Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

So I purchased a 13" macbook pro. I heard a lot of great things about the battery life... Well Im getting 2.5 -3 hours just using the internet. I did the SMC reset, PRAM, and checked for "rogue" apps... I have none. Still getting 2.5-3 hours battery life. Took my macbook into the Genius Bar.. they told me that battery life various depending on usage and that mine was within their paramters. Did the complete drain, left off for 8 hours, charged it to 100% then checked again..still at 97% max.One thing I noticed, is that it never charged to 100%. It would get to 97% capacity and max out there( using coconut). So right off the bat I lost 3% of the battery life with my new purchase. I am past my 14 days return policy.

Anything else to try?

Take a backup of your Mac and then head to the Genius Bar - do a clean reinstall of ML 10.8.2. I faced this same issue for 2 months on my brand new MBP 13, inspite of changing the Battery.

After reinstalling ML, the battery seems to run for 5 hrs in real world scenarios. If you switch off Wi-fi and other ports, reduce brightness and work offline on MS Office, I saw my battery reach 10:30 hrs:mins @97%.

I still believe it is more of a ML (software) issue than a hardware one. 10 8 3 should resolve this but until then, there is no other option. Good to reinstall rather than lose precious charging cycles. Earlier I used to charge my MBP twice per day. With the same usage, it is now down to once every 2 days.

My MBP also used to heat up a lot. After the reinstall, it's much cooler.

Thanks, Ketan

Very sorry, forgot to mention that I did do a clean install after I realized the battery life I was getting was sub par. I was running smc fan control and never eliminated this as an issue. Would that drain the battery? I was not running the fan past 4k rpm. I closed it and am using istat to monitor. So far it seems good, it is showing 6:19 @93%

Any eta on 10.8.3? I see people that have it with the beta, but I am not sure how to get in on that...

economist22 wrote:

Very sorry, forgot to mention that I did do a clean install after I realized the battery life I was getting was sub par. I was running smc fan control and never eliminated this as an issue. Would that drain the battery?

Yes

It sounds like 10.8.3 is out now. I look foward to hearing the feedback from others who might give it a try before I am able to get home and install. Good luck! I hope Apple has addressed the problems.

It's on the AppStore.... doesn't mention anything about battery life though. I'm going to be a chicken and wait for other's feedback first!!

I get 5 hours on 85% using a macbook air late 2010 🙂 Im a happy camper.

Luiis wrote:

I get 5 hours on 85% using a macbook air late 2010 🙂 Im a happy camper.

Is that an estimate or actual?

" Actual " with safari and itunes open 😉

I like that 🙂

I've been on 10.8.3 for about 2 months. Prior to that, I am a heavy user and getting a REAL at most 4 hours, 3 1/2 hours was average (to get to 5% left).

Since 10.8.3. I am getting a REALY 5 1/2 to 6 1/2 hours with heavy usage.

After a 1 1/2 years of poor battery life (I've never changed battery) of testing, every day since the 10.8.3 upgrade, it's never gone back to the old days. In fact, even running VMWARE, Windows 64 bit Win 7 on it along with ALL my MAC apps, I get close to 4 hours. (was getting 2 hours). I get about 4 1/2 hours with FULL video. Was getting about 2 hours).

So for me, it's GAME, SET and MATCH to 10.8.3 - Luiis. Your results MATCH mine. And I can also now confirm, a lot of people in the 10.8.3 seed forums were seeing about the same results too 🙂

Go APPLE.🙂

all battery life and battery percharge are all Estimated !!!

I have updated, and it looks great so far 67% 4:49, same percentage used to be 2:15

accourding someone here so wanted to be Apple expert, you will never need to update your OS X, as it shipped "perfect", all you need to do is change every single part of your hardware and software until you get it right OR unitl you get "sicked".

accourding to Apple official and REAL APPLE Expert, they will always advise you to update to the latest software updates.

which one you taking is up to you, but if you don't update, you will not able to find out what is really wrong with your system, as if that problem is really exclusived to your system's problem.

lovejam2012 wrote:

all battery life and battery percharge are all Estimated !!!

which one you taking is up to you, but if you don't update, you will not able to find out what is really wrong with your system, as if that problem is really exclusived to your system's problem.

I have updated thank you

I have just updated and have an estimate of 3:09 on a 99% charge, early 2011 15" MBP.

Not looking any better than before. Anyway I'm off to sleep, I'll check tomorrow whether it will improve...

I've just updated, too, on late-2011 Macbook Pro 13". I'd say the situation appears to be better - I'm on 43% with almost 3 hrs of battery to go, on waking the screen a few minutes ago the clock showed 4:51, which has never happened on ML before. Also, battery percentage doesn't seem to simply crumble before my eyes, it's taking some time - real time - to go down. This reminds me of SL and Lion, where the nominal 7-8 hrs of battery life could be achieved only while browsing the web or editing text, on 30% brightness and without heavy lifting. More demanding usage and the battery would last for approx. 5 hrs. And I have a feeling this would be the case here, too... let's hope I'm right.