Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

Thanks for the info 🙂

i went back to lion for the second time, what a fiasco.... this reminds me of windows vista!!. I'm going to contact apple and get a refund for ML. I don't have hope that apple would even admit there is an issue with battery life!!

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

This is true, third-party applications through or not through the app store is causing battery life to be less and less, however, yesterday I was working unplugged and my MBP17 had only 3 hours of use in it, beginning from 100% battery life. This is a change since I upgraded to 10.8.4 a few days ago. This is substantially less battery than previously experienced. I did work with airport turned off. Applications open were few, all of which were not third party.

Processor 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7

Memory 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

Graphics Intel HD Graphics 3000 512 MB

Software OS X 10.8.4 (12E55)

CT wrote:

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

Brand new installation of ML with latest update, above is a moot point.

To me, this sounds like apple is slowly going down the drain pipe.......

P.S. Why do i get more battery life while on Lion 😕

I have tried everything on this thread and others, I have researched off of this site. No amount of reverting to clean installs of Lion, monitoring battery use, shutting down runaway applications, rechecking SMC updates, clean reinstalls of 10.8.x, resetting SMC after each evolution has had an effect. Is is possible that the 10.8.2 fried a hardware switch on the CPU for power stepping? My Air has felt hot to the touch since 10.8.2.- I never felt this before 10.8.2 when web-browsing.

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I hope I made it clear in my post above that I have tried all of the above. It is upsetting to invest this much energy for the inclusion of some new features I don't care about. The merging of ios and OS X is an absurdity.

bcenteno wrote:

I have tried everything on this thread and others, I have researched off of this site. No amount of reverting to clean installs of Lion, monitoring battery use, shutting down runaway applications, rechecking SMC updates, clean reinstalls of 10.8.x, resetting SMC after each evolution has had an effect. Is is possible that the 10.8.2 fried a hardware switch on the CPU for power stepping? My Air has felt hot to the touch since 10.8.2.- I never felt this before 10.8.2 when web-browsing.

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I wonder if anyone can hardware test your theory above about the CPU!! my late macbook pro 2011 gets really hot on the ML but not at all on the lion.

Just reiterating what everybody has been saying for almost a year now: battery life is abysmal.

I have a 2011 13" MBP, had it loaded with Lion and battery life was great, talking like 7 to 8 hours. I left the country last August, came back a couple weeks ago, and stupidly without checking a forum like this "upgraded" to Mountain Lion. Now I'm struggling to hold onto a 4 hour charge, and that after a few adjustments.

Speaking of which, a quick note on these "runaway applications": As I'm sure somebody else posted in these 223 pages of complaints and possible solutions, ending some processes shown in the activity monitor will alleviate the situation somewhat. The most dramatic for me was Google Chrome, specifically the rendering processes. Some tabs hog the CPU at 90% seemingly indefinitely, which was bringing my battery life down to a measly two hours. I've been using Firefox with much better results, although Chrome also worked fine once I ended the guilty processes.

Anyway, I've been noticing similar trends with other Apple products. I recently acquired an iPhone 3GS which, loaded with iOS 6.1.3 also reaches only half the battery life it had with version 5. Guess what though: the iPhone 5 apparently has no problems. The newer Macbooks also seem to be having fewer problems with the new software at least in terms of battery life, reaching supposedly 10-12 hours per charge. Props to them, but I'm sitting here wondering what happened to my 7-8 and why Apple hasn't done anything about it.

Sarttiso wrote:

The most dramatic for me was Google Chrome, specifically the rendering processes. Some tabs hog the CPU at 90% seemingly indefinitely, which was bringing my battery life down to a measly two hours. I've been using Firefox with much better results, although Chrome also worked fine once I ended the guilty processes.

Google Chrome also has a background system that is running. Check in Preferences > Advanced > Privacy to see if "Enable Phishing and Malware Protection" is checked. It looks like this;

Predict network actions to improve page load performance

Enable phishing and malware protection

If it is checked, the background process is running which drains the battery. Also, third-party applications really do drain the battery, whether they are "runaway" or not, I've noticed that they do drain the battery, so, I uninstall and install when I'll use the application for a while, like a project. Of course, Applications that are not often used but really needed are kept.

Cycling my battery helps to maintain its length of power.

OS X Mavericks massively keeps the battery performing well. Safari is the better ML browser for unplugged portables. The new Safari seems to be working great (for me) while draining little battery life (the newer Safari releases are stripped of so many options and dev tools that I require.) I use Chrome when I'm plugged in, Safari-only when I'm strickly unplugged. I use Firefox no-longer.

The newer Macbooks also seem to be having fewer problems with the new software at least in terms of battery life, reaching supposedly 10-12 hours per charge. Props to them, but I'm sitting here wondering what happened to my 7-8 and why Apple hasn't done anything about it.

OS X Mavericks gives us back our battery-life. until then, I use Apple-only applications and minimal third-party applications while unplugged. I also shut-down every night, work unplugged as much as possible during the day, turning the WiFi off helps the battery while I'm developing off-line. For extreme-work, I use the iMac 27.

Cool tip about Chrome; I'll check it out. I prefer Chrome to Firefox, although I haven't given Safari a shot in awhile, so I'll be revisiting it.

I guess I've been pretty out of the loop since I got back, but after some research on Mavericks, it does indeed look like there is some hope! I was going to revert back to Lion, but I think I'm going to stick it out for a few more months and see how Mavericks performs. Seems like some pretty cool software updates are included, though, especially in terms of battery life conservation.

Awesome! I totally agree with you, and Apple, Inc, on OS X Mavericks battery life- it's close to quantum. 😉

You mentioned Safari, the new Safari is light-weight when running, now, though, still powerful and full-featured. I do miss the development tools from yester-year. When you update Safari (it's in the combo bundle in 10.8.4), Safari is super fast and functions as intended. The version 6.0.5 is what I'm using and it is stable, lightening fast, does little to the battery and enables the privacy settings to actually function as intended.

If you've replaced your battery between 2008 and 2012 at a Best Buy store, be aware that your battery might be under a recall: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/best-buy-recalls-batteries-over-fire-risk

I also noticed a significant battery time fluctuation/drop since installing 10.8.4. (also did a fresh install) I think it easily lost an hour? Enough to promopt me to log here again after several months. Wiewing these pages (and no other apps opened), the counter would hover between 4 hrs or 3:10 remaining, up and down, up and down. Actualy battery level is not as important as is the behavior. Was scrolling in safari. Now, as soon as I start typing, remaining time goes up. Since scrolling pages is mainly GPU rendering, I am convinced it still is GPU management. Got three years waranty so 2.4 left at Apple's expense. Just interesting that until 10.8.4 nothing odd, 10.8.4 sudden changes.

Update:

After 8 months using my MBA, my battery is a constant 94-95% health after 144 cycles. 10.8.4 may have shortened a tiny bit, but not enought to justify any follow up. Interestingly. Firefox is a big drag; Safari is better and chrome seems the best (but I do not like chrome). The delta is approx haf an hour-1hr lower estimate should I use firefox. Then again, can it be flash or how firefox uses memory?

Can't wait for mavericks. But as a whole, the battery on my MBA has been a consistent strong performer. The recent request I received (as well as others must have) about joining a petition seems unsubstantiated and not at all justified.

ML has also been a strong performer on the 2008 MBP I used as secondary benchmark (and given to another family member; 200 cycles now). It has consistently provided 2-2.5 hrs on that unit, and the battery health is a constant 93%. As such, i reafirm my earlier conclusions that anyone experiencing a significant, noticeable battery issue has a lemon hardware or lemon battery.

For those wondering how I use my laptop, essentially as described at batteryuniversity, or as a phone: I only plug it for rapid charges, and once in a while for a full cycle. I never leave it plugged and rarely work with it plugged, even if watching movies. I avoid dropping below 20%, and, if watching movies, below 40% I plug it while watching (as the battery charge/discharge ratio is well suited for Li-Ion performance. Leave it unplugged and the drain is a tad too fast below 40%). Can other factors be at play? Heat (check Nissan Leaf battery issues in Az) can attack any Li-Ion battery, usage, lemon issues.