My MBP battery life has drastically reduced after Lion upgrade..anybody else see this symptom ?

So here's what I've found while monitoring the CPU usage in Activity Monitor...

• I restart the computer, and let the CPU settle to around < 1% usage.
• I open the App Store, browse around a little bit, CPU usage is around 1-6% most of the time. I quit the App Store and the CPU usage returns to around 1%. I also openned the Twitter and Sparrow apps. With all of those apps in "idle" state the CPU usage is still around 1%.
• Now here's where it goes haywire... As soon as I open ANY WEB BROWSER (Chrome, Safari, or Firefox) my CPU usage instantly goes up to 15% and stays there, even when I'm not interacting with the browser. Now here's what's even crazier.. when I quit these browsers the CPU usage does NOT return back to 1%. It stays around 15% and the back of my MacBook starts to get really hot and the fans start spinning like crazy.

VERY ODD! Hope it gets fixed soon.

yep I have the same problem as wella s ITunes will no longer open when I connect my IPhone for syncing

Dustin:

have you tried to empty the caches of your browsers?

Just tried clearing the cache, cookies, and everything else. Didn't help at all 😟 Ugh. My MacBook is almost unbearble to use!

What happened in my case is that after installation of Lion, the full disk was re-indexed (spotlight). This took some hours, and of course increased CPU usage dramatically. However, after that, things went back to normal -- actually, much better than normal for what Safari is concerned: Safari was sometimes eating up all CPU in my Snow Leopard version. It now does not do it any longer.

Try waiting other few hours (let it on one full night (not on battery!) and see if it helps.

Same battery life issue. My 13" also gets very hot when closed and the apple logo on the back of the cover flashes on randomly when it's closed but not shut down.

We were having similar issues, that caused excessive drain of the battery, which were corrected in 3 ways.

1. We uninstalled a program, NeoOffice, that was not compatible with Lion, for which Activity Monitor indicated it was using over 100 % of the CPU's capacity. The NeoOffice web site indicates this incompatibility, and thus we now are using iWorks. Likely there are other such programs that people should check using the Activity Monitor and the program's supplier for information on compatibility.

2. The System Report generated by the System Information program in Lion indicated that my battery had a lot less capacity than I thought it should have, and it also said I needed to service the battery. I fully charged the battery, and then after a few hours, I ran a battery calibration: Operate the computer constantly off of the battery until it closes itself down and blacks out. Let it sit for at least 5 hours blacked out and not connected to any charger. Reconnect it to the charger 5 hours later and fully recharge it. At this point, I still got the message that I needed to service the battery, but there now was a greater battery capacity than before.

3. Finally I solved all excessive power draining and the message that the battery needed servicing by resetting the SMC (System Management Controller), http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964. Shut down the computer, disconnect it from the power adaptor, remove the battery, press the power button for 5 seconds, put the battery back in the battery compartment, reconnect to the power adaptor, and restart the computer.

Results: No more excessive draining of the battery, and the System Information now says the battery's condition is normal. Also I now have a really good charging capacity of the battery.

I'm curious as to how you remove the battery from a solid aluminum frame without voiding your Apple Care warranty. It's not like it's an HP where I just push a button and pop out the battery.

You don't have to remove the battery. The support article has steps on how to reset for newer computers. See below:

Resetting the SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own

Note: Portable computers that have a battery you should not remove on your own include MacBook Pro (Early 2009) and later, all models of MacBook Air, and MacBook (Late 2009).

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.
   Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Nice, I'll bare that in mind if it is an issue. I've found that part of my problem was just how much RAM Safari now uses. I'm using Rockmelt completely, now. I was using Rockmelt and then only using Safari as needed, but now that Rockmelt has an update for Lion, Safari isn't necessary.

Is it just me, or does anyone else find it annoying that the browsers that come with our OS's these days (whether it be Windows or Mac) are useless compared to their OpenSource counterparts?

I just noticed Flash might be the problem. Re-installing it might solve it, otherwise Adobe will have to fix it with an update.

Here's a screenshot of my Activity Monitor. Notice how the % user and & system are 20 and 30% or higher? Nothing in the list of processes adds up to anything nearly that much. UGHHHH

This seems to be a huge problem for a lot of people. Does this mean that Lion is indeed legitimately draining battery life?

I was considering upgrading to Lion, but after reading all of these posts, I won't take the chance.

New features are never worth the longevity of your machine. Glad I ran into these discussions before I upgraded..

My Battery life is now terrible, and there doesn't seem to be a report anywhere outside these forums about it.

This is what I'm absolutely horrified about. I just bought my Mac, and the last thing I want is something as serious as this. It seems a lot of people have this very same problem. But, I'm also sure that there are people who have upgraded to Lion successfully. Do you think it's worth risking the upgrade? i might just wait until all of the bugs are ironed out...