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Late 2011 MBP - under load draining battery??

V

Varoudis

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 17, 2009
60
5
Hello,

I've got a 15' 2.5Q CTO and I charge it via the thunderbolt display.
If I try to run a parallels W7 with minimal load (installing a software for example) the system stops charging and even eats the battery!!

If I run a 4 thread CPUTest its ever worst!

with idle cpu the charge time is 1:30 for example as you increase the load it goes up to 5:00... 10:00 then "not charging" with green light!

(I tested it with the thunderbold display ON and without it, just the charger connected with the internal display)

...
what can I say...

T
 
Does the same happen with the MBP charger?
Normally that does happen, when you use a 60 W charger for a 15" or 17" MBP, which come with 85 W chargers.
 
simsaladimbamba said:
Does the same happen with the MBP charger?
Normally that does happen, when you use a 60 W charger for a 15" or 17" MBP, which come with 85 W chargers.
Click to expand...

Ill test that in an hour when Im back home.

I thought the new thunderbolt display can change a 15' or ever 17' MBP. Right?

T
 
Varoudis said:
I've got a 15' 2.5Q CTO and I charge it via the thunderbolt display.
If I try to run a parallels W7 with minimal load (installing a software for example) the system stops charging and even eats the battery!!
Click to expand...
It's quite normal that under periods of high demands on system resources, your Mac can draw power from both AC and your battery. During these times, it's normal that it may stop charging and even drain your battery somewhat. It's functioning as designed. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
 
GGJstudios said:
It's quite normal that under periods of high demands on system resources, your Mac can draw power from both AC and your battery. During these times, it's normal that it may stop charging and even drain your battery somewhat. It's functioning as designed. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Click to expand...

Thanks

The worrying bit is what will happen if you are plugged in and because of the load the battery goes to 0%! :) (always with the correct charger)

----------

especially with games that are really C/GPU heavy!
 
Varoudis said:
Thanks

The worrying bit is what will happen if you are plugged in and because of the load the battery goes to 0%! :) (always with the correct charger)

----------

especially with games that are really C/GPU heavy!
Click to expand...
If you fully drain the battery while plugged in, it will most likely keep running, but I wouldn't push it that far. Take a break from the game once in a while (drink lots of water while playing, to force natural "breaks"!).
 
GGJstudios said:
If you fully drain the battery while plugged in, it will most likely keep running, but I wouldn't push it that far. Take a break from the game once in a while (drink lots of water while playing, to force natural "breaks"!).
Click to expand...

:) sure hehe

btw Im not playing games but I use a lot of CPU at work. VMs, 3D CAD and analysis software.
The guys at apple told me to test it with the thunderbolt and/or charger under heavy load so I though that a game demo will do the CPU+GPU trick :)

Thanks,
T
 
Unfortunately this is normal. Under full load, the late 2011 15'' MBPs consume more power than the 85W power adapter supplies. I assume that the thunderbolt adapter also provides 85W, put to be sure you might want to compare.

Most users won't experience any issues due to this, since it would take ~20 hours of hard use to drain a full battery. However I still think it's a big design error, and I can see it being inconvenient in some cases...
 
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