Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

HI a a 2012 Macbook Air running Mountain Lion 10.8 .  I did not upgrade the firmware that was avaliable in software update.    No battery issues at all.  I wonder if the problem is in part due to the new firmware upgrade that enables powernap. 

Is everyone who is having batttery problems in 10.8 also running macbooks with upgraded firmware?

Beisarius wrote:

 

Chris_gr,

 

Fiddling with firmware is something only a qualified technician could do- especially rolling back version. A firware update failure could render a machine inneffective. Ummm, good question. Has anyone called Apple and asked if they can revert firmware to original purchase status? I am not sure if a 2009/2010 machine retain original firmware or how to return it to factory settings. not even iphones do that after certain updates.

Well, I did get one really long charge immediately after doing the latest update (probably lasted about 7 hours), but now my battery seems to be draining really qucikly again.  After I installed the update, the computer took a while to charge and then the charge lasted for a while, now it is once again charging really quickly and draining even faster.  I'm at a loss here.

Ok this is only getting worse after the recent Apple update to ML. Mind you all I have open at the moment is Safari Browser. Nothing else.

This has got to be really jacking my computer hardware!!!

Can anyone tell me what is the battery program b4ore is using? I am not familiar with it. Also, what are other battery monitoring apps that anyone would recommend?

calbear88 wrote:

 

HI a a 2012 Macbook Air running Mountain Lion 10.8 .  I did not upgrade the firmware that was avaliable in software update.    No battery issues at all.  I wonder if the problem is in part due to the new firmware upgrade that enables powernap. 

 

Is everyone who is having batttery problems in 10.8 also running macbooks with upgraded firmware?

Nope, I have a Mid 2009 Macbook Pro, and am also seeing a massive battery drain. I'm at 48%, down from 53% when I opened it not even 10 minutes ago. Showing 2:38 left.  My biggest issue is the power drain when it's asleep. I put it asleep somewhere around 70%. It dropped about 20% in under 24 hours while asleep.There's some runaway process that is sucking battery, even when the system is asleep. I don't see anything unusual in Activity Monitor, and of course there's no way to monitor when it's asleep.

Unacceptable.

Beisarius, it called Battery Health and its free in the Apple Mac App Store.

ura172002 wrote:

 

I installed 10.8.2 1231a

and installed 10.8 - 10.8.1 - 10.8.2 - clean install

Where, pray tell, did you happen across 10.8.2??? The Store only has 10.8.1!

Ok, here is the current status of my issue. 

After speaking with a support rep, a senior rep, and a customer care rep, they will be replacing my battery for free this week.  I am bringing it to a service center tomorrow to get it replaced.  They wanted me to ship it to them (on their dime) but it would be a 3-4 day turn around, oh and they wanted my username and password.  I would have had to yank the HDD and reinstall new on another drive with a generic username and password before shipping it to them.  I use this for work and have a lot of confidential data on it.

Luckily, the customer care rep was able to help me avoid that.

I didn't get the Apple Care because I knew I was going to replace the DVD drive with a second HDD, so that would void the warranty anyway. 

It took some work, I will let you know what I see after it is replaced.

ura172002 wrote:

 

I installed 10.8.2 1231a

..

10.8.2? Are you an AppleSeed tester?

Hi guys! Im extremely frustrated as much as many of us here with the battery problem the comes with ML. My MBP13' only last 2.5hours. I was thinking of downgrading to Lion again. But I dont know how to do that. CAn someone help me with this. Battery life is a lot more important than the notifications and other apps the ML has. Please help revert to Lion again. Please. Thanks!

Hi! Im thinking of doing the same thing. Going back to Lion. Battery life is way more important for me than the notification and what not the ML offers. Can you please help me revert to Lion? Thanks!

How do you rest SMC and PRAM? Please help me.

Wurzel666 wrote:

 

ura172002 wrote:

 

I installed 10.8.2 1231a

..

 

10.8.2? Are you an AppleSeed tester?

He was, I would say. The way the draconian NDA is written and the way Apple is patrolling this thread....

Apple support had me do this today, it had no effect.  You can google it to find out how (I would tell you but I don't recall).

hi james from d, after hours of phone calls, sendign data to apple, the answer for me after mountain lion disaster, was going back to lion - this is what i did: remember going back to lion means wiping your hard disc clean, you'll lose everything unles you back up ...

1.backup using time machine,

2.seperately back up your docs, movies, apps, stuff u like - by copying them to your external back up drive.

3. go to a genius bar and get them to wipe your drive clean and install latest version of lion.

4.even at genius sydney, my lion instal was a problem - the solid state drive did not like what genii were doing they decided to replace the drive.

5.DONT re-install everything from your time machine backup - if you do, you may bring back the crap from mountain lion. (i time machined all my stuff just in case)

6. use migration assistant in applications/utilities to bring your apps back OR manually move them back (microsoft 2011 wanted me to migration assist it back onto my lion machine)

7. manually copy documents, photos etc back to their finder folders OR bring these back to your lion machine using migration assistant

note - if you time machine everything back onto your lion mac you risk bringing the "issues" with mountain lion back onto your lion machine

see 4. above ......

lion has made a big difference - but even with lion, i'm not getting maximum grunt from the battery ...

good luck !!