I know we're having the same problem. I'm running a late 06 MBP with core 2 duo. Under leopard I was having heat, fan, and battery issues. Coolbook fixed the problem. Under SL with coolbook things got even better. I was undervolting to cap it out at 0.95 V. Coolbook doesn't work on Lion and all my old problems are back and worse than ever. The systems runs at a min of 1.18 V, temps start at 80 degrees C, and the fans hold at 6000 rpms.

I think that apples power management .kext files force the machines to run too hot (too much voltage). This may be optimized or tolerable for the newest chips or mac pros, but not for older models or laptops. If I remove the power management  .kext files and run coolbooks, the problem is solved. But this is a hack I'm not happy to have to be doing.

Is it possible that flawed or inapproriate or poorly implimented power management at the kernel level is causing this problem?

When I use gfxCardStatus 2.1 and set it to only use intergrated. My flash player/tyoutube doesn't work anymore.. Any solution for that?

I bought MacBook Pro 8,2 last week, udpated software/firmware etc.  Noticed that battery is fully charged at 98% in first week and then 96% this week.  I read this discussion which mentions something about Skype.  Previous battery full charged status is when skype was running all time.

Then I stopped using Skype, tried recharging and to my surprise battery full charged level is 100% (6901 mAh).  Let me check if it stays there but happy that battery is getting fully charged now.

Hello,

Did you install this :  http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1450

I did and the the fully charged meter went from 2.5 hours to 3.5 hours on my 1 month old 17" Macbook Pro.

Now I have not tested it to see if the meter is lying about runtime, but it did go up an hour.

Joe

Yes, I updated my macbook pro last week and still had problems with battery level until today, when I stopped using skype and now battery is fully charged at 100%.

Update to my earlier post.  Skype is not affecting battery charging in anyway, I guess it is a problem with Lion.  Fully charged level again dropped from 100% to 98% when skype wasn't running.  So, started skype, let macbook pro run on batter until 80% and then started charging again, it went to 100% charging.  But when I am using macbook pro continuously with ac power, with intermittent sleep mode (during night and ac power is off in sleep mode during night) the fully charge level drops little bit.  I don't know if the charging system works this way.

Now, after charging back to full it is showing 100% but the fully charged level (mAh) 6901 but it is 6870 and charge remaining is 6840 mAh.

Let me see how it goes over few more days.

ASV6869 wrote:

 

I don't know if the charging system works this way.

Yes, ASV6869 it's meant to work that way and it always has worked this way.  Congrats on your first MacBook Pro by the way.

Same here, but it's not only my macbook pro (which i just bought in April '11), but my iPhone 4 as well.  Updated with the ios5.o update and my battery on it drains fast now as well.....I sure hope Apple has fixes to these problems soon.  I depend on hours of use without having to be plugged in.