Q: Battery life dropped considerably on Mountain Lion.

Same happens to me, Macbook pro Mid 2010, always gave me 5-6 hours, minimum 3 on heavy use, Now after the upgrade to Mountain Lion it delivers maximum 3 hours, 1 and 1/2 on Heavy Use, when i Boot on Safe mode, i get again 5 to 6 hours, I did the reinstall from the Internet, cleared Cache and startup items as i could and when i log back in on Normal mode, i get the same Battery life, Dont really know what else to do now... so frustrating.

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

No, no runaway apps in this case neither, lets stop just supporting the stronger side (APPLE) just because, and get the facts straight for a minute, if I get more battery life on safe mode than normally and no runaway apps ( I don't even have any apps on startup!!) then something is terrible wrong with the code itself.

It means that there is a 3rd party something installed that runs in normal mode (does not run in Safe Mode) that is using up additional power, now it's time to find it and remove it.

Make a new user account, boot into it (in normal mode) test again.

Please be aware that the so-called Safe Mode does not load all the software that is being loaded when in Normal Mode. Meaning that not all software (and kext and library) made by Apple, or any other company/developer, is being loaded.

It does not have to be specifically a non-Apple software that causes higher battery drain.

yangcy wrote:

 

Please be aware that the so-called Safe Mode does not load all the software that is being loaded when in Normal Mode. Meaning that not all software (and kext and library) made by Apple, or any other company/developer, is being loaded.

It does not have to be specifically a non-Apple software that causes higher battery drain.

Yes, I know that but.

You have to start somewhere, instead of criticising why not offer your suggestion to narrow this problem down to a more specific area?

Will test tonight and provide results.

I did not mean to criticise but am simply saying that it could be also Apple-caused issue and saying it is a problem of only 3rd party software is simply not fair.

For me 10.8.3 did improve the battery life. Not significantly, not to the Snow Leopard levels but still much better than on 10.8.2. Maybe it's a matter of not using iCloud services or iMessages, I don't know.

And yes, I am aware that with each new iteration of any OS the performance get worse on older machines, hence I am not complaining on what I get with 10.8.3.

That's just settling for the "not so bad, because it could be worst" not a healthy choice, I bet you paid thousands of dollars like me for a product and the promise of some features and not getting them is one thing but being FAR from getting them means being victim of false advertising and as far as I know that's a felony.

Anyway, we are we're to help each other not fight, if everything points is apples fault they are the ones we should fight.

I will try Csounds1 test, sounds reasonable and I will let everybody know how it goes.

Thanks to all.

yangcy wrote:

 

I did not mean to criticise but am simply saying that it could be also Apple-caused issue and saying it is a problem of only 3rd party software is simply not fair.

No-one said that it is, troubleshooting is a process of elimination and strangely enough what happened with you, happened with you. Using your experience to discourage others from investigating their issue is unhelpful, so stop.

I hope you understand that adding more features equals more processing power to be used, equals higher power draw, equals worse battery life.

Add more features that enables you to use more content online and here you go. It all does cost you more CPU cycles...

Obviously, every comment that points to a possible Apple's fault on worse battery life will be taken as if it was an attack on Apple and/or some of the users of this board. I did not mean to attack you or anyone here, I just said you and others should consider a few more things than simply saying "runaway applications are the issue" + posting a link <-- this seems pretty much like saying: Apple good, your_3rd_party_application bad.

I am not 100% happy with battery life but cannot complain either. Also, this thread has plenty of reports saying that even clean installation did not solve the battery life - this has to be considered as well.

@CSound1: what is so strangely enough that happened with me? Where exactly did I say that I discourage others from investigating their issue?

yangcy wrote:

 

 

@CSound1: what is so strangely enough that happened with me? Where exactly did I say that I discourage others from investigating their issue?

Read your post again.

Which one? In each and every one I suggested something and did not say: "don't bother investigating this issue, it's pointless".

Both the OP and I took your post the same way, and as the OP has the problem and has decided to ignore your post and try it anyway the issue is closed.

Don't know if it has been mentioned in this long discussion but the automatic shwitching to the discrete graphic card has been increased from 10.8.3. This could be a significant cause of higher battery drain.