PC makeover with Best Buy $1,199.99
Mac laptops : Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard
Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/2/09 4:00 PMI was sifting through some of the Apple Discussion Boards, and it would appear that there is a portion of users experiencing battery troubles when upgrading to Snow Leopard, OS 10.6. I can lay claim to being one of those affected. My new battery (only a couple months old now) has a mere 54 charge cycles on it, which under Leopard, netted me 3-4 hours of use daily. Last I checked, battery health was registering from 97-98%. My older battery had almost 200 charge cycles with a health rating of 85%, and it got me a little over 2 hours with Leopard.
After upgrading to Snow Leopard yesterday morning, I noticed that my battery life with the newer battery has been severely reduced; the system estimates under 2 hours of use when fully charged, and it is draining consistently, regardless of whether I turn WiFi off, dim the screen, etc. The system also reports that the battery has a health rating of 89% (!!!) when just a few days ago it was clearly not that far down. I calibrated the battery yesterday and reset the SMC. No luck so far. While I can't say whether or not this issue is widespread for MacBook users, I do know that it would appear to be a software problem. Or I just have terrible luck with batteries. If anyone else is having trouble or has some information regarding this issue, please post here. There have also been reports of other various growing pains as well. What a great start I suppose.
-BMF
Battery severely degraded on MBP 15" since SL install
by markyslash - 9/3/09 3:59 AM In reply to: Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard by BeatleMegaFanCount me in. My battery was at 78% (gradually fading as expected since new), but still lasting up to about 2 hrs depending on workload. However since installing Snow Leopard on Friday it dropped initially to 58%, then today to 28% and is telling me to "Service Battery" in the finder menu bar.
Deeply, deeply unimpressed. I will be talking to Apple, but sadly we know how that often goes.
I can but hope...
I hear ya.
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/3/09 4:41 PM In reply to: Battery severely degraded on MBP 15" since SL install by markyslashAfter cycling my battery twice yesterday, I've managed to achieve 2-3 hours of average use under SL. Much better than it was before; less than 2 hours is unacceptable on a new battery. System Profiler is telling my the battery is "Normal". Strange that under Leopard, it used to say "Good" for my original battery. Maybe this is just a minor system change. I don't know.
What's interesting is I just checked System Profiler (and iStat although I have disabled iStat for the time being) and it appears that the computer is seeing that the battery has a larger capacity yet again. Yesterday it told me the capacity was at 5175mAh tops, whereas now I'm seeing about 5204 or so. It keeps moving around, and usually battery capacities go down over time, not up. This is all very erratic behavior indeed.
I could always try bringing my MacBook in, but honestly, it's not worth waiting around for at the store. I know what the problem is, and I don't need a replacement battery when I know the one I have is perfectly fine.
-BMF
great
by linxy1 - 9/5/09 12:57 AM In reply to: Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard by BeatleMegaFanI've noticed no change what so ever, to my battery.
I still get 4-5 hours of use.
I have a 2 GHz Core Duo, 2 GB RAM, 500GB HDD and Snow Leopard.
Except for making the system more nimble(very positive), the new OS did no harm at all.
Unibody?
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/5/09 2:20 PM In reply to: great by linxy1My Mac is a 2007, pre-Unibody MacBook Pro. While my original battery seems to be operating normally, my newer one is not. If it works for you, great, but over here, it's not quite perfect yet. Perhaps your MacBook is of a later generation, hence it's ability to use power more efficiently.
-BMF
white
by linxy1 - 9/6/09 2:25 AM In reply to: Unibody? by BeatleMegaFanMy macbook is a white plastic one, about 1 year old.
So, you may have a point about the efficiency.
Logicboard and lower chassie is about a year, battery, screen and topcase are 6 months old.
Well I could see that working better
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/6/09 10:06 AM In reply to: white by linxy1Smaller screen, probably a more recent Intel chipset, etc. Either way, your Mac most likely more efficient than mine, but the numbers I'm getting should be closer to yours, and getting further away. I doubt reinstalling the system would help, and plus, reorganizing all of my files from TM would be a hassle. Can't wait for 10.6.1.
-BMF
Problems even with Macbook Pro 13"
by darkuvh89 - 9/7/09 3:09 PM In reply to: Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard by BeatleMegaFanI have problems with battery. My macbook is new and I just installed Snow Leopard.
The battery discharges so faast! I calibrated the battery and the problem persisted. Then, I read about SMC and I did a reset. After restarting, the battery remaining time began to increase!!... from 1:15... to 2:30 Step by step. But, when I was 2:15, it decreased to 1:15 again!!
I am worried because this shouldn't be happening. And I don't know if this is a problem about detecting the remaining time or it really affects the performance of my battery. Apple said with SLeopard the battery life would increase until 30%! ...
I hope a solution comes quick.
Greetings from Mexico
Uriel
The problems seem to be occurring sporadically
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/7/09 4:02 PM In reply to: Problems even with Macbook Pro 13" by darkuvh89MacBooks of all sorts seem to be either improving or suffering from these issues. It doesn't look like the problems are constrained to a particular model, nor have I seen any reason as to why the power issues are present to begin with.
Looks like the only options are to downgrade to Leopard or wait for a fix.
-BMF
Same problem Here
by stefanweir02 - 9/9/09 6:53 PM In reply to: Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard by BeatleMegaFanI also experienced this problem. Mine has only 96 cycles, which is by no means new but I had no problems with Leopard and now I have the same symptoms you did except mine also displays a triangle in the battery drop down and says "Service Battery". Pretty dissappointing - I will likely go back to Leopard until they release an update that fixes the problem as I don't have much use for a portable that isn't portable.
I plan on booting to XP and trying to calibrate battery there and see if I still get reduced usage. I will post my results.
battery question
by boni777 - 9/21/09 11:56 AM In reply to: Same problem Here by stefanweir02I know this is a stupid question, but where does one find out the "cycles" and all that other stuff for the battery. All I can find out is the amount of time (or percentage) left for my battery.
Check this program...
by darkuvh89 - 9/21/09 7:24 PM In reply to: battery question by boni777Well, I dunno if there is another way to know it, but what I use is the program CoconutBattery =) Look for it here in CNET Download, or in google.
Greetings from Mexico.
Try:
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/21/09 8:05 PM In reply to: battery question by boni777coconutBattery, as our friend here above suggested, works.
However, System Profiler in the Utilities folder will also be able to tell you how many cycles you have on a battery and what health condition it's in. I don't believe it'll give you a health percentage, but all the capacity readings are there for you to do it yourself.
iStat, the dashboard widget, also monitors some battery functions. It is free as well.
-BMF
Update on battery murder....
by markyslash - 9/9/09 7:47 PM In reply to: Caution to MacBook users upgrading to Snow Leopard by BeatleMegaFanBrief recap:
MacBook Pro 15" Titanium. Battery old, but fading very gracefully. 170-ish cycles and still at 78%. Working perfectly well until SL install, then 58%, then 28%, then 6% – all in a couple of days!
Since then it has fluctuated wildly between 6% and 50%.
I saw a 'Genius' at local Applestore (Jesus – could the term 'Genius' be any MORE condescending? If they really were geniuses, they wouldn't be working in a freakin' high street computer store.... but hey.)
I was told:
1) "Your battery is old and not under warranty." (Correct, but that's not the issue. It hasn't failed during normal use - SL has killed it.)
2) "SL is very advanced and much better at diagnosing battery issues", so my battery "was probably failing anyway but 10.5 Leopard couldn't diagnose it as accurately". (That's BS – the battery was not failing -it was working perfectly well and giving me a reliable 1.5-2hrs use from every charge. The fact that SL is 'better' at diagnosing battery issues is immaterial.)
3) "We haven't heard about any problems with batteries since SL release – your battery's just too old." in other words: 'we think you're just trying to get an old battery replaced for free'. (No, just look at this and other forum posts... I want to know: What has SL done to the battery?; is anyone working on a fix? If not, can I at least get a SIGNIFICANT discount on a new battery, as mine is admittedly out of warranty)
4) After more pushing, the guy offered me $20 off a new battery. (So effectively SL would cost me $30, plus $170 – not really worth it, I think)
Anyway, I'll try other Apple avenues and see what happens, but for now I'm still stuck with a laptop that was portable last week, but now isn't.... great.
Sorry to hear that
by BeatleMegaFan - 9/10/09 5:12 PM In reply to: Update on battery murder.... by markyslashI took my MBP in with my older battery was beginning to drain more rapidly than I was accustomed to. Of course, because my battery was over a year old, they wouldn't swap it or anything. I have AppleCare still, but it doesn't apply to old batteries, apparently. Woohoo.
This battery that I got as a replacement/extra was working fine, but now SL is draining it as if it was just as old as the other one, which of course, has almost four times as many cycles on it. I updated to 10.6.1 just recently today, and I'm seeing no change. In fact, performance is a bit sluggish right now, especially right after the Mac restarted. I don't know what's going on. System Profiler says both batteries are "Normal" but it sure as hell doesn't feel like it.
Apple is becoming increasingly annoying. For example, iTunes has traditionally been laggy and problematic on my MacBook, especially when I plugged in my iPhone or an iPod. And yet the devices themselves worked great. Now, iTunes 9 is here and I've taken a liking to the new appearance. Right now, the store is slow to load, but the program doesn't seem as bad as it used to be. On the contrary, my iPhone has been acting very strangely lately (weird power and signal fluctuations). Nothing is really "broken", but there is strange behavior at least. Then there's this problem with my MacBook, which as you may guess by now, frustrates me more. Apple delivers on some things and not so much on others these days, it seems. Back in 2005 and 2006, service in Apple Stores was great; few people, excellent sales and tech reps, quick and easy transactions, etc. Now, you can hardly get in and find anyone that's even remotely helpful. The only recent exception was when I visited the Chicago Apple Store when I was up there (last year though). It was actually a great experience, even with all those Yankees and all. 
Ah well, we'll see, hopefully.
-BMF
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
