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miles01110

macrumors Core
Jul 24, 2006
19,260
36
The Ivory Tower (I'm not coming down)
One thing no one has answered yet is, is there an alternate supplier of a better battery than Apple?

No.

Have you run CoconutBattery on it? It will tell you what % of the battery's original capacity remains...

What's the point? 455 cycles is way over the point at which they'd even think about replacing it.

What are you doing when you use your MBP? I'd expect something more like 2 hours if you're at around 70% capacity.
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
No.



What's the point? 455 cycles is way over the point at which they'd even think about replacing it.

What are you doing when you use your MBP? I'd expect something more like 2 hours if you're at around 70% capacity.
Just regular web surfing, working on a wordpress blog, normal stuff.

So, I just went to the Apple Store and bought a new battery. I'll report back on how it does.

Thanks for everyone's help.
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
Well, I've got my new battery in. It was about half-charged when I put it in and so I hooked up the power and let it fully charge while I left for a few hours.

I used coconutbattery to check it and it was fully charged.

However, by battery life is slipping quickly. I'm as 67% charged now, after using it for maybe 40 minutes (15 of which it was asleep while I had dinner). I have 1:15 left on it. If that is 67%, that's less than 2 hours total on a brand new battery. I've already rebooted the computer after making sure my power setting was at "Normal." When it comes up the number is all over the place until it settles in at under 2 hours.

Is this right, only two hours? Do I have to cycle the battery once or something to get it to keep a charge?
 

aiterum

macrumors 6502
Nov 17, 2007
499
0
United States
the 1700 you are referring to is how much has been lost from the original capacity and yeah chances are you won't be getting much of it back even with a good battery drain/recharge and a reset of the PRAM
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
I've had my brand new batter since yesterday. I get 1:45 on my Macbook Pro. This cannot be what I should expect should it? Did I buy the new $129 battery for an extra 30-45 minutes?

And I have it on power-saving mode.
 

aleksandra.

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2008
674
0
Warsaw, Poland
I've had my brand new batter since yesterday. I get 1:45 on my Macbook Pro. This cannot be what I should expect should it? Did I buy the new $129 battery for an extra 30-45 minutes?

And I have it on power-saving mode.

Check System Profiler -> Power -> Amperage when you're using it on battery. This shows how much power you use up. If it's very high, you may want to look for things like applications using a lot of CPU power, USB devices, BT (turn off)...
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
Check System Profiler -> Power -> Amperage when you're using it on battery. This shows how much power you use up. If it's very high, you may want to look for things like applications using a lot of CPU power, USB devices, BT (turn off)...

Is -3107 alot?

Model Information:
Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-3ac1-16d
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 907
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5591
Health Information:
Cycle count: 1
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): -3107
Voltage (mV): 10878
 

aleksandra.

macrumors 6502a
Sep 13, 2008
674
0
Warsaw, Poland

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
Is there any application to tell me how much each item uses in amps?

I don't really know for sure, but my Air is around -800 under light usage, so I'd expect a MBP to be at -1100 or -1200 (or -1500 perhaps?). Either Apple made a huge leap in power efficiency, or there's something draining lots of power.

Try Apple tips:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1473

If you find any applications using up lots of CPU, chances are it was the problem.
 

Capoc

macrumors newbie
Nov 29, 2008
10
0
yeah, 300 cycles is considered consumed.

And wow. That's a ton of usage on your battery. It sounds like you've got something on your system that's draining it. I honestly would recommend an archive and install after you back up to like an external drive or something, because something on your system is running, and running hot, all the time.
 

packgrad2000

macrumors regular
Sep 19, 2007
114
0
You can just check Activity Monitor to check CPU usage. Whatever is hogging the CPU is what's hogging your battery.
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
You can just check Activity Monitor to check CPU usage. Whatever is hogging the CPU is what's hogging your battery.

Firefox bounces around between 15 and 30%, averaging around 22% or so. Is that alot?

If so, must be a plugin.
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
I closed a bunch of windows in FF and got it's CPU % usage down to the single digits. However, My amperage is barely affected, still at -2800

You can just check Activity Monitor to check CPU usage. Whatever is hogging the CPU is what's hogging your battery.
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
You can just check Activity Monitor to check CPU usage. Whatever is hogging the CPU is what's hogging your battery.
This time I closed ALL applications that I can see running in the dock, with the exception of Finder, Activity Monitor and System Profiler.

-2677
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
I THINK I FOUND IT!

When looking at my CPU usage I had My Applications not All Applications selected, so I did not see what was stealing the CPU! I had "lexmarkCUPSdrive" taking up to 100% of the CPU.

I don't have a Lexmark printer, never did. I searched for any file with the lexmark in it and did not find any in my system. So, I went to my printers and deleted two printers I was no longer using, both HP's. Well, that seems to have removed the lexmark application!

Now I have an Amperage of -1752, a 1200 difference. That should increase my battery life.

I wonder how long I have been running this? From day 1?

I'll report back on my full battery life once I get it charged up again.

Also, the Mac feels way less hot. Could that be possible? If so, could all that extra heat for who knows how long damaged my Mac in a way I don't know yet?

Thanks for all your help!!!!
 

slobizman

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 16, 2008
111
9
Well I'll be damned. Getting 3.5 + hours now it seems. It was that darn "lexmarkCUPSdrive" And never had a Lexmark. Go figure.

And now I can actually keep my MBP on my lap without burning myself! Way cooler.
 

unagimiyagi

macrumors 6502a
Jun 9, 2009
905
229
If you want to be absolutely sure, do a clean install and you will make sure that there are no processes mucking things up.
 
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