Laptop battery drains faster at home

Question

Level 1

9 points

Laptop battery drains faster at home

I have a new Macbook Pro and for the first 30 days, I could get great battery life..a day or two before needing a charge. About 2 weeks ago, I began to notice a free-fall on battery life, dropping about 1% every 60-120 seconds. There has been no new software added since the notice of battery drop. Contacted Tech Support and they checked a number of obvious things and after finding nothing, advised me to take it in to the Genius Bar at the Apple Store. Their solution was to reformat the hard drive and start over again. No change. Went back to the Genius Bar and this time they replaced the battery with a new one. Still no change! Today, I noticed something strange. When I took the laptop away from home to a public airport with wifi, I noticed that the battery was staying strong - not dropping, but as soon as I got home onto my wifi network, I noticed the battery drop again!

I recently purchased a new Netgear R7000 router. This may be a stupid question (but I'm desperate), but is there any way the router could be overworking the laptop's battery (wow...the question even looks stupid)? I also wonder if there is some synchronization that is taking place in the background when I am on my home network that I may not realize that could be the culprit. If so, how to I check and manage that??

Any other ideas/thoughts??

Thanks!

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015), OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Apr 2, 2016 3:55 PM

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Answer 1

Linc Davis

Level 10

209,739 points

Apr 2, 2016 5:24 PM in response to Skyhawk890

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

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Answer 2

Courcoul

Level 6

18,732 points

Apr 2, 2016 6:14 PM in response to Skyhawk890

"Overpowering"? No. But the current configuration of the router might be letting more network traffic thru than the previous one. Hostile and/or non-hostile. Which would result in more workload for the Mac. Check the firewall settings.

Might want to download and run EtreCheck for a quick analysis of what's on there, posting back the report if you need help in interpretation. And for good measure, do the same with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, in case the nasties got inside. Both are developed by very reputable members of this community and will not harm the Mac in any way.

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Answer 3

Apr 2, 2016 6:23 PM in response to Courcoul

Interesting. Are you on cable-TV modem at home?

With that setup, All the traffic for everyone in your neighborhood is presented at your network Interface. Your packets are picked off by Address.

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Answer 4

Skyhawk890 Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 2, 2016 7:16 PM in response to Courcoul

Malwarebytes scan took about 1 or 2 seconds and were negative. Here are the results of the EtreCheck:

EtreCheck version: 2.9.10 (261)

Report generated 2016-04-02 22:08:33

Download EtreCheck from https://etrecheck.com

Runtime 1:24

Performance: Excellent

Click the [Support] links for help with non-Apple products.

Click the [Details] links for more information about that line.

Problem: Other problem

Description:

Battery drains too fast, especially when on home wireless network. When elsewhere, it doesn’t seem to drain as quickly. The laptop is new and the Genius Bar as 1) reformatted the hard drive with no change and 2) replaced the battery with no change.

Hardware Information: ⓘ

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)

[Technical Specifications] - [User Guide] - [Warranty & Service]

MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro11,5

1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 CPU: 4-core

16 GB RAM Not upgradeable

BANK 0/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

BANK 1/DIMM0

8 GB DDR3 1600 MHz ok

Bluetooth: Good - Handoff/Airdrop2 supported

Wireless: en0: 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac

Battery: Health = Normal - Cycle count = 8

Video Information: ⓘ

AMD Radeon R9 M370X - VRAM: 2048 MB

Intel Iris Pro

Color LCD 2880 x 1800

System Software: ⓘ

OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 (15D21) - Time since boot: about one hour

Disk Information: ⓘ

APPLE SSD SM0512G disk0 : (500.28 GB) (Solid State - TRIM: Yes)

EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted> : 210 MB

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

Macintosh HD (disk1) / : 499.06 GB (428.59 GB free)

Core Storage: disk0s2 499.42 GB Online

USB Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Thunderbolt Information: ⓘ

Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

Gatekeeper: ⓘ

Mac App Store and identified developers

System Launch Agents: ⓘ

[not loaded] 6 Apple tasks

[loaded] 155 Apple tasks

[running] 75 Apple tasks

System Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[failed] com.apple.Kerberos.digest-service.plist

[not loaded] 47 Apple tasks

[loaded] 153 Apple tasks

[running] 87 Apple tasks

Launch Agents: ⓘ

[running] com.carbonite.launchd.status.plist (2016-03-11) [Support]

[running] com.teamviewer.teamviewer.plist (2016-04-02) [Support]

[running] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_desktop.plist (2016-04-02) [Support]

Launch Daemons: ⓘ

[loaded] com.adobe.fpsaud.plist (2016-03-18) [Support]

[loaded] com.carbonite.installhelper.plist (2016-03-11) [Support]

[running] com.carbonite.launchd.daemon.plist (2016-03-11) [Support]

[running] com.carbonite.launchd.monitor.plist (2016-03-11) [Support]

[loaded] com.carbonite.launchd.watcher.plist (2016-03-11) [Support]

[loaded] com.teamviewer.Helper.plist (2016-02-01) [Support]

[running] com.teamviewer.teamviewer_service.plist (2016-04-02) [Support]

User Login Items: ⓘ

iTunesHelper Application (/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunesHelper.app)

Other Apps: ⓘ

[loaded] 397 Apple tasks

[running] 183 Apple tasks

Internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

FlashPlayer-10.6: 21.0.0.197 - SDK 10.6 (2016-03-24) [Support]

QuickTime Plugin: 7.7.3 (2016-01-13)

Flash Player: 21.0.0.197 - SDK 10.6 (2016-03-24) [Support]

SurveillanceClient: 3.10.22 - SDK 10.7 (2014-03-27) [Support]

Default Browser: 601 - SDK 10.11 (2016-01-13)

User internet Plug-ins: ⓘ

FreeConferenceCallPlugin: 1.2.3 - SDK 10.5 (2016-03-10) [Support]

3rd Party Preference Panes: ⓘ

Flash Player (2016-03-18) [Support]

Time Machine: ⓘ

Time Machine not configured!

Top Processes by CPU: ⓘ

100% CarboniteDaemon

2% WindowServer

2% fontd

1% kernel_task

1% Dock

Top Processes by Memory: ⓘ

978 MB kernel_task

819 MB com.apple.WebKit.WebContent(4)

197 MB Mail

180 MB mds_stores

164 MB Safari

Virtual Memory Information: ⓘ

7.75 GB Free RAM

8.24 GB Used RAM (4.58 GB Cached)

0 B Swap Used

Diagnostics Information: ⓘ

Apr 2, 2016, 08:24:07 PM ~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/NETGEARGenie_2016-04-02-202407_[redacted].cras h

com.yourcompany.NETGEARGenie - /Applications/NETGEARGenie.app/Contents/MacOS/NETGEARGenie

Apr 2, 2016, 08:23:37 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-04-02-202337_[redacted].cp u_resource.diag [Details]

/Applications/Carbonite.app/Contents/MacOS/CarboniteDaemon

Apr 2, 2016, 08:18:16 PM Self test - passed

Apr 1, 2016, 02:13:46 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-04-01-021346_[redacted].cr ash

Apr 1, 2016, 02:01:53 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-04-01-020153_[redacted].cr ash

Apr 1, 2016, 01:51:44 AM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-04-01-015144_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 11:04:40 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-230440_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 10:54:05 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-225405_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 10:42:18 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-224218_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 10:31:47 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-223147_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 10:11:31 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-221131_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 09:51:16 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-215116_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 09:39:16 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-213916_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 07:00:11 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-190011_[redacted].cp u_resource.diag [Details]

Mar 31, 2016, 06:46:12 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-184612_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 04:39:49 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-163949_[redacted].cp u_resource.diag [Details]

Mar 31, 2016, 04:09:25 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-160925_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 03:58:44 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-155844_[redacted].cr ash

Mar 31, 2016, 03:38:40 PM /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/CarboniteDaemon_2016-03-31-153840_[redacted].cr ash

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Answer 5

Skyhawk890 Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 2, 2016 7:18 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Grant,

Not sure what the meaning of your response is, but yes, I have Cable Internet - Ultimate Speed upgrade (Time Warner Cable).

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Answer 6

ManSinha

Level 6

12,183 points

Apr 2, 2016 7:21 PM in response to Skyhawk890

Are you using automatic back up to Carbonite at home?
If so - any chance you can disable it for a day and see if things change?

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Answer 7

Skyhawk890 Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 2, 2016 7:21 PM in response to Linc Davis

Line,

I understand that but the drain seemed to happen recently and after no recent new apps/downloads that I can think of. Regardless, the laptop was running for a day or two between charges and now I can't go beyond an hour or two with email and Internet browsing.

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Answer 8

Skyhawk890 Author

Level 1

9 points

Apr 2, 2016 7:25 PM in response to ManSinha

Yes, I am using Carbonite and it is set for automatic. I will disable it and see what happens

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Answer 9

Courcoul

Level 6

18,732 points

Apr 2, 2016 7:46 PM in response to Skyhawk890

You may also want to update the system to 10.11.4, and make sure the apps are all at the latest level. Especially the Carbonite stuff, which seems to account for a significant workload during this EtreCheck sampling.

Maybe run EtreCheck again when at one of the low-drain locations to compare.

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