Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

I don't think you understand. When I loaded up Snow Leopard and Lion on the same computer my battery life increased all the way to 6 - 7 hours of normal usage. On Mountain Lion i get 2-3 hours of normal usage. I know it is not a problem with my battery because the numbers definitely show it. As you can see, I get a lot of battery life running snow leopard and lion and a lot less running mountain lion. Also, the improvements in mountain lion are completely useless. All they did was add some (in my opinion), the dumbest features found on the ipad/iphone, for example, notification center. I mean are you really that lazy to open up mail and check for yourself? really? The only reason I upgraded to mountain lion is that certain programs I have require mountain lion for updates that I desperately needed.

Update on Battery LIfe Issue

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I, like others here, spent a TON of time trying to troubleshoot this battery life issue, which started when I upgraded to 10.8. For me, it improved slightly with 10.8.1 (because I think they addressed a fan issue) and degraded again with 10.8.2. Unable to solve the problem, I reverted back to Lion, 10.7.5, which improved my battery life (as well as resolved two other 10.8 issues – music stuttering and screen blanking). I have now upgraded to 10.8.3 and I am happy to report that my initial observations look promising. Apple addressed the music problem (and even mentioned it in their release notes), and I do not seem to have the screen blanking problem. At 95% remaining, I would say that battery life seems comporable to what I experienced with 10.7.5. No improvement, but no decrease either. This is interesting because the current usage "seems" a bit lower under ML than under Lion.

What I am really looking at is the current usage, which right now is around 860 mAh. So, I can take that, divide it by my remaining battery capacity and come up with my own time estimate. (For those you helped with some earlier testing, you'll know that this mAh, 800 to 900 value, is decent because some people reported numbers in the 1200 to 1400 mAh range. So, Apple did fix a power consumption problem with this release, which does explain the longer battery life – at least in my case.

I have not drained the battery sufficiently to know if the battery health issue – where by the capacity continued to decrease at a rapid rate – has been fixed. I will only know that after I've cycled the battery a few times.

This fix, along with the potential battery health fix (to be confirmed), "suggests" that the problem was in the software, configuration, and/or firmware and is not necessarily indicative of a defective battery.

Some people are still experiencing a problem. It could be one of several things. If your battery life did not increased, or decreased, with the 10.8.3 upgrade, please take a look at your batteries current maximum capacity in relationship to its original max capacity. It is possible that if you remained on 10.8.x (prior to 10.8.3) that battery health was adversely affected. Depending on the value, (e.g., <80% of original capacity) you might have to get that replaced. If your battery health is still good, then check your average current (mAh) usage. If that is still over 1000 mAh and you're not doing anything to tax the computer, then something is still wrong. It could also mean that the there are multiple issues at play and that they all haven't been solved. Or perhaps there is a piece of software on your machine that is causing the current draw.

If you confirm that your battery capacity is still close to original capacity, then perhaps you can try to clean some cache files (e.g., using Oynx) and/or reinstalling 10.8.3 using the Combo file. http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1640

Hope this helps

nelcab507 wrote:

...

About 2 or 3 months ago I notice the message that my battery needs to be replaced,

...

... I now have a battery that only charges 962 mAH, which is less than an iPhone battery ...

...It began losing mAH from the original amount which is 6900 mAH almost daily and sometimes abructly (once I just turn it off and was in about 4200 mAH and when I turn it on was only 2900 mAH).

TODAY,... I install the patch and the result... WAS THE SAME, my battery is only at 962 mAH. ...

nelcab507, It looks like your battery health was adversely affected by staying on ML through its earlier versions. As you noticed, it dropped from a capacity of 6900 mAh to 4200 mAh to 2900 mAh and is now only 962 mAh, which is less than an hour of up time doing anything other than sitting idle.

I don't know if the computer or the battery determines the battery health. But at this point it looks like your battery health isn't good and a replacement is in order. While I think battery health could fluctuate +/- 10%, I don't see it improving a lot from where you are today.

ScratchSF wrote:

I don't know if the computer or the battery determines the battery health. But at this point it looks like your battery health isn't good and a replacement is in order.

Battery health is affected by environmental conditions (air temp, air pressure and moisture content) as well as power drain (computer), manner of use (user), it is not a simple matter to isolate what is doing what, especially as these factors exist in combination.

Simple things can make a difference, do not flatten the battery (50% is as low as you should go prior to recharging, not always possible though), high temperatures and a high rate of discharge are to be avoided, same applies to low temperatures. A small perecntage of the battery chemicals are used up in every cycle (think of gas in a car, can't move without using some) but the user has only marginal influence here.

The best thing is to keep it on the power supply whenever possible, and try to avoid watching videos in the sun at a high altitude until the battery is flat.

Charge to 50-70% if storing the Mac.

I agree that the battery in question needs replacing, it is way out of the expected zone.

CSound1, HI!

Yes, I know that; thanks for the reminder of what affects battery health. Important to keep those in mind. I'm more curious to know "where" battery health is computed? Is it calculated in the firmware? In the software? Or in the microcontroller onboard the LiPo battery?

I agree about your comment about using the charger.

The data is supplied by the battery, I assume (as I am not sure) interpretation of the data is done by the computer firmware.

Installed 10.8.3 on my mid-2010 MacBook Pro. No positive change, now showing 2:21 at 89%.
Battery Capacity is showing a max of 4278 mAh, which is 62% of original 6900 mAh. Cycle count is only 60.
I'm very disappointed.

I'd be fed up about that too... 60 cycles?? Maybe it has something to do with age, too?

It's something I'm going to have to watch too. I am very pleased that the duration is back, but I noticed after 1 cycle it lost nearly 100mAh. Coconut Battery has logged that earlier it took nearly 30 cycles to reduce it by that much.... I'm now at 88 cycles, 6084 mAh, 91%.... all ok so far, but a sudden, big drop....

@GaryGate, it is unlikely that 10.8.3 will improve your capacity much from where it is now. And, while I speculate that ML 10.8, 10.8.1, or 10.8.2 could be the cause, I can't definitively say that without knowing where you stood before you updated to ML. If you are still within the warranty period, I would suggest that you take it in because I think the guidelines are 80% capacity for quite some time. I'm sure 60 cycles doesn't qualify as "quite some time."

I don't know what your average current is right now, but I would speculate it as around 1400 mAh - based on what you've said, which would translate into about 3 hours when fully charged. So, you have two issues: First, why is your mAh up that high (assuming that is, in fact true) and second, is there anything you can do to get your batter replaced to be closer to full health / capacity - which at this point probably means replacement?

Did your amount of remaining time change after your upgrade to 10.8.3?

@ScratchSF, here are some illustrations of my situation. I started this staistics collection after Mountain Lion install, when a lot of people were having problems.

ins

Max Capacity has dropped from yesterday 😟

The amount of remaining time is about the same as before upgrade to 10.8.3.

You are spot on for the mAh usage, it hovers around 1300-1400 mAh. I have hardly any applications running, Safari and Thunderbird, Activity Monitor, Dropbox, Messages. Wifi is on, Bluetooth off, screen at 50%, keyboard light off. Normally my Macbook is plugged in.
I agree, the battery is damaged beyond repair. No warranty anymore. But I have a 2 hour drive (one way) to nearest maintenance center, so I need to be absolutely sure they will replace the battery while waiting because I will not do the trip more than once.

In comparison here's a 3.2 year old battery on 10.8.3

No problem here with Safari, Opera, Mail, Activity Monitor, BusyCal and Preview, brightness at 70%. (I would not allow the junk called Dropbox on my machine) so SugarSync is running.

After waiting for 10.8.3 in hopes that this would resolve the battery issue I finally gave in and reverted to Snow Leopard. My old Macbook Pro now runs much cooler and the battery life has come back to pre-Mountain Lion levels. It even feels faster. I also like that I can unplug my laptop again!

I think my new rule of thumb will be to avoid any updates (Mac or PC) that are issued after the architecture has gone through a major upgrade. (Not just a processor change or speed bump.) A new OS may work but it will never be optimal for older computers.

Guess Mountain Lion will have to wait until I get a new iMac in the fall.

Hello Garry,

6 months on my MBA, I have 62 cycles and the battery health oscillates beteen 97-94 and 97%. However, you are using it improperly by having it plugged, and 60 cycles in 2-3 years means your battery runs on parasitic power. Your battery is not supposed to last, and whether L SL or ML it will equally damage a battery. True, powernap will consume more power in ML, and I dont need it so have it turned off. But equally, ML on older systems I tried, with new batteries, performs consistently. The only time I could find an inconsistency was either battery defect or other hardware defect (Aug to Sep 4 MBAs arrive with one defective battery and three with defective hardware in a row). Normally, if you have a warranty, your battery should be replaced. However, your usage is causing the issue. Am fairly sure that you do not use your cell phone plugged most of the time on a desk and the same principiple applies to these laptops.

Thanks Belsarius,

I'm such an idiot using my laptop in this way. My battery problem is all self-inflicted. How stupid I am. Next time I must get a laptop where the battery is easily removable for plugged-in use, like the Thinkpad I used before. It's still around, 9 years old, running Ubuntu sans problem.

Hello Gary

You are being too hard on yourself. No one is stupid. We all did it. I did it and several times Apple replaced my battery in a warranty. But I think Apple could really do the SMC and Power management much smarter, as to alert consumers they are not using it properly. But were they to do that, that means people would buy fewer replacement batteries. Also, the SMC and the battery chip make it much harder to use it once it gets the service sign. We all have known PC laptop owners that tell us they get only 10-15 battery life as 'it is old.' On macs, we never get that low as the OS essentially cuts access to a battery with such a poor health life. But all these laptop batteries, generally, are poorely built at $ 120 to 159 a pop. Were you to check the Apple store reviews for the A1175 batteries, they are atrocious. Those batteries, at $159, even today when you buy one it is a hit and miss. Cycling it correctly, they can still drop health too fast. I still do not know why iPhone batteries, or Samsung, etc, are so much better built then laptop batteries. Maybe someone more technically minded can answer? As there is not doubt, i never ever had to replace and iPhone battery. Maybe better industrial tolerance.

Another important thing, were you to remove a battery from a mac and run it plugged, it drops 30-40% voltage and specs, as a means to protect the hardware. Even removable batteries I would not do it as it slows the laptop big time. But you can run still run a laptop with battery plugged for some things- like the occasional video, streaming, ets, things that would drain the battery too fast anyway. Fast drain + heat are nearly as bad as not cycling.