Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

 

yantaialec wrote:

 

Anyway, as of yet ttbomk there is no 'list',.There probably won't be one either. Why would there be?

Why wouldn't there be? Plenty of sites have polls for all kinds of things and it wouldn't be out of the question someone created one.

yantaialec wrote:

Are you saying that you think the majority of people with the problem have tried:

 

1. Clean Install (without importing TM prefs)
2. PRAM Reset

Nah, not at all. I said I have noticed that two particular models seem to have a much higher success rate than others after simply installing 10.8.1 - including both your MBP early 2011 and as of a few minutes ago my MBP late 2011.

Might give some hope to (most) owners of those models who are thinking of upgrading.

I did some tests on my MBP 4.1 (early 2008) that I had clean installed to ML before recognizing the battery problems of ML 10.8.0. I did not import software or preferences from old SL system. I ran ML 10.8.1 from the new SSD build in and the old SL installation (10.6.8) from the original hard drive via firewire 800. Between switching I did a SMC and PRAM reset.

Battery is just some months old but wasn't used much (7 cycles). Capacity is 5342 mAh (out of 5500 mAh).

The results show that there is barely a difference between both, at least on my machine.

Test 1. Activity monitor, brightness at 50 percent, no Wifi: ML and SL let the battery lose 1 percent charge every three minutes.

Test 2. Activity monitor, mail, Busycal, Safari with two tabs open (Reuters and Bloomberg, these are pretty active pages, AdBlock and Click to flash installed), brightness at 50 percent, Wifi on. iCloud active for mail, contacts, calendars, notes, safari and documents. iMessages off, notification on. ML and SL consumed about 1 percent charge every two minutes. Sometimes it seemed as if ML would be a little bit more power efficient but I am not sure about it.

Tests were run at least 30 minutes after Spotlight ran its course and checked by the minute. Time remaining shown was more or less the same with both OS. Battery capacity was exactly the same shown under both OS. I do not see a dramatic loss in capacity.

End result is that I get about 3 hours in test 2. Under test 1 conditions I should get more time but I haven't run the battery down under that conditions yet.

I have the feeling that the MBP runs better and a little bit cooler under 10.8.1 than under 10.8.0 but I can't proof it. Seems to run a little bit hotter than under SL but i haven't checked the exact temperatures. I have never run Lion on that machine, so can't comment on that.

I'm just anxiously awaiting a fix. I called my Applecare asking about any problems I might anticipate when going from Snow Leopard to Mountain Lion (I wanted to stay current). I think it's a little ridiculous that we all have to be penalized for this... I don't understand how they didn't anticipate it. I paid a **** ton for Applecare and a battery replacement isn't even covered for some stupid thing that isn't my fault? Not cool. Think there'll be a fix for it soon?

i went to a mac store in Cbus, OH, unplugged the retina mbp and opened every app the mac had on it, and after 5 minutes of opening tab after tab on safari and looking thru all the uploaded photos, the battery life was still at 8 hours.

tmonaco, what do you mean our batteries aren't covered under AppleCare? Really???

I am not sure if you are a lucky one, isn't the design capacity 6900?

Your battery life may have improved, but the health won't come back.

So much for that experiment. Left the system asleep for about 4 hours, logged in under a new user, and the battery drained from 11% to 3%. System is about to die, it's at 1%.

So, that means it's a system problem, not tied to a user.

I think they updated the software on the battery controller and it isn't working properly.  The batteries are fun, but the controller that tells the OS how much life is in the battery may be defective.

that is my guess, only a guess!

if your battery is user replaceable, I don't think it is covered, but I could be wrong

Thought I would share a quick update.  After instlaling 10.8,0, I was getting around 3-4 hours of battery life on a full charge.  The true test was to monitor the current, which was over 1200 mA.  It is now around 800 mA, with battery life estimates around 7-8 hours on a full charge.  I'm on a 13" early 2011 MBP.

Here are the steps I've taken:

1. Corrected to dock problem.  This was a big drain.
2. Removed the Notification Center.  I have since reenabled it.
3. Installed 10.8.1
4. Turned off Bluetooth
5. Logged out of iCloud.  This seems to be a big drain.
6. Performed a SMC reset
7. Let the battery drain and then completely recharged.

I hope this might help someone, or aid in troubleshooting.

Interesting test. I can confirm that on a 3.1- 3 yrs and 3 months old (fried gpu so Apple replaced logicboard), Lion indeed warmed up to the point of being uncomfortable to keep on the lap. Mountain Lion as much. What matters is that, with Snow Leopard, that machine is coool so much that I had forgotten how cool it was supposed to run unless doing graphics. The same as the current MBA I am typing from, brand new factory ML, feels as cool as a an aluminum pot. Goes to prove that different hardware reacts differently to a new OS. I have a feeling that the days when we could upgrade years later are gone. Apple's OSes are simply evolving very very fast, faster than hardware can handle. Sure, I could run Linux on any machine and would never tax them. OS 10.8 is much more complex than 10.6.

Umm, batteries have a default one year warranty unless the refurbushed ones. Last I knew, any macbook in warranty had a battery coverage as well. Only outside any warranty one is out of luck.

Hey scratch,

Am interested in what the actual count if for the estimated 7-8 hours. When I report 7-8 hour I actually sit and add up 7 to 8 hours. Just to make sure a system does not report 7-8 hours but actually delivers 5 (accelerated countdown).

It's just that from 1200 to 800 mAh it is a 30% improvent, but you are reporting a 200% increase in life. 600 mAh would make more sense to double but I cannot imagine a MBP at 600. Hope it's not an algorithm trick for 10.8.1, so if you can let us know what the time is after 2-3 cycles, great.

its a shame, but i concur; the new macbook pro/air in the mac store have the battery life we obviously all wanted with ML and can handle all the shiny new toys ML has while keeping CPU relatively low.  this was one of the nice aspects of buying apple; it'd be nice if they could address this in the next new OS push (although i know its highly unlikely)

If Apple rolled out ML with a dominant 2011 or particularly, 2012 testbed, leaving most macbooks improperly tested,  that is both a shame and a flop. I know that, henceforth, I will be extremely reluctant before upgrading an OS ever ever again. I cannot imagine myself doing it next year. Why go through such a waste of time, effort and patience? MAYBE if the architecture is the same (ie Sandy Bridge-Sandy Bridge) and with a system in warranty. Maybe.