Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

All I know (and it's my WAG) is ML has serious power drain problems - both while running, and while the system is asleep (losing 10% or more overnight is not normal). Some may have been addressed with 10.8.1 and 10.8.2, but for older machines, we're SOL. (And no, I'm still not buying that ML requires more power. Sleeping shouldn't require more power or a newer architechture. Browsing the internet shouldn't require the newest processor and motherboard.)

I did all the things suggested to my Mid 2009 MBP - full power cycle, reset SMC (about 30 times), and I even went through the pain of wiping and reinstalling ML. There was a slight increase in time, but nowhere near where it was before I upgraded to ML. There aren't people posting here, because they either gave up, or just don't know to come here and post. A couple friends that upgraded to ML are experiencing serious power drain issues, but they haven't come to this forum.

I for one have pretty much given up and have resigned myself to the fact that my battery drains like crazy, and I have to plug in and recharge constantly, and be in range of an outlet when I'm not home. And that my battery life will be shorter due to the constant recharge cycles.

Understood...and not good. My Late 2010 MBA was losing a good 2% of battery life every five minutes as well as 15% or more overnight too prior to the last fresh install. I didn't have Power Nap enabled either, so no idea what kind of vampire was living inside.

I'm sure you did, but right after the fresh install (not upgrade correct?) of ML, did you try resetting the SMC again? Mine acted the same after the fresh install until I did that. Took about 3 to 5 charge cycles for it to settle in, but now it's performing slightly above spec. Not as good as with Lion, but nothing like the horror show right after updating to ML.

Anyway, hope Apple's able to resolve this for you!

Yes, of course I did reset the SMC.. many times. Before and after the reinstall. And I've had probably a dozen charge cycles since too. This model doesn't have Power Nap, so that's not the problem either.

Now this is interesting...

After reinstalling ml from fresh a few days ago I was getting a reasonable amount I time out of my MacBook.

Last night I reinstalled the adobe suite me maya. I turn my machine back on this morning after a full charge and its back to 3.2 hours!! Now... Illustrator and flash required that I install te java app onto my machine which I've heard mentioned before on this thread. I'm wondering if its anything to so with that?!

I guess there's only one way to find out and try and uninstall it (or my whole machine again)

Whilst I'm here. Does somebody know how I can download ml onto a USB stick?

Many thanks!

N

O, **** .. what we going to do with the computer without install Adobe software ?

Oops, I forgot, perhaps install the Apple battary diagnstic app to collect faulty data is all this machine for now lol

thanks for share your information, I will try that too, great finding ...

I just read that Apple is beginning 10.8.3 and I can only hope that something is in there to improve my battery life. It's been since early August when Apple called and had me run their application and share the results. The clean install and SMC reset seems to be a bandage for my MBP and 2.5 hour battery life is unacceptable. At least I'm not getting the "Service Battery Now" error.

tcphoto1 wrote:

I just read that Apple is beginning 10.8.3 and I can only hope that something is in there to improve my battery life. It's been since early August when Apple called and had me run their application and share the results. The clean install and SMC reset seems to be a bandage for my MBP and 2.5 hour battery life is unacceptable. At least I'm not getting the "Service Battery Now" error.

10.8.3 hopefully has good news indeed. Didn't realize that you were getting the battery service error. What's the battery health reading and how many cycles?

The battery is about eighteen months old with 289 cycles and 89% health. After installing ML, I noticed that battery life dropped from 3.5 to 2.25 hours and then the "Service Battery" warning.

Ok, found an interesting app (if no one has previously recommended it) called iStat Menus 3. It has voltage, current draw, etc to monitor what's ailing your MBP under Mountain Lion. I'm monitoring now to see if I can find a culprit. If someone dares, might try installing Lion and iStat get the readings and then do the same under Mountain Lion.

Good Luck!

my latest update: so, after thinking that the installation of java made my battery go down - now Im not too sure. My battery estimations are still going all over the place. THis morning it went from 3.4hrs to 18hrs estimated! Ill try and do another timed test at some point this weekend.

Nickholl wrote:

my latest update: so, after thinking that the installation of java made my battery go down - now Im not too sure. My battery estimations are still going all over the place. THis morning it went from 3.4hrs to 18hrs estimated! Ill try and do another timed test at some point this weekend.

How many charge cycles since the fresh install? The reason I ask is that mine took about five to really settle in and start giving me accurate readings. IIRC I noted a few times where it said I had 15 days worth of battery life or so! 😮 The reading didn't last long, but it was interesting to see.

The initial reading when you first boot up may be off a ways as well. Give it a few minutes to calculate actual time.

FWIW Java itself shouldn't be problematic (other than some security concerns if you don't keep it updated via Oracle). I have to have it for Adobe's CS Suite. That said, most any application that uses Java will likely be pretty power hungry...so there may be a corralation there. More here. A runaway Java process could eat up battery life. You can see if that's the case by opening Activity Monitor > All Processes > % CPU. If Java is stuck at the top you could reboot to see if it goes away.

Did you install the free MiniBatteryLogger and/or the Battery Health App? It's a little easier to just check those once in a while, otherwise OCD sets in. 😉

Two things you might want to try as well. Repair permissions. Also you might want to reset the SMC one more time just to be sure things are as they should be.

But if things don't smooth out shortly I'd still head back to Apple.

So.. after 2 months of trying and contact to Apple they gave up.. there is no solution for the battery problem under ML.. so they decided give me an compensation and I have to use Lion. I will get a new battery and the compensation, but don't know what this exactly means.

So.. It is official: There is no solution and Apple has no idea..

How exactly did you manage that, I've talked to service support and visited the genius bar and they told me just to wait for an update. What macbook do you have and whats your cycle count??? I have to wait while my battery deteriorates and the cycles count increases above normal, double the cycles per week.

UPDATE: After a third clean install and numerous SMC resets health has improved to around 90-95% but battery continues to drain after approximately 2hrs and there have been some noticeable performance issues and crashes under ML, most significantly double the memory usage of applications than normal under 10.7 and 10.8.1.

So people may wonder why I have not posted here in a while. I was busy and also did not have time to fiddle with my 4th MBA...

I did, and it seemed ok, as I posted earlier. Then I realized (1 week old) that it is not flat when you open it. Left front foot lifted... And oh no... drain problem. over 5% /10 hrs sleep and eye visible when in use. Just appeared with the 4th cycle. Reformatted, SMC, and sure, it says 6-7, but dropped 1% every 1.5 minutes... Took it to Apple, and right away, was told, "If your battery swelled, it would bend the bottom cover." They opened it, and within 5 min appointment to check it in, it dropped 3%. "Wow" said the two geniuses.. They took it in, replaced the bottom cover, battery, and discharge problem appears solved.

Bottom bending is not necessarily caused by the battery, but ever a slight bent, was told, would mess up the battery. Not onyl that but it is clear: 3 tests over 4 days, in sleep, the laptop dropped 3-4 % in four days..I just opened it, did a screen shot, and closed the lid.

What I did is consistent with what both me and richadams posted earlier. Did not waste too much time fiddling, took it in and had a hardware component replaced. Fiddling with installs is a supreme waste of time. Once is enough. One SMC is enough. Then take it in.

Total cost to apple? $443 for faulty components.

I made every test they wanted and I said, that I will not accept any "wait for an update" trash, because it is my working computer and I NEED it. So we made different tests with Clean Install Lion and ML, Battery Time and so on.. and they do not know what is the problem. My battery lost 12% Health in 1 week because of the 20 loading cycles.. so I will become a new one and the only solution is: Use Lion.