Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

After 2 trips to the Apple Store and having a battery replaced (they don't read these forum posts), I've decided to return my 12 day old MBP 15" HR and wait until Apple works out the bugs. After reading these posts and elsewhere, I'm not sure that will happen.  3 hours battery life for a $2300 laptop is not state of the art technology.  I've spent all my money on PC's the last 26 years but decided to try Mac this time.  I'm fortunate enough to have realized that this was a bad product during my 14 day return window.  Good luck to all of you.  I hope they have an update resolution soon.

Just wondering if anyone has been able to fix this issue? I upgraded to Mountain Lion the day after it came out, and the battery life on my computer literally went from 5-6 hours to less than 2 hours. I have also noticed that Safari consumes a huge amount of cpu, which causes my laptop to get really hot and the fan to come on within about 10 minutes of being on the internet (even now just after a couple minutes on this website my fan has already started up). Safari is the only program currently open on my laptop.

I'm thinking for now I will just put Mozilla firefox on my laptop, but I am strongly considering going to my local apple store to see if I can get Lion put back on.

I have been following this thread since its inception and I have tried all the supposed "fixes" to no avail.  I really hope apple get's to the bottom of this soon.  My 2011 11" MBA is unusable for the long trips I take without the need to find a place to recharge all the time.  So frustrating...

You are welcome. Lets not forget that Apple has grown exponentially these 4-5 years, so much that keeping with demand has come with a variety of suppliers. Yes, we hope Apple's QC to be first rate, but same as the Foxcon factory conditions, Apple does not know everything. So this huge growth must come at a price: can't get it all right. So it appears we are getting some issue that comes through the assembly line, somewhere.

With this problem, configurations do not matter if  any user gets half the expected battery power and the battery llife looses health at a rapid pace, everything else is irrelevant. Something is just wrong- more so on new machines. Look at mine- health somehow 'jumped' back to 98% after a calibration, and in the right corner, the time, 8:05. I have been surfing for 10-15 minutes at this point, took the snapshot for you, and that capacity remained at 100%. Now had this been one of the affected units, it would have been pretty evident had it told me 4 hrs and 4 % drop. Its now telling me 8:15. time was 8:55 PM

Nothing changes about what each member posting here must do: contact Apple, first thing. Escalate. And document the problem.

Chris

Edyr,

Apple will replace or adress any warrantable battery that is malfunctioning. So at 70% health/140 cycles, that is automatically an issue. Outside warranty, it comes down to negotiating with Apple. Some users reported getting discounted systems - for some issues. In the case of a fried NVIDIA GPU (screeen went black), Apple gave me a brand new logicboard. So a 3 yr old machine was new again. But case by case, you must contact them first.

The old A1175, Apple replaced me three batteries in the 3 years I had the warranty. Partly, I did not know how to cycle them. Also, the A1175 were really unreliable and hit and miss - check Apple Store- reviews. So an Apple product, with a 2 star rating out of 5. That says something, they do not get it allways right.

However, there will be some exceptions. let's say that I live in Egypt, and go surf by the Great pyramid in 45 Celsius, that battery will overheat and die super fast. The battery will report the overheating. Apple might very well replace it, but being reasonable is also important.

Anyhow, I trust the company, its problem solving ability is ranked #1 in the world, and its products- even lemons considered (and I had a few, they adressed them all) will be adressed.

Another shot, says will get nearly 9 hrs.  99% power.

For those about the post the first time, please do so only after contacting Apple. helps you, helps us, helps Apple document the problem,  and just adds more value to the forum knowing what they say or do.

Closed my initial case with Apple- having proved it was ML on the older machine, and switched to SL, problem solved. Interesting, the three senior advisers were all aware of the developing issue. So word has spread.

I have another case open- for this MBA, as I am using it as a testbed for Apple.

For those considering buying a new machine: buy with confidence, and you will know fast if it works. Still recommend the MBA 13 inch as a phenomenal machine. Get another one 18 months from now.

Chris

Umm, go get Lion put on. And see if, your battery is affected, get a new one. then do SMC and PRAM reset. tell us the result.

think ONE person came back saying they solved it? But all the others that did had ditched ML.

Hey Lonepeak,

I feel for you returning that MBP. Have you thought buying the Air for 1000$ less? if you get a second one with problems, I will call it extreme bad luck.

Let us know how your next machine fares- windows or not. but also beware, I have had huge dissapointments with  Windows machines. Windows 8 is coming out and no one can predict how different manufacturers will roll it on their hardware.

There's definitely nothing wrong with my battery, as I just bought the laptop less than 2 months ago for Uni and used to be able to get 8 hours battery life just operating Word on low power.
All of the issues happened as soon as I updated to Mountain Lion, and I'm now back to bringing note paper to class as I can't type for longer than a couple of hours before the battery goes dead. I'll contact my local Apple Store tomorrow and see if they can help me put Lion back on until the issues are fixed with Mountain Lion.

I went to the apple store today, unfortunately there was no help.  The 'genius' ran his diagnostics and let me know the battery was in fact defective (his said 71%, mine says 69%), but since it was outside of warranty, it was $129.

He then proceeded to tell me that it could not have been Mountain Lion's fault because it still shows at 71% while running on his diagnostics...  I tried to explain it to him a few times, then I gave up, smiled, nodded, and left... 

I am in the process of backing up all of my files, I will be calling Apple support tonight, and then I will be installing Lion fresh.

I spend $2000 on a laptop so this stuff doesn't happen. 

To the person that mentioned that we should keep in mind that Apple has grown really big, really fast, also remember that they also have more resources than almost any other company in the world.  They have the money to minimize these types of issues, and to resolve them quickly. 

Hey gmc,

True they have resources. But for example, the Lion battery issue was never fixed (check out that forum- nearly 200 pages). 1.5 yrs into it. For the first posters here, it has not been solved after more than a month. Nor were the Mobile Me issue solved and it was just dropped. So Apple's resources were not helpful for those folks.

To the gentleman arguing there was nothing wrong with his battery: absolutely. But there will soon be something wrong with it if it drains so fast outside specs. Hopefully you do not find out.

Chris

They chose not to fix the problems they created for their customers, I guess... too bad...

He is probably technically right, the battery itself is probably fine, it is probably the chip that manages the battery... you are right though, ignore it and one day it just won't turn on.

So...I actually just installed the latest update that came up on my screen about four hours ago, and my battery seems to be working great again.  It didn't say anything about battery usage in the update, but in this case I think I am going to leave well enough alone.  I have been using the computer to study with for the four hours now, and I still have about 2.5 left.  I'm pretty pleased with this machine again.  Last night I was losing about a percent every 3-4 minutes, but it's nothing like that now.  Best of luck to everyone else.

Beisarius, thanks so much for your invaluable posts on this forum. You are really interested in getting the problem resolved for all of us, rather than simply whine about your own specific situation.  I really appreciate your time and effort on this, particularly as you have a great battery life on your primary machine running SL.  You would get an MVP award in my book.

I realize I'm a new guy on these forums, so I'll explain why I'm adding my 2 bits.  I develop software for a living in the NYC area, and we just had in the local headlines a $400 million loss (wiping out 75% of the value of Knight Capital in 45 minutes) due to a faulty software upgrade glitch. Software upgrades (at $20 a pop) can be reputational disasters for any company, as Knight Capital recently found out.  For all we know, this could be a $400 million disaster for Apple...the jury is still out here.

Back in the day, I used to be a Student Ambassador to Microsoft (essentially advertise their products to college students on my college campus).  I've stopped drinking their Koolaid...a long time ago. In case your wondering about their latest direction, Windows 8 is a UI nightmare and probably going to be a black eye for Microsoft soon due to this disaster they've embraced called Metro. Still, they've survived the Windows ME and Vista debacles before.  They will limp along till they come across with something more usable, like Windows 7 was before it.  Microsoft apparently hits a 1-2 base hit with every other OS (95 yes, 98 strike-out, 98 SE yes, ME strike-out, XP yes, Vista strike-out, Win7 yes, Win8 likely strike-out), which is a fairly poor even if predicatable track record.

I have to tell you, when I first switched to a Macbook when they first started with their Intel machines, I noticed that Apple has its share of Koolaid drinkers too.  I was a big fan, but a pragmatist as I just wanted to get things done with minimal problems getting in the way.  Apple has often sold and delivered on a "simpler is better" and "it just works" philosophy.  I got an HP tablet after I sold my Macbook to a friend, and it was really not a good experience as a tablet, so in time I sold that and got a Macbook Pro.  I'm still not a fanatic about it.  It works well, though.

However, as an outside observer reading the 97 pages on this discussion thread, I sit here with my Macbook Pro early-2010 edition running Snow Leopard.  I consider the risk/reward, and $20 cost is far less of a downside than my out-of-warranty machine and particularly battery with a clearly beta-version Mountain Lion that should never have been released yet.  Plus, as a developer, I know that waiting until revision 3 is always the best time to upgrade (10.8.3 in this case), and it may be true here more than ever.

So, now for my question - for Beisarius (or anyone else who will bite).  I missed the boat on the Lion upgrade, but am quite leery considering the fact that, as you mentioned, "the Lion battery issue was never fixed (check out that forum- nearly 200 pages). 1.5 yrs into it."  That seems to belie the statement you made that Apple's "problem solving ability is ranked #1 in the world, and its products- even lemons considered.  For those considering buying a new machine: buy with confidence, and you will know fast if it works."  Now there's an issue still in Mountain Lion with battery life...still.  Where's the QA here...that several new Retina machines even have shipped with major battery issues? Nobody here having these issues was hired by Apple to beta test this ML OS.  This over-advertising (Siri, ML, etc.) and under-delivering can get expensive where it counts...in lost reputation.  How do you reconcile this recent performance with the recent stellar track record?

Hey Beisarius,

I didn't consider the Air because I was looking for a top end laptop that could be used in field work.  I looked at the Mac line to appease my kids and I saw some things I liked.  I need a battery that lasts without being tethered to a power outlet for my particular use.  I won't turn off functions that the computer was designed for in order to extend my battery life as suggested by Apple personnel.  What does that really solve.  Any problems I had with my past computers were never ignored by the manufacturer.  I've dealt with a person in the Apple Store hierarchy as well as a person in Tim Cook's office on these support matters and to their credit, they've been responsive.  The problem is that...they're not really tech people that can solve a problem.  They only have their big stick.  I decided it's better to walk away and go back to the devil I know.  At least they respond to problems.

Not real sure why you care?  Maybe you need to explain that one to the OP and the rest on these 97 pages why you are bothering to read this thread.