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Mac laptops : MBP Battery Performance Declining More Rapidly
MBP Battery Performance Declining More Rapidly
by BeatleMegaFan - 2/26/09 8:58 PMI've been looking for some info on the older 2007 MacBook Pro battery specs and stats, etc., but have been somewhat unsuccessful. Lately my MBP has been draining the battery at a much quicker pace than normal. This machine is only a year old now (however CoconutBattery says the battery is 16 months old). Still, the battery capacity shouldn't have diminished too significantly. Before I restored the Mac and installed the Windows 7 Beta, I could average 3-4 hours on a full charge. Normally, I would keep WiFi + Bluetooth enabled, an external monitor attached, several USB peripherals plugged in, and the main display would be set to maximum brightness. 3-4 hours was pretty nice considering the amount of power the machine could have been using.
After I partitioned my hard drive, the battery life was cut in half on the OS X side. Windows 7 power management was even worse. I figured that there may have been extra disk activity causing this problem. After I finished toying with Redmond's new OS, I removed the Windows partition and moved on from there. I know after I removed the partition, I was getting excellent battery life initially. Once that short period ended, it went downhill from there. The battery meter has become surprisingly accurate as of late; in a minute or so, you can easily watch the percentages drop 1-2%, which appears abnormal. I can manage 3 hours on a single charge at best, but I usually get less. I decided to take greater care in cycling the battery, in hopes of nursing it back to health, so to speak. It doesn't appear to be working so well. Enabling WiFi and other peripherals only drains more power, but turning them off again adds only 5 minutes. So when I'm using several devices at once, I'm lucky to get a little over 2 hours. Turning off menu items and background apps does nothing either.
It's been this way for several weeks now, and yet, iStat, System Profiler, and CoconutBattery all report seemingly acceptable and consistent battery info: 86% Battery health, around 180 charge cycles, and the capacity is around 4700mAh (out of the original 5500) for now. The computer believes all is well. Performance says otherwise. I'd like to think that physically the battery seems to be okay. I've cycled and calibrated it several times. I have read reviews that indicate that Santa Rosa MacBooks with new batteries have averaged similar runtimes to the ones I experience now, but I know mine has usually bested all of the reported tests. It just seems wrong for the average runtime to go from almost 4 hours to 2 when the battery is (supposed to be) maintaing the same health level. I have AppleCare if it needs to be replaced, since this drastic change in usage time is very noticeable and counterproductive for me, but it could just be the computer (or me for that matter). Any advice? Is this behavior normal for a battery of this age? What should I look into? If this is normal behavior I can live with it, but I would prefer to get as much out of the one I have. Thoughts appreciated.
-BMF
Yup.
by R. Proffitt
- 2/27/09 4:31 AM
In reply to: MBP Battery Performance Declining More Rapidly by BeatleMegaFan
People are unhappy with today's battery technology.
Keep a graph of cycles and such to compare with long studies about this stuff.
In short, I see nothing amiss except people expected better but battery technology is still analog, chemical and wanting.
Bob
I see
by BeatleMegaFan - 2/27/09 3:06 PM In reply to: Yup. by R. Proffitt
Problem is that one day, the capacity and length of time I could use it was cut in half for no apparent reason. Seems odd. I think I'll ask about it when I next visit an Apple Store before bringing anything in.
Most batteries work well enough for me, but this just seemed strange to me.
-BMF
All it takes is a cell to fail.
by R. Proffitt - 2/27/09 3:15 PM
In reply to: I see by BeatleMegaFan
If your unit is under warranty you can quibble about it but for most, the battery and tires are not covered.
Battery runs more normal after sleep
by BeatleMegaFan - 3/2/09 5:08 PM In reply to: All it takes is a cell to fail. by R. Proffitt
It could be possible for a cell to fail, now that I've put some more thought into it. For example, as of this writing, the MacBook was turned on with a full charge about an hour ago, to be precise. The meter is currently hovering around 2/3 of a full charge. Strangely, it burnt through the first third of the battery's power when I was first using it. A little while ago, I left the room for 10 minutes or so. It went to sleep, and when I came back, it was at around 75% full. Since then, the power consumption has been slowed considerably.
It's done this before. If I let it sleep for a bit, the power drain slows down when I wake it back up. This could be the result of some background processes that have been stopped, but I'm not running anything remotely intensive at login (Growl, an iTunes plugin I downloaded, and a CPU meter in the menu bar). That, or some cell is not behaving properly. And this is with Bluetooth and WiFi on, minimum screen brightness, and no wired connections of any kind. I left my display plugged in when I turned it on, but when I unplugged it, the meter went down 30 minutes and started to keep showing an hour and a half. Again, after I woke it up, everything went back to normal.
Either the first cell the machine turns to isn't working or I'm going to have to leave the computer alone after its initial boot-up. The thing is working much better now. Apple never ceases to amuse me these days. I bet I sound paranoid to some of you guys. Well, any thoughts?
-BMF
There is one consolation here.
by R. Proffitt - 3/2/09 5:30 PM
In reply to: Battery runs more normal after sleep by BeatleMegaFan
Apple, Dell, others don't make these batteries so at least we can't dis them too hard.
-> Let's be sure we take advantage of the tomes written about battery technology. I have to keep it short and sweet. If you feel you have a warranty issue, yelp now to Apple. They were sensitive to any battery issue a few years ago. I can't speak for that today but if you don't call them you've made peace with the issue.
Bob
I know
by BeatleMegaFan - 3/3/09 4:01 PM In reply to: There is one consolation here. by R. Proffitt
It's just that with these things, I like to know what exactly is happening. Seems that with some of this stuff, I won't be able to find out. I'll give the store a call soon. Thanks for the input.
-BMF
In a land not far away...
by R. Proffitt - 3/3/09 5:14 PM
In reply to: I know by BeatleMegaFan
I would do ROOT CAUSE FAILURE ANALYSIS. We would take the failed device and make a plan to figure out how to find the failure. We had at our disposal SEM (see google), micro-saws, chemical etching solutions and various electronic gear and the usual photo gear. The worst analysis we did took about a person year so it is very possible to dissect the battery and find out what happened.
But there's the rub. How would that help you?
Bob
Wouldn't
by BeatleMegaFan - 3/3/09 7:36 PM In reply to: In a land not far away... by R. Proffitt
Guess that's out of the question. Only got one battery to work with here. :P
One of my friends has a keyboard that's been losing letters. We might make a trip together to see what can be done for peripherals... while also enjoying the new iMacs and Pros. Maybe we'll get some for being good customers. I wish. 
-BMF
I've never had more battery problems...
by fbbbb - 2/27/09 3:02 PM In reply to: MBP Battery Performance Declining More Rapidly by BeatleMegaFanthan with Crudbook Pros. I've had a number of incidences of the 'Battery goes on junk food diet' situation where it swells up - and on one occasion, warp the already warp-prone 17-inch Crudbook Pro as well as comparatively more frequent occurence of the sudden falloff of charge - which is something I've had far less on Dell and Sony notebooks, which I actually buy more of.
Just get it Applecare'd.
I think I may end up doing that
by BeatleMegaFan - 2/27/09 9:08 PM In reply to: I've never had more battery problems... by fbbbbLast I checked, the battery looked normal, but I haven't looked at it thoroughly lately. I'll have to do that and clean it up some. It's just aggravating that the battery can go from great to terrible performance in the blink of an eye, just like that... Annoying. Next time I visit the Apple Store, I'll swing by the Genius Bar to see what's up.
-BMF
Usually things like this do
by fbbbb - 2/28/09 9:36 AM In reply to: I think I may end up doing that by BeatleMegaFan'just happen' - it's in the nature of failures to do so. e.g. I put a Crudbook Pro down on an iCurve one evening, came back the following morning, picked it up and as I was about to put it into a bag I realised the battery had swollen outwards.
(NT) Why do you buy Apple products?
by mrmacfixit - 2/28/09 6:57 AM
In reply to: I've never had more battery problems... by fbbbb
It's an interesting point...
by fbbbb - 2/28/09 9:28 AM In reply to: (NT) Why do you buy Apple products? by mrmacfixit
That on any pointing out of the totally image before substance nature of Apple's products and the issues that arise from that, Apple users with often clearly very low expectations / requirements (or indeed, abilities) round on you and ask 'why do you buy Apple products?'.
Perhaps the poster is an OS X user for some good reason, but not for core use? Or perhaps he's a masochist?
I suppose it's like asking why people post responses in forums without any really relevant knowledge of something they're expounding on. It may have to remain a mystery to some.
But not an answer,
by mrmacfixit - 2/28/09 10:14 AM
In reply to: It's an interesting point... by fbbbb
That was not a "rounding on you" question.
I have no problem with you pointing out what you perceive as inherent flaws in Apple's products, I know they are not perfect by any means, I just wondered why you seem to have purchased so many of them, given their flaws.
Perhaps you are an OS X user for some good reason, I just wondered what it was.
P
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