Terrible Battery Life on Macbook Pro GM

[0309385]

I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro and it just has insanely terrible battery life on Mountain Lion GM. Is this normal?

 

[GGJstudios]

I have an early 2011 Macbook Pro and it just has insanely terrible battery life on Mountain Lion GM. Is this normal?

There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[0309385]

There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Yes, i've read and tried all of these. Still getting terrible battery life like an hour with low screen brightness no cpu hogging processes and only wifi on safari.

 

[GGJstudios]

Yes, i've read and tried all of these. Still getting terrible battery life like an hour with low screen brightness no cpu hogging processes and only wifi on safari.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the whole Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

 

[0309385]

Here you go:

 

[GGJstudios]

Here you go:

It looks like you may have just restarted your Mac. There's nothing there that would indicate high power consumption. Do you have anything plugged into your Mac?

 

[0309385]

It looks like you may have just restarted your Mac. There's nothing there that would indicate high power consumption. Do you have anything plugged into your Mac?

Nope, currently in class and it's draining very fast.

 

[GGJstudios]

Nope, currently in class and it's draining very fast.

How fast? iStat Pro will show you current battery stats. Also, are you going by the time remaining indicator on the Menu Bar, or by actual time until it shuts off?

 

[0309385]

How fast? iStat Pro will show you current battery stats. Also, are you going by the time remaining indicator on the Menu Bar, or by actual time until it shuts off?

Time remaining when I click the battery Icon.

 

[GGJstudios]

Time remaining when I click the battery Icon.

As the 2nd bullet point in the link I referred you to states:

Your "time remaining" indication is an ever-changing estimate, based on the current workload of your system. It will fluctuate up and down from minute to minute as your power demands change. It is not perfectly accurate, but only an estimate.

 

[0309385]

As the 2nd bullet point in the link I referred you to states:

Any more tips for more battery?

 

[GGJstudios]

Any more tips for more battery?

Did you read the Battery FAQ? It has all you need to know.

 

[0309385]

Did you read the Battery FAQ? It has all you need to know.

Yes.

 

[Nozuka]

maybe the discrete graphic card is running more often?

http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus

 

[Rique]

maybe the discrete graphic card is running more often?

http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus

I'm with Ethan. This morning, my battery life went from 98% to 15% in 75 minutes. The MBP was in screen saver mode part of the time, with nothing more demanding than Chrome running. No videos, no hard drive access, nothing of that sort.

I am accustomed to getting ~4-5 hours easy - running the MBP with the GM of Mountain Lion is definitely draining my battery much faster than in the past (Snow Leopard).

 

[Senseotech]

I'm with Ethan. This morning, my battery life went from 98% to 15% in 75 minutes. The MBP was in screen saver mode part of the time, with nothing more demanding than Chrome running. No videos, no hard drive access, nothing of that sort.

I am accustomed to getting ~4-5 hours easy - running the MBP with the GM of Mountain Lion is definitely draining my battery much faster than in the past (Snow Leopard).

I recall seeing somewhere that in 10.8, Chrome was causing the discrete GPU to kick in, meaning as soon as Chrome was opened and until it was totally quit, the machine was running off the GPU instead of the integrated chip, which would kill battery life.

 

[SiPat]

I don't use Chrome, and I am experiencing reduced battery life on MBAir since 10.7.4 Combo Update. I have a separate HD on my Mac Pro exclusively running 10.8 but decided not to update the MBAir.

 

[psykick5]

Something must be wrong. Mine is the same if not better.

 

[hegglin]

Terrible Battery Life because of Mail?!?

Since I upgraded to ML, the battery life on my MBP early 2011, is very poor (2hrs only). I located a problem with Mac Mail (Eg. to load the battery without mail open takes 1:35...if mail is running, it says 5:05)...can anybody confirm or is faceing the same? Anybody an idea how to improve?

 

[Nathan20]

Not sure if this will help but try this: cultm.ac/PLnAyf

 

[hegglin]

Not sure if this will help but try this: cultm.ac/PLnAyf

thanks, Nathan,...but it didn't help ...this is what the activity looks like with mail open

 

[matins]

seems like you have a problem with mail then...

 

[hegglin]

anybody an idea, what I could do? How could I eg. re-install mail programm or ML GM? Actually it's only available in the Mac App store and I dont find a "re-install-button"...or some thing similar

 

[Icy1007]

thanks, Nathan,...but it didn't help ...this is what the activity looks like with mail open

Mail should not be using that much CPU.

 

[hegglin]

Mail should not be using that much CPU.

Thx – but how can one change that???