Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

I've clean-installed ML (10.8.2) on a separate partition.

When doing nothing, with Bluetooth and WiFi disabled, putting screen on just first brightness level and turning off backlit keyboard, the battery meter showed 9+ hrs (when about 98% full). More like the SL itself...

Obviously, this is not a real life test.

When I enabled WiFi, started up Safari and started downloading one file, the meter showed 5h33m when 91% full. A bit better than the SL->ML upgrade installation.

Now, I will install the beta 10.8.3 update from today and will check how will it behave.

So after applying today's (yesterday's?) beta update I got max. 8h55m @82% (same condition as in my previous email + Safari had been running in the background - 3 tabs open - and also System Preferences was running).

Enabling WiFi and reloading web page in it dropped the indicator initially to 8h24m (still @82%) and then to 7h30m @80%.

Getting screen brightness to some convenient level (at least for me - it's an evening over here at the moment) of 6 squares in the OSD meter - max. time remaining of 7h04m @80%, dropped to 6h45m in about a minute, stabilizing at 6h40m when doing writing down this post.

Just after a few minutes typing, the indicator went a bit up to 6h50m @80%.

I would say this is acceptable for me. Obviously, I use some additional applications on a daily basis but my short tests show some significant improvement, for me at least.

I hope it will have any use for you, bringing some hope for the long-awaited update.

Also, for your reference, I'm using early 2011 MBP 15" w/ 2.3GHz i7 and AMD 6790 1GB + 16 GB RAM and HDD.

If you want any other information - let me know and I will gladly answer them.

What's the build number of 10.8.3 you've just installed?

I don't think it matters, from my experience. I started from the beginning and now have the latest. Still can't share too much as until it's public, who know's what it'll have!

Did you install the smc firmware upadate?

I'm on the latest and I didn't install SMC firmware 1.7 update.

Also, I've rebooted to the "updated" installation, now I have around 4h10m@60%, with Safari opened, WiFi enabled, TextMate 2 in the background, running istats menu with a few sensors, eset antivirus (any protection disabled for testing purposes, but the app is still on), google drive enabled and gfxcardstatus set to dynamic switching.

I have to perform tests with a stopwatch or something, just to see how many hours it could actually run for in such setup.

Today, I got a "Service Battery" warning (411 cycles count). Great!...😠 I'm thinking of disconnecting the battery, then putting it back. On the other hand, it is obviously a ML issue. How frustrating...

I've had the "Service Battery" warning for 6 months or more now. Currently the cycle count is at 57 !
I just installed the SMC 1.7 update on my MacBook Pro 15", mid-2010, 10.8.2.
Showing 90% charge and 3:02 time left. No improvement. 😠

A few minutes later, having been away from the machine, 87% and 3:42. Only Wifi and Safari running.

GaryGate wrote:

I've had the "Service Battery" warning for 6 months or more now. Currently the cycle count is at 57 !
I just installed the SMC 1.7 update on my MacBook Pro 15", mid-2010, 10.8.2.
Showing 90% charge and 3:02 time left. No improvement. 😠

A few minutes later, having been away from the machine, 87% and 3:42. Only Wifi and Safari running.

When you get Service Warning you're warned to service your battery I suggest you take your device to Apple and they're responsible for the damage and this is NOT your fault it's Apple they're the one who've screwed the Operation System…

The good news, Two guys yangcy and Franc_Iphone tested the Mountain Lion 10.8.3 beta build this will likely to solve everyone's issue when Apple releases to public this may also fix your battery life issue.

If you like to test the beta build you can try for now without any risk, But make sure take backup of Mountain Lion to avoid risk for the file or software damages, Please beware of the beta version is very unstable and there is also several bugs that is not yet fixed if you're not interested in Beta i suggest you to wait little longer till Apple releases the public version.

Good Luck and hope to see the upcoming updated version of Mountain Lion.

Sulaiman.K wrote:
When you get Service Warning you're warned to service your battery I suggest you take your device to Apple and they're responsible for the damage and this is NOT your fault it's Apple they're the one who've screwed the Operation System…

Yes, the problem for me is that the closest Apple Store is a 4 hour drive away, one way. The closest Service Center is 2.5 hour drive away. So I need to be sure that the problem will be fixed (battery changed) while waiting, because I'm not going to drive 2 x 5 hours for that.

GaryGate wrote:

Sulaiman.K wrote:
When you get Service Warning you're warned to service your battery I suggest you take your device to Apple and they're responsible for the damage and this is NOT your fault it's Apple they're the one who've screwed the Operation System…

Yes, the problem for me is that the closest Apple Store is a 4 hour drive away, one way. The closest Service Center is 2.5 hour drive away. So I need to be sure that the problem will be fixed (battery changed) while waiting, because I'm not going to drive 2 x 5 hours for that.

Whooa, The Apple Store seems to be very far from your area. I don't know what can i do for you 😟 There is nothing more can be fixed from user end. Only the way to do is you've need to change your battery to avoid the service warning.

There is a very similar thread to your issue see here and also there is possible fix for the behavior of service warning see here

The two links can also solve from user end but not 100% it maybe 50/50 sometimes your issue could be do to misbehaving this can also likely to be SMC related issue.

GaryGate & Sulaian.K,

thank you for sharing! Given that I'm depended on the computer for work, I have decided to wait for the 10.8.3 update, before starting to test every possible workaround. Hoping, of course, that after the update, I will not heve to. Sulainman.K, thank you for the links.

dikafe wrote:

GaryGate & Sulaian.K,

thank you for sharing! Given that I'm depended on the computer for work, I have decided to wait for the 10.8.3 update, before starting to test every possible workaround. Hoping, of course, that after the update, I will not heve to. Sulainman.K, thank you for the links.

You're welcome… Hope the links are useful for you 🙂.

I do not understand how we can just accept a lousy product like Mountain Lion.With all the complaints Apple has said nothing. We are clearly fools.At the moment I am sitting with my MBP on my lap and it sounds like it is about to take flight.The fan never stops,the cpu is so hot I am afraid to leave it plugged in incase it ignites, the battery life is 2 hours and it takes four hours to charge.I downloaded ML only because I needed the latest Java update for work.I really do not know what to do.....is there any good news on the horizon APPLE????

Runaway applications can shorten battery runtime ... - Support - Apple