Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

Thanks for that...still interesting because AFAIK multi-core processors wouldn't spread the work out evenly so one would expect variances. 

Anyway, really glad to hear that solved your MacBook's problem.

Absolutely agree about batteries being a burden to the planet when they reach end of life.  Here's an excerpt from an environmental statement published by Apple:

Longer-lasting products.

Apple designs products that last. The built-in battery in our MacBook Pro lineup is a perfect example. Other notebook batteries can be charged only 200 to 300 times. The MacBook Pro battery can be charged up to 1000 times.  And because this battery lasts up to five years, MacBook Pro uses just one battery in about the same time a typical notebook uses three. That saves you money, produces less waste, and increases the lifespan of your MacBook Pro.

One would hope that 10.8.2 and everything Apple does is geared toward meeting this goal...for users like us as well as the planet.

Yesterday, I went to all the trouble downgrading to Lion again, doing a clean install, hence requiring re-installs of software and lots of settings.

Now just, I unplugged the magsafe, 52% -> 5:25, after a minute it shows now 2:48. As soon as I open another tab in chrome, 2:10. It is consistent with what I saw yesterdag on my first day of Lion, 4 hours tops, which is more or less what I got on ML after tweaking the Dock plist thing.

In my case, no improvement with going back to Lion.

I do notice that this estimate is changing all the time, as far as I remember it didn't do that on Lion before (but I could be wrong)

My SMC version is 1.69f3

I have no idea what it was before the ML upgrade, or if it changed during the ML update.

My battery health is around 90-91% and has been there steady the last 2 weeks on ML.

I have 310 cycles. (Is that many, on a early 2011 MBP? I always kinda let it drain before charging again, it's doing 1 cycle every 1 or 2 days. Is that good, or should I just plug and unplug more, and randomly?)

hello richsadams,

i hope that the issue has been solved forever.. even if i don't know how it happened..

does someone have any idea?

as i understand is basic to monitor the cpu activity to see what's going on with the energy.. but i'm not professional so maybe it's not that basic, but it helped to me..

anyway i left my computer at home charging as my battery was at 2%, tonight i'll check how it is..

i'm sure that apple with the 10.8.2 will be again the beloved company we all love.. ahahaha mostly by the environmental side..

ciao

Good observation that the 10.8.1 improvements might have been a little more "targeted" than we'd hope. As Beisarius pointed out, Ars Technica used a retina MacBook Pro in their tests regarding possible OS-related battery problems, and it has somewhat unique component configurations.

However, the good news is that the dramatic improvements in battery performance noted in The MacObserver's tests were on a pretty-much-garden-variety 2011 MacBook Pro, modified by the addition of a second hard drive in place of the stock optical-media unit. The buzz in many other venues and forums around the web is much the same: developers trying out the most recent build of 10.8.2 are seeing dramatic improvements in battery performance in MacBook Pros and Airs.

Originally The MacObserver used three MacBooks for their full battery (okay, sorry!) of tests confirming what appeared to be a problem related to the performance of Mountain Lion "unplugged": their test-beds were a 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro, a 2012 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display, and a 2011 13-inch MacBook Air. A few days ago, when they went back to retrace battery performance in various OSX levels and updates, starting with Snow Leopard forward through Lion and Mountain Lion, including the developer build of 10.8.2, they utilized the modified MacBook Pro that I mentioned previously.

Quoting from their article, yesterday: "...

Our test computer is a 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro at 2.0 GHz with 8 GB of RAM, a Radeon HD 6490M GPU, and two internal drives: an OCZ Vertex 4 64 GB SSD and a Seagate Momentus 750 GB HDD (we used an Other World Computing Data Doubler bracket to replace the MacBook Pro’s optical drive with the Seagate hard drive)..."

That adds one niggling little unknown, but it seems unlikely to me that the additional drive would muss up the results much, and if it did it would probably show up as slighly reduced battery life due to a bit of extra power "draw" from the second drive. And, anyway, the chorus of confirming posts coming from developers around the country seems to indicate that the effect of the proposed build of 10.82 is real, positive, widely effective on many different machines, and dramatic.

SMC mattered to Apple when I first called them. Not only was it the first thing they asked me to reset, but when describing the ML drain ref older machines, the first tech answer I got "SMC issue."

- So wondering if other forum members can screenshot their sys info prior to 10.8.2- capture SMC version

- Will Apple update SMCs on older OSes? SL/Lion? Would be unpleasant if having to reinstall ML just to udate an SMC variant and revert to Lion with the new firmware inside the SMC... That's onthe assumption that even though 10.8.2 would come with a nicer SMC, am not sure it will improve the drain issue on older models.

- Can they issue the SMC as a standalone firmware download, as they do for other things via Apple sites.. compatible with older models?

Will see how this plays out.

Yes, Apple has updated SMC versions without an OS update (you can also download them separately from their website), so it's quite possible that they could do that.  Of course the SMC version is proprietary to the exact MacBook model and the version number wouldn't necessarily have to change if it's an "across-the-board" tweak.

OR, and this is really my WAG, it may be an SMC/OS compatibility issue specific to models and likely component(s)...very much like you were proposing earlier.  Otherwise this problem would affect all MacBooks with ML, but it clearly doesn't.  If it were simply an SMC firmware update, that could have been pushed out very fast.

If it is indeed an SMC/model/component compatibility problem 10.8.2 may incorporate an "if > then" rule update to OS software code only...the SMC firmware remaining the same.  If it's that complicated it would account for the time it's taken for Apple to address this...writing code specific to models, components, etc. takes a lot of work and testing.  It could also explain why 10.8.1 didn't resolve this completely for some models or at all for others.

Patience is not my strong suit, but if Apple is being methodical about getting this right (and I think they are) I'd rather wait a little longer and not have to worry about it until 10.8.3 comes out.  10.8.2 is supposedly right around the corner so as you say, we'll see how this plays out.

My latest screen shot, following an actual calibration.

- Upper right corner it Wats, telling me 12:04 hrs (same as the macbook reader)

- After a few min dropped at 99% and 9 hrs.

- Movies: 3 hrs. Or slightly better than a 2008/2009 macbook with a 5000 mAh. That is abyssimal for a 6700 battery and an architecture that puts to shame that of 2010. Flash based seem the worse culprit

- Standby is standard, 30+ days. SO no sleep drainage.

- Health went up from 97 to 97.8, which is to be expected as the battery begins reaching its optimum performance.

- Like everyone else, noted a discrepency between Current usage vs Internet browsing. Does current usage means 'as if' shoud I not touch the macbook, incl internet? Am inclined to think so.

- Drain is 700-800 mAh. Of course, till tasking the hardware with minor things such as flash video.

Bottom line, although basic tasks do reach the 7 hr range, anything else seems a matter of guess, at best. Power management leaves a lot, lot to be desired, and this is something Apple overlooked since Lion.

I also think that it was a bit of luck (kinda like the Antenna gate) that Ars and another company got units that clearly underperformed in the labs, and by publishing negative findings, forced Cuppertino to pay attention to this issue. My impression is that, recent years, Apple has been somewhat negletful of power management and battery consumption despite all their claims, contending itself to just increase the battery capacity. Who actually got 1000 cycles 80%, or 300 cycles 80%? I never ever did..Also think there is as such a huge aftermarket for replica batteries due to demand: the combination of out of warranty failure for genuine Apple batteries vs a higher price point. At $ 120 to 150, these batteries should also be smart enough to self manage.

In other words, whatever Apple decides to come up as next OS or macbooks, I hope they allocate more design effort not in OS, screens, processor or thickness, but as well towards power management and battery quality as well. If they did that, am sure they would come up with some amazing macbook portability life. They can do it with iPhones- and beat smartphone competition- so why not do it in macbooks? If Acer gets 4 hours for a machine rated at 6- so be it, let it be Acer. But if macbooks give you 3 hrs video or 5-6 general surfing when advertised 7+, that is a bit on the neglectful side.

Just thought I'd include a shot from right as soon as Lion (on my original partition) calculated remaining battery. These are my readings even on that end. Fairly useless as a "mobile" device. Mind you no programs were running at the time Except the battery programs lol. Just a simple boot up and report.

So here is the problem, look above at my pic. See my own watts and voltage? God been 15 years since acing college physics.

Watts = Volts x Ampers (also resistance matters but basic formula would do)

My pic I get 783 mAh, 8204 mv,

using the formula, I burn 8.204 x 0.783 = 6.4237 Watts. Now check out battery health, reporting 6.47 watts usage, or 6470 or over 8 hrs.

B4ore, here is what we know you have: a whopping 27.4 Watts consumption or 4.x higher than mine. In your system info it should say amperage and voltage. Multiply them and tell us what they say. Both must be very high to give you over 4 times my consumption. A high amperage figure means more power is used. For example, active GPU, overclocked cores, all cpu cores active, so on, would drive up amperage demand. Am fairly sure you must have a high amperage. What does it say?

In an ideal world, one would open your MBP, run Lion, and use a multimetre to test along circuit nods, and identify the culprit. But that is apple's job, not ours.

Possibilities amount, but if you get a high amperage on basic usage, one of your components i gone haywire. GMC's case appears battery. yours? Do not know but am indeed curious. I think its almost as if your GPU is in game mode. Are you hearing fans, feeling warmth underneanth?

Beisarius,

That's what I'm talkin about all this time! What's interesting is sometimes the fans are on, and other times I don't hear them come on at all when they should be (This 15" MBP gets hot enough to cook my breakfast eggs on!) There doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to fan operation. It does almost seem like the GPU is pumping doesn't it. And I have ran WebGL on here before and know what it sounds like when that second graphics card is kickin in. Something is way wrong. This thing gets hot all over the place especially the whole top left side of my keyboard, and yes the bottom does get hot as well. I can't keep this thing on my lap when I use it even for a short time.

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hello richsadam,

that true! let's hope, finger crossed..

anyway, after a full recharge my battery swings from alost 8 hours lasting to 3.50 hours only while surfing on the internet and doing few other thing. for example now is 86% with 4.38 hours left.

cpu activity seem normal as not crasy as reported when i went to the genius bar...

keep keep monitoring and keep you posted..

did they mention the BATTERY fix???

OK, so I went to the Apple store to see what's going on with my MacBook Pro and the battery drain. They hooked it up to diagnostics and everything was looking great including the battery. They opened up Activity monitor and noticed I had 4 Apps running in the background, Dropbox, MacKeeper, Boom, and iStat. They closed them all but noticed the iStat App would pop back on a few seconds later, they kept quiting it and it would pop back on again. The girl called over another Genius worker, I think he was the head guy and he told her what files to delete of the iStat App and it finally quit. You could see the battery time go back up. It was amazing. When I got home I deleted the iStat App completely off my MacBook Pro as it was only on a 14 day trial anyway. Now, I get 6 to 7 1/2 hours battery time depending on what I'm doing and how intensive it is. The good news is my MacBook Pro WASN'T a lemon and it wasn't a hardware problem. The only problem I still have is my laptop still has battery drain problems when it's asleep. but hope 10.8.2 will fix it as I heard it's supposed to. So you guys might see if you have any sneeky Apps that run in the background that only shows up in the Activity window.

P.S. I also bought an iphone 4s while I was there. I think the 5 will be to big, the 4s is just the right size plus I have an ipad 3 to do real work on.  As I write this it says I have over 7 hours of battery time left.

Hello everyone, I am new to this specific post. My computer is an older iMac which obviously does not use a battery and I may not belong in this thread, but I would like to share my thoughts.

Anyway, I did install ML when it first came out back in July and I had no problems installing it, but later I had problems with beach-balling, lagging, stalling, and freezing every time the computer was turned on. There were a few simple things I did, and none of them had solved my problems.

Sometime on Sunday after a fustrating day with computer, it started working better on it's own. Monday morning it was a bit cranky as usual but then it started working 100% better. The same on Tuesday and today, much better performance. I have no idea what the heck happened but it appears that ML may have fixed itself after a very long time of problems.

It's only been a few days of great performance and I am hoping it continues to work great. Keep in mind I did no major changes to my computer, mostly left it alone and waited. I have never once made any type of hardware changes to my iMac, it is all original.

I am guessing that Apple somehow fixed this problem in the background or somehow ML needed time to adjust itself. No clue to how it was repaired. So, just maybe everyone else also needs to just wait it out and see what happens.

Good luck,