MacBook Pro 16'' 2020 Battery Drain While Plugged in

[Darknerocu]

Hello Everyone,

First post here on MacRumors... be nice!

I have a MacBook Pro 2020 (touchbar)
Specs:
- i9 2.3GHz
- 5500m 4gb GPU
- 16GB ram
- 1TB ssd

I am having issues with running higher performance apps while plugged in. The battery will drain rapidly to the point of only having about 1-1.5hrs of useable time before it gets to 1-2% battery and the system throttles itself aggressively.

I have created two support tickets with applecare and at first they sent me a new powerbrick to see if it was a defect with the charger. This did not fix the issue.
The second ticket i went up the chain to a senior technical support manager and at the end of it he basically said i can either trade in the machine (1500$ value within the Mac Store) or he can get a tech on my machine to turn down the performance so that it falls within its charging capabilities. At one point he suggested i should have shelled out the extra dough $$$ so that it had the best components... at which point i questioned his experience and capability.... as this is clearly a TDP issue. The mac is using more power than the charging system can provide.

Does anyone know a workaround for this or a solution?
Trade it in? Does someone want a Macbook Pro and wants to trade for an iMac?

At this point im pretty angry from my support calls as the guy was basically useless. I do not consider downgrading you stock machine to be able to be run properly a real solution.

Thanks everyone,

A guy who loves macs, but is very tempted to go back to the darkside.

 

[CYB3RBYTE]

This will happen with certain high power apps to any MacBook. My MacBook Pro 16” (with the same specs) does it when just plugged into the OWC thunderbolt 3 dock I use, as that’s only able to charge at 87w and the 16” wants 96w from the charger under load.

Now keep in mind, the watt hours on the MacBook Pro 16” battery are 100w, and the charger they provide for it is 96w. So you’ll always be doing this catchup game. For the sustained workloads that you are doing, perhaps a desktop Mac would have been a better choice as that won’t drain it’s battery, perhaps you need an absolute reason to be using a portable Mac.

BTW, the way I solve this is by plugging my 16” into both it’s 96w charger and my OWC dock at the same time. The battery doesn’t drain then.

 

[Darknerocu]

Ok, that is good to know!

How does the laptop take charge from BOTH the 96W Charger & the OWC Dock? I've tried plugging two chargers in at the same time and it just takes power from one?

 

[CYB3RBYTE]

Ok, that is good to know!

How does the laptop take charge from BOTH the 96W Charger & the OWC Dock? I've tried plugging two chargers in at the same time and it just takes power from one?

For me, it will usually show the 96w charger giving the primary amount of power in system profiler. However, when I have the 96w plugged in while using the dock and an intensive program, it doesn't drain. But if I have only the OWC dock connected, wallah!