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mpancha · Feb 14, 2008, 07:29 PM

Ever since I upgraded to OS 10.5 I've noticed my battery life has dropped significantly.

The latest fiasco, I fully charged my MBP 2 days ago. Yesterday I used the laptop for about 5 minutes on battery. Today it has been in my bag all morning, and I pulled it out just a few minutes ago to discover almost no battery remaining. When I clicked the button on my battery, the light (one light) flashes.

Lovely. Any ideas on how I can fix this? I wont have time to go to the Apple store for 1.5 weeks, so I'm hoping to fix this on my own.

Simon · Feb 14, 2008, 07:46 PM

Have you tried resetting the SMC and recalibrating your battery?

Check Sys Profiler. What's your cycle count and what's your full charge capacity?

mpancha · Feb 15, 2008, 06:33 PM

I have recalibrated my battery (I take this to mean drain it fully, recharge fully, is that correct)... I don't do this at scheduled intervals, but it would be safe to say I do once per month, give or take.

I'll try resetting the SMC, and look up the cycle count and full charge capacity as well when I'm at the MBP later this evening.

BkueKanoodle · Feb 17, 2008, 11:44 PM

there may or may not be a correlation but I've just replaced the battery on every one of my macbooks (2) and macbook pro becuase they all died in the last 3 weeks. All were less then 8 months old, so apple covered them under warranty. But I've never had to replace a battery before while still under warranty, much less 3, in my 10+ years of using Apple Notebooks. The only commonality is all these units had leopard on them. Makes me wonder....

sknapp351 · Feb 18, 2008, 10:05 AM

I started having problems with my battery after 10.5 also. I have a MBP 2.0, and with 10.4 I got an average of 2 to 2.5 hours of battery. After upgrading to 10.5 I get an hour at best, often less. I also realized that the worst thing I can do is to leave my MBP sleeping while unplugged. The other night I noted that when I put the computer to sleep I had 76% battery, 6.5 hours later when I was back and opened it I had 23% battery. That 23% lasted a whopping 6 minutes.

Quite possibly a nasty coincidence, my battery has stopped charging half of the time. I noticed the other day that my mag safe light was alternating from green to orange. I looked in the system profiler and it said that it wasn't charging. I tried to reset the SMC by removing the battery and mag safe then holding the power button fr 5 seconds. Yesterday I calibrated the battery and it after charging it showed 100% charge as being 1:05 of remaining time. My battery has a cycle count of 219 and shows fair health. If this is a result of 10.5, that sucks. If it is a dying battery, then I will be on my third battery in two years. That sucks too.

SAm
Also, the current battery was sent to me by Apple after they recalled my first battery which was dying before the recall....

BkueKanoodle · Feb 18, 2008, 10:57 PM

Thats funny, because after writing my post yesterday, I noticed today that the macbook pro lost of 50% of its battery while in sleep mode last night! Definately I'm going to be keeping an eye on

Full-Auto · Feb 18, 2008, 11:13 PM

OK, I'm a noob. How do I find the tools to check the status of my battery? The cycle count and the "health" of my battery are what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

Simon · Feb 19, 2008, 03:18 AM

Originally Posted by Full-Auto

OK, I'm a noob. How do I find the tools to check the status of my battery? The cycle count and the "health" of my battery are what I'm looking for.

It's already been mentioned right in this thread:

Originally Posted by Simon

Check Sys Profiler. What's your cycle count and what's your full charge capacity?

System Profiler is in /Applications/Utilities and you'll find the battery info in Hardware > Power> Battery Information.

mpancha · Feb 19, 2008, 09:26 PM

So, on this MBP that I've only had since May of 2007, can barely hold a charge. I fully charged my laptop last night, and unhooked it from the power at 9am, since then it has been in sleep mode (lid shut). My iBook G4 that I've quite a few years lasts longer with heavier use.

I took the laptop to a client's office this evening, opened it up at 7pm and at 8pm I'm sitting at only 20 minuts of charge left. My bluetooth is disabled, brightness as low as I can take it (1 notch up from 0 brightness).

This is the screenshot from the battery info from system profiler:

I'm definately taking this laptop in to Apple next week. One thing I noticed was that this battery brand is Sony, and I recall Sony having quite a few battery related issues in 2006/2007. Hopefully there isn't a correlation. This decrease in battery performance coincides with Leopard being installed on my computer and installing 10.5.1, and has gotten even worse with 10.5.2. (wether there's a correlation there I'm not 100% on, it might just be coincidence).

Simon · Feb 20, 2008, 03:56 AM

You have a cycle count of below 300 and you have less than 80% of your original full charge capacity (3247 mAh vs. 0.8*5400 mAh) so according to Apple your battery does not meet the specs. Get it replaced under warranty.

sknapp351 · Feb 20, 2008, 11:26 AM

Wow. I am worse than I thought.

My computer is not covered under warranty, but the battery was replaced by Apple less than a year ago ( I think ) with the recall. I will have to call to see if they will replace it, or if I will have to buy another. If I do have to buy, does anyone recommend a high capacity 3rd party?

SAm

amazing · Feb 20, 2008, 01:04 PM

Just a question about the battery running down overnight: Do any of you have bluetooth enabled?

The reason I ask is that my favorite USB trackball finally died and I started using a bluetooth mouse. I noticed that my laptop started up from sleep unexpectedly, and I figure that the bluetooth was the cause--even though my mouse had been switched off. I figure if it happened once, it probably happened other times as well, overnight. Not a problem since I keep mine plugged in overnight, but that would definitely run the battery down.

I'm now switching bluetooth off when not in use.

sknapp351 · Feb 20, 2008, 01:49 PM

Originally Posted by amazing

Just a question about the battery running down overnight: Do any of you have bluetooth enabled?

The reason I ask is that my favorite USB trackball finally died and I started using a bluetooth mouse. I noticed that my laptop started up from sleep unexpectedly, and I figure that the bluetooth was the cause--even though my mouse had been switched off. I figure if it happened once, it probably happened other times as well, overnight. Not a problem since I keep mine plugged in overnight, but that would definitely run the battery down.

I'm now switching bluetooth off when not in use.

I only turn bluetooth on to sync my phone, then back off again.
Sam

mpancha · Feb 21, 2008, 08:52 AM

Ever since my battery issues started, I've begun turning off wifi and bluetooth when I'm not at the computer.

However, prior to these issues, I always had bluetooth and wifi on all the time, wether they were being used or not.

mpancha · Feb 26, 2008, 04:29 PM

Originally Posted by mpancha

Ever since my battery issues started, I've begun turning off wifi and bluetooth when I'm not at the computer.

However, prior to these issues, I always had bluetooth and wifi on all the time, wether they were being used or not.

11:30a - logged into Apple.com and scheduled an appointment at Genius Bar for 12:00p
11:55a - walked into Apple Store at Sherway Gardens (Toronto)
12:00p - Genius Bar rep pulled up my reservation, read my notes, says its the battery and asks me to wait a few minutes.
12:05p - Genius Bar rep walks back to bar from back of store with a battery in hand.
12:06p - laptop is as good as new.

1:00p - Got back to the office, I had a 20% charge ... Laptop is currently running with BT on, WiFi on (wifiN - I was connected to an N router, and transferring a few gigs of data), had an external monitor connected, and running a VM of Windows 2000 and Ubuntu...

2:00p - battery finally drained and I plugged it in.

Its nice having my battery life back, and its nice having a positive experience at the Genius Bar. So far I'm at 3 positive experiences, and 5 bad experiences at Genius Bars between Texas and Toronto Apple Stores.

p.s. Some of these times may have been exaggerated, but I did start speaking to the Genius bar rep at 12, and left the bar with a working laptop by 12:05p.

Simon · Feb 27, 2008, 03:49 AM

Good to hear it worked out for you.

When it comes to batteries I have always received excellent treatment from Apple.

nest18 · Mar 2, 2008, 06:58 PM

I do have the same problem with my battery, It got change by apple, but the one I have is not good neither ... I have a count of 91, and full charge capacity of 2324 mAh ....

I'll call apple to get a replacement, but y computer was bought in feb 2007 ... more than a year ...

Simon · Mar 3, 2008, 04:46 AM

Originally Posted by nest18

I'll call apple to get a replacement, but y computer was bought in feb 2007 ... more than a year ...

Try it nevertheless. In my experience they usually don't make a fuss about a couple of days. Be kind and polite. And try twice if necessary.

Love Calm Quiet · Mar 3, 2008, 09:51 AM

Replacement of the battery begs one issue:

Is the cause of the problem Leopard - and thus will the new battery deteriorate in just a few months?

And... are we hearing about this for MacBooks? or for G4 notebooks (I've got an AL PBG4... and wonder if Leopard is showing battery issues)

[ I've raised the issue in the OSX forum thread, "Anyone SORRY they installed Leopard?"... so we'll see what's heard there.

nest18 · Mar 11, 2008, 03:17 PM

Hey Guys,

I called Apple and they kindly sent me a new battery.

All is good now ! Let's hope this one will be better than the 2 previous

Hans M Aus · May 15, 2008, 11:00 PM

MacBook 1.1, Intel Core Duo, 2 GHz, OSX 10.4.11

I'm having the same sorted of problems mentioned several times in this thread.

In the last few months the light on the mag safe connector blinks red and green before the battery is finally charged. The charging time seems to get longer and longer, and the time between charges gets shorter and shorter. The battery information follows below. A colleague made an interesting observation: She has had to recharge the battery more frequently after she added more RAM to her iBook.

Are the newest replacement batteries better than the one that came with the MacBook in 2006?
Are there any alternatives that I should look at?

Battery Information:
Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 2010
Remaining Capacity (mAh): 654
Amperage (mA): -2036
Voltage (mV): 9943
Cycle Count: 431