Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

After sleeping on this; I realized that the my data and bApTizE's data were not in the same time period. My data was over 1 hour while the other data set was over 2 hours. What this means is that the both data sets are behaving properly. So, unless we get another data set that shows something different, we can rule out "battery charging" as the source of the reduced battery life.

For those who have installed a Belkin router software of some sort, please try the following.

This afternoon, as I have noticed in the Activity Monitor that this "USB Print and Storage Center" is running and is taking up 100% CPU. At this point, I was down on 50% (1 hour reminaing). The moment I quit this process, my battery life immediately went up. As I am typing this, I have 46% (2:18 hours remaining).

I recently went to Apple Store to have my battery replaced as they quoted that my charge cycles were too high (which is because I keep getting 2 hours of battery life out of it and I had to charge it quite often). Replacing it did not fix it and it seems that some app/process seems to kick in after 30mins of start-up and start draining the battery.

Quitting this "USB Print and Storage Center" seems to have done the trick. As I'm finishing this post, battery is quoting 45% (2:28 reminaing).

update:

After more than a month away from the forum, can provide a brief update:

- On all systems tried, ML performs ok, even on 4 year old machines. battery life is consistant. MBA 2012 I get 6 to 8 hrs.

- Usage method, using scientific principles, is the number one battery secret. On all my units, just 4-5 improper cycles (fast discharge followed by insufficient charging) would ding the battery health. All cases, proper calibration and charging, and proper RAPID CHARGING keeps 3 yrs + olde units at 93%.

- MBA 2012 magic number is 97%. Seems it will not move from there. May drop but a proper Full Charge will just bring it back.

- Apple monitoring reveals DIFFERENT health numbers. SO an older MBP am told it is 93 % by ML, and 98% in store using their tool

- All cases of drain batteries, the culprit was DEFECTIVE BATTERIES. Total replacements: 5. Current batteries: all work as spec. So in other words, Apple replaced batteries until the replacements did not drain. By deduction, Apple concluded all the replaced batteries were defective.

Things such as Bluetooth consume way to much. 1.2 watts more or 1000 to 2000 mAh more than a wifi dongle.

Evidenltly MBA 2012 lasts 30 days standby, and older machines, correspondingly, less.

My biggest lesson is that proper cycling is the secret. Just three cycles on video from 100 to 5% would ding the health of any battery. Proper technique is 100 to 40% (following the Li Ion discharge curve science) followed by full replug and that battery stays fit at whatever health status is at. In these two months, MBA 2012 did over 100 hrs video on battery (86 hours Sopranos and several movies), and the battery works perfectly. In one case I played 5 Soprano episodes in a row, at over 45 min each.

Anyone getting less than 6 hrs with normal usage should get the battery replaced. As those that followed my posts know, I had 4 defective new MBAs in a row, two battery related, one trackpad and one faulty LED panel. When it came to battery, new batteries solved all the problems and I no longer worry about anything.

Would anyone comment on the above battery diagnostics. I'm a newbie

Thanks

bartlettpsj wrote:

In the end I got it back Thursday evening - after 5 days --- and that was after hassling them and telling them I'll buy another same machine and return it within 14 days for my money back. But again, it's Christmas, so they seemed rather busy in the store. They told me on Thursday that "it will be looked at today". So basically I think it takes 30mins-1hr to replace and test, but 4.99 days to wait till someone looks at it.

Csound1 wrote:

bartlettpsj wrote:

Not sure if this is related, after disapointments with poor battery life on Macbook Air 13" with ML, swapped to Macbook pro 15" Retina now battery completely died -- after 3 months. Battery is reading 0%, will not charge, Condition: Replace Battery. 25 cycles!

Took it to the Apple shop Sunday after speaking to Apple support, who agreed the battery has failed. It is now Wednesday and still they have not replaced the battery. 3-4 days later!!

I called yesterday (Tuesday), as I have lots of work to get on with, and they said, don't hassle us, we'll call you when it's ready --- how long does it take to replace the battery.

When you find out how long it takes please post back, I've never had to replace one and am curious.

Thanks for the post

Pretty bad. Your battery is behvaing at only half its capacity and only after 69 cycles .. it is already nearly dead.

I agree thid has become ridiculous. My Apple Macbook Pro has now the battery capacity of a DELL.

Herewith status of my battery with coconut battery .. it speaks for itself. See how battery max capacity dropped in just two days .. and I was really not doing anything special.

You will also note that the gain in battery max capacity between 04/08/2012 and 02/10/2012 is the result of latest OSX Lion Mountain upgrade / fix from Apple (from its previous Lion Mountain version), i.e. if it was needed to prove initial issue of battery capacity (and life) was created by OSX Lion Mountain here it is. Despite this temporary fix the battery drain is continuing .. and from what I am reading here and there it does not look like a new battery will fix it.

i've had this Mac for 3 months since it was bought, even do the battery age states "6 months". Would you recommend me, to book an appointment at the Genius Bar? Like you said my battery is underperforming after only 69 cycles!

Why not ? I'll be curions to see what these guys would say about it. Your Mac is obviously still under warranty and I'd be you I would demand for a new machine if they cannot fix it by changing the battery. As a minimum you should ask the battery to be replaced.

I had the appointment with an Apple representative earlier today, where I explained the battery issues which I have been experiencing. My Mac was then tested with Apple's hardware diagnostics test. The outcome stated that all hardware is working correctly and there are no significant problems with battery performance.

I expressed my dissapointment due to poor battery performance even do the "diagnostic" was showing no defects. The next step was for me to leave the computer overnight for further tests to be carried out, which I may have to do in the near future.

Finally I requested for my battery to be replaced, but the Apple representative refused as there was nothing to show on the hardware diagnostic, that the battery was faulty.

That is becoming a shame. Next time by a DELL .. at least you'd know from start what you have in hands. 😟

I went back to Lion for now. I will consider samsung before i jump on the apple bandwagon my next purchase.

I think this is a great thread - Ive learnt alot from it.

Is it that their are 2 separate issues....

1) The battery life under mountain lion

2) Battery degredation under mountain lion

I have the RMBP 15" and thanks to the suggestion about the gfxstatus app I can see when the switch occours between the intel 4000 and the Nvidia GT650 - along with the impact. its really helped me understand why using certain programs drain the system - iphoto using the nvidia as standard for example. The more ive read about and seeing the commercial again that says - "battery life varies under usage and configuration" means that a 2.7ghz config is probably going to suck more power than a 2.3ghz machine" etc.

THe degredation thing is the worry - could it really be ML that does that. Or is it that it doesnt read properly under mountain lion for certain configs - ie the battery is fine but the software says otherwise. I dont know, but im reading so much on this where apple say its fine under their diagnostics. Of those who have gone back to Lion, does the battery degredation still show?

I do not believe there is a degaradation issue, I thought there were but after 4 new MBAs' and older MBPs, there is no battery degradation issue with ML. HOWEVER,

- There is a battery degradation issue with any defective battery. Having tested and seen it, it is clear that only a defective battery does not hold a charge. HOWEVER, as per a recent post:

- turn on some features (video, even if on pause), will increase your consumption

- Some units, if your preview remains on in the background, it may turn the dedicated GPU on. Now that would explain the smaller battery life.

On a 2008 MBP initially I thought ML was killing its battery. After I replaced it, not a glitch. The batery life initially seemed less than SL, however, after a few cycles, the new battery stabilized at 93% indicated, and stays there. 3 hrs+ and better than SL. Yes, installing SL gives me less battery life (also check Arstechnica article on ML and battery life 10.8.2) Also it is much faster with ML than SL.

On MBA 2012 - with a working battery- no glitches. 6-8 hours. 5 x 50 min VLC video episodes in a row on on a charge. Apple store saw the rapid discharge on one battery and promptly replaced it. When the battery is defective it is easy to spot. For the rest, its a fluke, I think more than 99.999 of these shipped units have no issues. Get a new battery and you will see the difference. But before that, make sure your variables are controlled. CleanOS, no whistles, no addons. Try it for a week. I did this, simultaneously on a few machines, about 10 times. My conclusion was posted months ago. ML works fine, battery management is better than LION or SL