Extreme Battery Drainage

Question

Level 1

24 points

Extreme Battery Drainage

Since updating I am only getting around 3 hours per battery charge on just surfing alone where I used to get at the minimum 8 hours depending on what I was doing and I have just noticed that it has only taken 45 minutes for the battery to recharge to 50% so something is obviously not right here although I don't mind the quick charge haha.

Here is a system report :

Hardware Information:

MacBook (13-inch, Mid 2010)

MacBook - model: MacBook7,1

1 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU: 2 cores

4 GB RAM

Video Information:

NVIDIA GeForce 320M - VRAM: 256 MB

Audio Plug-ins:

BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0

AirPlay: Version: 1.9

AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0

iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

Startup Items:

ProTec6b - Path: /Library/StartupItems/ProTec6b

System Software:

OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 0 days 0:9:33

Disk Information:

Hitachi HTS545025B9SA02 disk0 : (250.06 GB)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB

Mad Mac 5 (disk0s2) /: 249.2 GB (57.45 GB free)

Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R UJ-898

USB Information:

Apple Inc. Built-in iSight

Apple Inc. BRCM2070 Hub

Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

FireWire Information:

Thunderbolt Information:

Kernel Extensions:

at.obdev.nke.LittleSnitch (4052)

Problem System Launch Daemons:

Problem System Launch Agents:

Launch Daemons:

[loaded] at.obdev.littlesnitchd.plist

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist

[loaded] com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

[not loaded] com.bjango.istatlocaldaemon.plist

[not loaded] com.google.keystone.daemon.plist

Launch Agents:

[loaded] at.obdev.LittleSnitchUIAgent.plist

[not loaded] com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist

[not loaded] com.bjango.istatlocal.plist

[not loaded] com.google.keystone.agent.plist

[loaded] com.wacom.wacomtablet.plist

User Launch Agents:

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.scheduledScan.plist

[loaded] com.macpaw.CleanMyMac2Helper.trashWatcher.plist

User Login Items:

None

3rd Party Preference Panes:

Flash Player

Flip4Mac WMV

MusicManager

Perian

WacomTablet

Internet Plug-ins:

Default Browser.plugin

Flash Player.plugin

FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin

Flip4Mac WMV Plugin.plugin

Google Earth Web Plug-in.plugin

iPhotoPhotocast.plugin

QuickTime Plugin.plugin

Silverlight.plugin

Unity Web Player.plugin

WacomSafari.plugin

User Internet Plug-ins:

Bad Fonts:

None

Time Machine:

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU:

11% mds_stores

11% mds

7% WindowServer

6% Safari

2% EtreCheck

1% hidd

0% iStatLocalDaemon

0% com.apple.WebKit.Networking

0% Little Snitch Network Monitor

0% Little Snitch Agent

Top Processes by Memory:

180 MB Safari

115 MB com.apple.IconServicesAgent

82 MB mds_stores

78 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent

53 MB Finder

45 MB mds

45 MB Dock

25 MB PluginProcess

25 MB WindowServer

25 MB EtreCheck

Virtual Memory Statistics

1.77 GB Free RAM

1.31 GB Active RAM

174 MB Inactive RAM

509 MB Wired RAM

1.13 GB Page-ins

0 B Page-outs

And a screen shot of Activity Monitor Energy Usage :

If you notice it also says that it is going to be just over two hours until full charge but its already increased 5% in the time it has taken me to post this.

Any help would be seriously be appreciated, thank you very much!

MacBook, OS X Mavericks (10.9)

Posted on Oct 24, 2013 5:29 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Oldskoolstu Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 24, 2013 5:34 PM in response to Oldskoolstu

I've just noticed that since I posted that the mds tasks have now finished and that the windowserver is using 6.4 energy. I hope that this helps 🙂

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

147,360 points

Oct 24, 2013 6:16 PM in response to Oldskoolstu

mdworker and mds - anything are processes required by Spotlight. As you noticed they will account for considerable energy use until Spotlight finishes indexing potentially millions of files.

Chrome is also a notorious resource hog whose inefficiencies appear to have only been magnified by Mavericks. I have no idea why Google cannot seem to develop apps for OS X that don't suçk, but their ineptitude shouldn't be your problem. Google has remnants in your system that may be related to Chrome, so if you did not completely uninstall it review Google's instructions. Use Safari or Firefox, both of which have well on every OS X version and continue to do so with Mavericks.

By far the greatest concern though is CleanMyMac. It is one of a broad category of time- and money-wasters capable of causing system corruption that can only be rectified by reinstalling OS X, restoring from a backup, or completely erasing your system and rebuilding it from the ground up. Get rid of it and test your Mac for operation. If it does not perform normally, the possibility that CleanMyMac resulted in system corruption must be considered.

I recommend you get rid of it completely and install Mavericks all over again. Use CleanMyMac to uninstall CleanMyMac. It's probably its only useful function.

The vast majority of Mac problems reported on this site are the direct result of having used garbage like that. Never install such junk on a Mac.

Reply

Answer 3

Oldskoolstu Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 24, 2013 6:27 PM in response to John Galt

John Galt wrote:

mdworker and mds - anything are processes required by Spotlight. As you noticed they will account for considerable energy use until Spotlight finishes indexing potentially millions of files.

Chrome is also a notorious resource hog whose inefficiencies appear to have only been magnified by Mavericks. I have no idea why Google cannot seem to develop apps for OS X. Uninstall it and use Safari or Firefox, both of which have well on every OS X version and continue to do so with Mavericks.

By far the greatest concern though is CleanMyMac. It is one of a broad category of time- and money-wasters capable of causing system corruption that can only be rectified by reinstalling OS X, restoring from a backup, or completely erasing your system and rebuilding it from the ground up. Get rid of it and test your Mac for operation. If it does not perform normally, the possibility that Cleanmymac resulted in system corruption must be considered.

I recommend you get rid of it completely and install Mavericks all over again. Use CleanMyMac to uninstall CleanMyMac. It's probably its only useful function.

The vast majority of Mac problems reported on this site are the direct result of having used garbage like that. Never install such junk on a Mac.

John, thank you very much for your reply and your detailed knowledge.

Thank you for the insight into the mdworker and mds processes (very useful to know) but I still have the windowserver process using a lot of the energy consumption (it is now at 14.5 compared to what it was before at 6.4) Can you tell me what this process is please?

In regards to Chrome, I do not and never have had it installed although I do have the Photoshop filters that Google now own and Google Music Manager which I am about to start using soon. What are your thoughts on these?

In regards to CleanMyMac I must admit that I had concerns myself regarding it and will remove immediatly but may I ask what you regard as the best way to completely uninstall an application properly and thouroughly?

However these battery issues have only started to happen since the Mavericks Download regarding quick battery drainage and also fast charging. For example my battery is at 91% charge and it has only been on charge 1hr 40mins not that I should complain but when the drop off is just as much there is reason to be concerned surely?

Thank you once again!

Reply

Answer 4

John Galt

Level 10

147,360 points

Oct 24, 2013 6:44 PM in response to Oldskoolstu

Windowserver draws everything on the display. If there a great number of icons on your Desktop (more than a few) gather them in a folder and put it in Documents. Determine if that makes any difference to windowserver.

As for thoughts on Google Music Manager, I have none other than to suspect Google isn't going to change its ways, and that trend hasn't been beneficial to anyone other than Google.

CleanMyMac2 can uninstall itself, literally: http://macpaw.com/knowledgebase/cleanmymac/how_to_uninstall_cleanmymac

After addressing those concerns, use your Mac normally long enough to draw conclusions about its battery life. A true comparison requires a charge to 100%, followed by normal use without all the Spotlight indexing, and without fixating on the number in the battery display.

Reply

Answer 5

Oldskoolstu Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 24, 2013 6:51 PM in response to John Galt

John Galt wrote:

Windowserver draws everything on the display. If there a great number of icons on your Desktop (more than a few) gather them in a folder and put it in Documents. Determine if that makes any difference to windowserver.

As for thoughts on Google Music Manager, I have none other than to suspect Google isn't going to change its ways, and that trend hasn't been beneficial to anyone other than Google.

CleanMyMac2 can uninstall itself, literally: http://macpaw.com/knowledgebase/cleanmymac/how_to_uninstall_cleanmymac

After addressing those concerns, use your Mac normally long enough to draw conclusions about its battery life. A true comparison requires a charge to 100%, followed by normal use without all the Spotlight indexing, and without fixating on the number in the battery display.

I have only three icons on my desktop so why windowserver is using so much is beyond me.

I shall see how Google Music Manager goes.

CleanMyMac failed to uninstall itself so I just removed manually.

I shall see how my battery life continues so may return at some point if drainage remains the same.

Thanks!

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Answer 6

Oldskoolstu Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 24, 2013 7:37 PM in response to John Galt

Just fully charged (after about an hour) and looked and it says that I only have just over four hours remaining.

Also looking at the battery usage in Activity monitor it says that my time on battery is 18 minutes and the charge has already dropped down to 93% within that time.

Surley this isn't right and it most certainly wasn't like this prior to the upgrade.

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Answer 7

ThanUN

Level 1

0 points

Oct 24, 2013 7:38 PM in response to Oldskoolstu

Hi

I use Macbook pro (early 2011) after update from ML to Maverick. The system was drainged a lot more battery life. Then I decided to do clean installation. After completely install, my machine is running smooth and the battery life is getting better 35 min.

Hope it would help,

Than

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Answer 8

Oldskoolstu Author

Level 1

24 points

Oct 24, 2013 7:41 PM in response to ThanUN

Hmm thanks looks like that might have to be the case.

Reply

Answer 9

John Galt

Level 10

147,360 points

Oct 24, 2013 8:02 PM in response to Oldskoolstu

I can only surmise that whatever is causing abnormal battery drain may have been an effect of having used CleanMyMac2 to do whatever it does, in which case an "erase and install" may be the most expedient solution. Such programs are capable of doing things to a Mac that can't be done using normal means, opening a Pandora's box of unknowns.

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