Battery drain on MBA 2013

Question

Level 1

0 points

Battery drain on MBA 2013

Hello guys,

I upgraded to Yosemite a while ago and the battery drained incredibly faster. The battery could only last for 4 hours or so. But before that, the battery life was around 14 hours on Mavericks. So I decided to downgrade it to Mavericks a week later. However, the battery issue was still there. Now it is around 5 hours, which is significantly lower than it used to be (14 hours). I have done some research and it looks like calibrating the battery would better its performance. Would it actually help? It's just frustrating that the battery does no longer last. Any other thoughts? How do you guys deal with the battery issue? Thanks.

PS. I use Safari instead of Chrome. I used to use chrome and it never had an issue.

MacBook Air, OS X Mavericks (10.9.5)

Posted on Nov 13, 2014 9:56 AM

Reply

Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Nov 13, 2014 12:22 PM in response to brychole

brychole wrote:

. I have done some research and it looks like calibrating the battery would better its performance. Would it actually help?

No.

Try a SMC reset:

http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT3964

Ciao.

Reply

Answer 2

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 3:19 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Unfortunately it didn't solve the problem. I already did the resetting. Does Yosemite still drains battery on mid-2013 MacBook Air? Thanks

Reply

Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Nov 13, 2014 3:25 PM in response to brychole

brychole wrote:

I already did the resetting. Does Yosemite still drains battery on mid-2013 MacBook Air? Thanks

I have Yosemite on an external HDD and use Lion as my working OSX on my MBP, so I cannot give to an answer for that question.

Open Activity Monitor and see if there is an application that is taking a lot of CPU resources.

Ciao.

Reply

Answer 4

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 4:27 PM in response to OGELTHORPE

Already did that part and didn't find any process that takes up the CPU... Why calibrating the battery wouldn't help?

Reply

Answer 5

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Nov 13, 2014 4:32 PM in response to brychole

The purpose of calibration, for those MBPs that require it, only sets the display parameters to correctly reflect the batteries status. It has nothing to do with the batteries performance and only adds an additional and unnecessary cycle.

It may be in your interest to make an Apple store genius bar appointment. The evaluation will be FREE.

Ciao.

Reply

Answer 6

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 13, 2014 5:45 PM in response to brychole

1. Check the cycle count of the battery against the rated life for your model. The battery may be due for replacement. If the power adapter is connected almost all the time, the battery may need replacing even though the cycle count is not too high.

2. Follow these instructions, or thesefor OS X 10.8 or earlier.

3. In the Energy Saver preference pane, uncheck the box marked

Enable Power Nap while on battery power

if it's shown (it may not be.)

Reply

Answer 7

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 6:46 PM in response to Linc Davis

I have "Battery Health" on my Mac and it says the battery is 89% healthy with 218 cycles. And Power Nap is off. Like I said, the battery issue started after I upgraded to Yosemite. I honestly don't think it's a hardware issue. It's likely a software issue as there are a decent amount of users having the same problem. I've booked an appointment with the Genius tomorrow noon and will see what happens.Thanks, guys.

Reply

Answer 8

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 13, 2014 6:59 PM in response to brychole

Results of Step 2?

Reply

Answer 9

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 7:20 PM in response to Linc Davis

I've checked that too... all like below 15% as I am not doing anything now. If I started to do some programming, the battery would probably drop to zero in 3 hours... It just never happened before... I have no clue what Yosemite has done to my laptop. Yet I have already formatted the hard drive and reinstalled Mavericks.

Reply

Answer 10

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 13, 2014 8:16 PM in response to brychole

15% is a huge amount.

Reply

Answer 11

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 13, 2014 8:31 PM in response to Linc Davis

It's not like constantly 15%... like when I'm checking it, sometimes WIndowServer uses 15% but it could drop to 0.2 in just one sec. You can't expect all apps use CPU like below 5%, right? I'm trying to say I am not using any apps that constantly use up my CPU... I use my laptop as what I used to do and the battery just drops significantly faster. When it's fully charged, it doesn't even say it would have 10 hours remaining, likely it would have 6 hours or less remaining. But it was like 14 hours before this.

Reply

Answer 12

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 13, 2014 10:20 PM in response to brychole

You should be looking at the Energy tab, not CPU.

Reply

Answer 13

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 14, 2014 7:04 AM in response to Linc Davis

I've looked at that too... Safari contributes the highest average energy impact so far which is only 9.42. Others are like under 1... I've done some research before I posted this thread as I didn't find any solutions...

Reply

Answer 14

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,547 points

Nov 14, 2014 7:40 AM in response to brychole

Safari contributes the highest average energy impact so far which is only 9.42.

That's much too high. Disable Safari extensions and see whether there's an improvement.

Reply

Answer 15

brychole Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 14, 2014 8:25 AM in response to Linc Davis

Is it? What is the normal range for safari? I am not using any extensions tho. And when I was using chrome, it was around 30. I would say safari already has way less energy impact.

Reply