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15" SR MBP Battery/sleep issues?

D

dcv

macrumors G3
Original poster
May 24, 2005
8,021
1
I've been noticing that the battery charge on my new 15" 2.4GHz MacBook Pro drops significantly when I put it to sleep overnight.

This morning when I opened it up it briefly flashed up last night's time and charge, which was 56%, then immediately dropped to 31%

The other night I could've sworn it was around 80% charge before I put it to sleep but next time I opened it it reported 40%.

I'm going to re-calibrate the battery tonight but just wondering if anyone else is experiencing this. It also seems to take a lot longer going to sleep compared to my old PowerBook.
 
add me to messenger and we can chat about this later on....... i've been heavily looking into these power issues and it would be good to chat.
 
Right I just got home and the battery has completely drained itself over the course of the day. When I left for work it had 31% charge, I left it sleeping disconnected from the mains. When I got home it wouldn't even wake until I attached the power cable.

I'm now charging it and will re-calibrate the battery tonight.

eenu - I don't use messenger but I'll post back tomorrow to let you know if there's any change...
 
I've noticed the exact same thing and was about to ask that very question. Last night I put it to sleep with ~20% and today it wouldn't wake up unless I plugged the power cord; the battery was at 0%. Nome of my previous Mac notebooks consumed this much battery while sleeping.

Could this be related to "hybernation mode"? I heard these new intel machines have different modes, how do you change them?
 
iDive said:
Could this be related to "hybernation mode"? I heard these new intel machines have different modes, how do you change them?
Click to expand...

I found this article but not changed the 'safe sleep' mode yet. I guess this also explains why it seems to take ages going to sleep compared to my old 12" PowerBook.


I'm going to charge this to 100% then shut it down, reset the SMC, turn it back on then re-calibrate the battery again and see what happens. If it's still misbehaving then I guess I'll call into the Apple Store and see a genius or ask for a new battery or something.


I hope that's the right thing to try^ if anyone else has any other ideas please let me know!
 
Not sure about the battery charge levels, but as far as taking longer to go to sleep than your old powerbook, that is on purpose. The new MBPs use "safe sleep mode" where they write the contents of ram to disk, in addition to keeping the ram powered. That way if the power runs completely out, your work is still saved on the disk.

The old powerbooks just kept the ram powered, that's why it was faster (you didn't have to write anything to disk).

You can change the sleep mode that you want to use, this article is very good for explaining the whole thing and how to change sleep modes:

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macosxhints/2006/10/sleepmode/index.php
 
So, any new thoughts on this? Any possible solutions? It is very annoying to have to shut down the computer every time if I want to save battery. I never had to do this with my previous mac notebooks...
 
I'll have to update you later on as to whether re-calibrating the battery helped or not. I didn't manage to drain it until 1:30am then left it off overnight as suggested in the Apple docs on calibration (which I didn't actually do the first time around), then plugged it back in this morning so it's charging at home while I'm at work. I'll have to leave it sleeping disconnected from the mains tonight; if it discharges a lot again then I'll pop to the Apple Store tomorrow and ask about a new battery.

iDive - no, you really shouldn't have to shut the laptop down every few hours! I only ever used to shut down/restart my old PowerBook for software updates and always left it sleeping overnight etc with no change in battery charge. So far I haven't been able to use this machine after waking it from sleep. I'm really hoping the re-calibration (or a new battery) solves the problem...
 
I find it takes some encouragement to come out of sleep. Simply lifting the lid doesn't always start the wake-up process, I have to tap some keys or even hit the power switch.

Of slightly more concern is the longevity of my battery. After only 8 cycles, the capacity is already down to 90%. It may want recalibrating.
 
Today's update...

Re-calibrated the battery, yadda yadda... used it a bit yesterday evening and charged it back to 100% again.

Pulled the power cable out (at 100%) then put the machine to sleep overnight.

Six hours later I come back to find the battery is at 78% :rolleyes:


Decided to bring it to work with me so I can pop to the Apple Store this evening but I opened it up at work a little earlier to show someone and in just a couple of hours it's dropped by a further 10%. This is ridiculous.

The next available 'genius' appointment is on Friday, which I can't make, so I've just called the store and all they could say is that a genius would have to have a look at it to diagnose the problem and you can only book appointments on a 48-hour cycle... so after explaining this is my 3rd MBP as the first two were duds and I've only got until next Friday to keep or return this one, he suggested I pop in to speak to a manager to see if they'll just swap a battery over for me. Will pop in later to see what they say...
 
miniConvert said:
Mine's fully charged and in my bag. I'll yank it out, switch it on and put it to sleep now and let you know the battery status in a few hours!

Edit: Slept at 99% charge, 13:13.
Click to expand...

Thanks, it'll be interesting to compare!

I know these Intel machines have a different sleep function compared to the old PowerBooks and they write the contents of RAM to disk or whatever, which is why they take longer going to sleep and maybe use 1% or so during sleep, but to use 20-30% over a 6-hour sleep period is ridiculous. I could leave my old PowerBook asleep for a few days and it'd be fine.
 
dcv said:
Thanks, it'll be interesting to compare!

I know these Intel machines have a different sleep function compared to the old PowerBooks and they write the contents of RAM to disk or whatever, which is why they take longer going to sleep and maybe use 1% or so during sleep, but to use 20-30% over a 6-hour sleep period is ridiculous. I could leave my old PowerBook asleep for a few days and it'd be fine.
Click to expand...
I totally agree. Using that much power just to maintain the RAM seems crazy - I'll be really interested to see if mine does the same thing.
 
miniConvert said:
Using that much power just to maintain the RAM seems crazy
Click to expand...

Yes, especially as I haven't even used the machine for anything other than Safari and iChat so far. And I'd already quit iChat so the only application running before I put it to sleep was one safari window with 5 or 6 tabs open!
 
Thanks for that :) Really does show that there is something wrong with mine then...
 
My MBP was fully charged, and went to sleep at 100%. Took the plug out, and let it sleep overnight. Woke it up after 7hrs, and battery was at 93%... I think I can live with that...

What do you all think? The battery has gone through 6 cycles.
 
Thanks again miniConvert :)

Well I popped to Regent Street and asked to speak to one of the managers, explained the situation and showed him my MBP, which by 6pm had dropped down to 38% - it was at 100% last night and I'd literally only checked the Tube website very briefly before work this morning!

So anyway - he did agree that that shouldn't happen. He's exchanged the battery for a new one, I'll calibrate it tonight and see how it goes.

Wish me luck, I've not had particularly good fortune with the MBPs so far. Surely this is now a good one? :eek:


ps: on a side note - the first 2 MBPs I had both had a fair amount of charge in the batteries whereas the battery that shipped with this one was completely empty. I remembered this while I was sitting up at the Genius bar earlier. The first replacement battery the manager blokey picked up had no charge and he did comment that was odd as he said they should always have some charge to start with. So he picked up a second (the one I now have), which was fine.
 
Something still isn't quite right...

I have calibrated the new battery. Charged it and drained it last night, left it off for a good 5hrs+ as recommended. Took it to work with me today to charge up.

16:00 - I packed it into my bag, asleep with 100% charge

18:15 - Opened it up at home - 93% charge

Used it for a little while, only running Safari

19:00 - Put it to sleep, 75% charge

21:45 - Just got back from gym, 66% charge


So in sleep mode, the battery seems to be draining at a rate of ~ 3.5% per hour... this is fairly consistent with the results of the first battery. So perhaps not a faulty battery but some sort of hardware/firmware issue?? :confused: This can't be right and it's just not useable as a notebook if the battery is draining itself like this.


Battery Information: (from System Profiler)

Battery Installed: Yes
First low level warning: No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 5486
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 5008
Amperage (mA): -1093
Voltage (mV): 12083
Cycle Count: 1

Do other people's figures look like this?
 
...and yet again...

drained the battery and re-charged it overnight.

Then this morning:

05:50 - disconnected power cord and put it to sleep with 100% charge

07:40 - woke it from sleep, battery was at 93%


This machine is either gonna have to be taken in for investigation/repair next week or I'm just gonna get a refund and go back to using my rock solid PowerBook...
 
dcv said:
...rock solid...
Click to expand...

You don't to wake up next to something that's all drained, you want something rock solid, even if it means you have to accept a few less inches and slightly slower RAM.
 
It could be time to start asking yourself if you've ever crossed Steve Jobs ;) :p

I very rarely sleep my machine, so I'd probably never have noticed - it's really unfortunate that your notebook has this problem!

It would certainly seem that something in your notebook is not powering down correctly. Maybe it'd take a new logic board, or god knows what else, but I'm guessing that unless the Genius's can resolve it while-you-wait then it's time to return it :(

Don't give up, though! You've had a taste of just how much ooph these little buggers have got now, don't go back to the Powerbook! There are great machines out there!
 
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