Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

thorvick

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2013
1
0
Not happy with battery life? Bring your Air to Apple

Just to share my experience:
I got a first Macbook Air 11 2013 and within a couple of days noticed it wouldn't hold a battery charge for more than 5 hours. There was no other software than Apple's. I returned and they replaced it.
I have been using the replacement since August and as soon as I started using it I noticed a great improvement. I could finally get the "+9 h battery remaining" in the battery power menu. I soon realised it wasn't real...
Even after I updated to Mavericks, there was almost no improvement. If I timed my usage, it would never get anywhere near 9 h of basic use (Safari browsing, Word...). I was getting at the most 4.5 h!
I called Apple Care, went through their usual troubleshooting things (that I had already done, even reinstalling from scratch...) and I finally decided to get an appointment at the Genius Bar. I also had a side issue, where my power adapter would not charge or intermittently stopped charging (but I still managed to fully charge the battery).
Now this is what is important:
When I got to the store, they acknowledged the charging issue (luckily, the intermittent issue showed when I was there), they did a hardware test and everything was ok, even the battery!
The guy said they couldn't do anything. I said ok, let's just wait and see how the battery drops while at the helpdesk... He said ok, leave your computer here, we'll check it.
After 2 days, they called me to tell me the battery was faulty and the power IO on the board as well (charging issue).
The Apple Hardware Test is not always reliable.
Don't give up, bring up your case with your evidence and be patient!
I am now getting easily 7-8 h of continuous use and I am finally enjoying it. I think it's such a shame I had to go through all this hassle and I had to spend spend so much time getting what I paid for.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.