Making your battery last

[OMGteh.nterweb]

Ok, I'm sure there have been a few other threads like this, but I want to know how to get the best battery life out of my C2D MacBook. If you've got any tips and tricks, please post them below.

I wanted to ask about one specifically. I've been told that if you turn off a single core, you can gain some battery life, and perhaps not generate as much heat. Has anyone here gone a charge cycle or two with a single core, and if so, has it helped anything at all. I haven't really had my MacBook long enough to say what a normal cycle is for me.

(For those of you who may not know, the procedure for turning off cores is as follows...

1. Install Apple CHUD tools (it's on your first install disk if you spotlight for it as 'CHUD.pkg')
2. Go to system prefrences, click processors and uncheck the second core.
3. ?????
4. Profit!!!!!)

 

[FF_productions]

Turning off a core actually makes it worse.

You are now making one core do all the work, so that means it is going to heat up, and you are just going to lose more battery life and have half the performance.

Airport and Bluetooth use up battery life
Screen brightness also effects it
Anything connected (USB, Firewire), those draw power
Anything that is hard on the processor, you will start to see your battery life trickle down

 

[OMGteh.nterweb]

Turning off a core actually makes it worse.

Thanks, due to the design of the C2D, that's what I assumed, but i wanted to hear from someone who's tested.

 

[madog]

Best way to increase the life of a rechargeable battery is to first of all NOT leave the little guy plugged in for week/months/all the time. You want to use your notebook on battery power alone whenever possible. Once it's almost dead, plug it in and let it charge to full and then, here's a new one, unplug it!

Also, if you are going to store/not use a rechargeable battery for an extended period of time do not leave it all alone with little or no charge. Charge it up! The battery will slowly lose power when it's not used for a long time and if it has no charge to begin with it will be hard to get him back to life.

Personify your battery. It will encourage you to not abuse him and then eventually drain him of all his life. 2-3 years is a great life. Apple considers 1 year a complete life cycle after which it is no longer covered under AppleCare [repair extensions being the only exception...?]. After that just put him out of his misery.

 

[PlaceofDis]

Best way to increase the life of a rechargeable battery is to first of all NOT leave the little guy plugged in for week/months/all the time. You want to use your notebook on battery power alone whenever possible. Once it's almost dead, plug it in and let it charge to full and then, here's a new one, unplug it!

Also, if you are going to store/not use a rechargeable battery for an extended period of time do not leave it all alone with little or no charge. Charge it up! The battery will slowly lose power when it's not used for a long time and if it has no charge to begin with it will be hard to get him back to life.

Personify your battery. It will encourage you to not abuse him and then eventually drain him of all his life. 2-3 years is a great life. Apple considers 1 year a complete life cycle after which it is no longer covered under AppleCare [repair extensions being the only exception...?]. After that just put him out of his misery.

draining it and then recharging it constantly will wear it down. use it on battery power, but don't be afraid to use it charged either. don't go weeks without letting the battery get some use though. but constantly charging/draining will just use its life cycles up.

if you're not going to use it for extended amounts of times, apple recommends leaving it at about 50% of a charge if i'm correct.