PaulVRealty

Q: Short Battery Life of MBA Early 2015

I have a Early 2015 MBA. Two weeks ago suddenly from the battery lasting almost all day it now lasts less than 3 hours and the underside gets extremely hot. It has only been through 201 Battery Cycles. Took to apple store last week and they ran some tests but could not find any obvious issues. Battery shows as NORMAL. They suggested upgrading to El Capitan 10.11.3 which I did with no change.  (I did not install and change any software prior to this happening)

 

If I power off, fully charge overnight, turn on with only Email, Safari (no windows open), and Activity Monitor running it shows right off the bat a Time Remaining on battery of only 3 hours. They could not find anything unusual running in the background to cause this low battery setting at startup.

When this was new even if I was running Safari, Email, Acrobat, Photoshop at the same time the underside stayed fairly cool-warm. Never Hot like it is now. I also could get at least 6-8 hours of run time. Something is not right.

Any suggestions.

MacBook Air, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Feb 22, 2016 4:20 AM

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Q: Short Battery Life of MBA Early 2015

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Feb 22, 2016 5:48 AM in response to PaulVRealty
    Level 10 (208,017 points)
    Applications
    Feb 22, 2016 5:48 AM in response to PaulVRealty

    Please post the results of following the instructions linked below.

     

    Apps can affect Mac performance, battery runtime, temperature, and fan activity - Apple Support

  • by PaulVRealty,

    PaulVRealty PaulVRealty Feb 22, 2016 8:48 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 22, 2016 8:48 AM in response to Linc Davis

    This response was not helpful at all. It almost appears you did not read what I wrote.

     

    The fact that after a 100% charge, with nothing running and turning on at the beginning of the day the battery has only 3 hours of life to START with is not what it should be. There should be 10+ hours on a fully charged MBA when just turning on, or at least 5-8 hours, not 3.

     

    I understand the more apps that are open and the more tasks those apps are performing in addition to screen brightness setting, having wi-fi and bluetooth running, etc, that this drains the life of the battery at a much faster rate.

     

    My issue is I am not doing anything different that I used to and suddenly I can only use my MBA for around 3 hours AND the case gets very hot. This was not the case the previous 8 months I had the computer.

  • by Linc Davis,

    Linc Davis Linc Davis Feb 22, 2016 9:40 AM in response to PaulVRealty
    Level 10 (208,017 points)
    Applications
    Feb 22, 2016 9:40 AM in response to PaulVRealty

    Click the Support link at the top of this page to speak to someone who, unlike me, is paid to tolerate rudeness.

  • by PaulVRealty,

    PaulVRealty PaulVRealty Feb 22, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Linc Davis
    Level 1 (5 points)
    Feb 22, 2016 10:21 AM in response to Linc Davis

    Was not meaning to be rude and I appreciate all who volunteer their time in helping out the public. It just after spending hours at the Apple store and having them run thorugh all those same possible reasons and not getting a reason or solution to solve the issue, then posting here and getting a generic response to go to a link that we already had, was not helpful. I was frustrated.

     

    I was looking to find out why 3 hours of total run time when starting at 100% battery life is not an issue.

    I would expect when turning on after a full charge to START with more life expectancy.

    Explaining what draws down the power does not explain why it STARTS with minimal life.

     

    If this is normal, then I will deal with it. However nobody has been able to explain if this is NORMAL or if there is an issue. If all those items in the link you provided plus the other things they did at the store don't solve the problem, what can be done?

     

    Again, I apologize if you felt I was rude for you assistance and time.

  • by OGELTHORPE,

    OGELTHORPE OGELTHORPE Feb 22, 2016 10:50 AM in response to PaulVRealty
    Level 9 (52,661 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 22, 2016 10:50 AM in response to PaulVRealty

    Perform a SMC reset:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295

     

    Download a temperature/fan speed monitoring application.

     

    Open Activity Monitor to ALL PROCESSES and set CPU to display values from high to low.

     

    When the MBP gets 'hot', post screen shots of both for review.

     

    Run Apple diagnostics:

     

    https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202731

     

    Ciao.