2011 15'MBP Battery Dying

[AFPoster]

First let me begin by saying that I love my MacBook Pro, no complaints this thing just rocks!

I have just noticed 2 issues though recently and I am curious what I should do. First is last week I had my laptop charged all day at work and I closed the lid to my laptop (which puts the laptop in sleep mode) and unplugged the charger. It was sitting at 100%, when I opened it back up the next day (probably 9 hours in sleep) it was showing only 82% battery left. Now on my 2007 MacBook I could do that at any % and it would only come down 2% within a 12 hour period. Any ideas?

I have calibrated the battery one the first day of receiving this laptop and after that little issue. Still no luck. I maybe get 3 hours out of my battery and I only run Chrome, Word, Excel and Mail. Nothing intense, no movies playing, no gaming, no 5 documents at once, nothing intense at all. My heat is always around 45c and fans at 1998-2002 (between left and right).

Also now my battery always stops at 97% full charge and never goes past that number even if I shutdown the mbp and leave it charged for a few hours. Its like it's capped out.

So my thoughts are to take it to Apple since I only have 18 cycles and ask for a new battery and maybe even upgrade from 4gb to 8gb of ram unless I buy on newegg and get 1600mhz.

Thoughts?

 

[DeaconGraves]

Couldn't hurt to take it in. My guess is the one time that the battery drained during "sleep" that the MBP actually woke up for a bit during that time, which could explain the drain.

But if you're concerned you might as well take it in. Though I'm guessing since the Mac is reporting the battery condition as "normal" you probably won't get a replacement this time around.

Regardless, don't pay to have Apple upgrade your RAM.

 

[AFPoster]

Couldn't hurt to take it in. My guess is the one time that the battery drained during "sleep" that the MBP actually woke up for a bit during that time, which could explain the drain.

But if you're concerned you might as well take it in. Though I'm guessing since the Mac is reporting the battery condition as "normal" you probably won't get a replacement this time around.

Regardless, don't pay to have Apple upgrade your RAM.

Will do on the Ram.

I'll see what they can do on the battery, maybe if I keep taking it in it will eventually get replaced.

 

[TomLopez]

You should be in hibernate mode 3 (RAM alimented) whereas your 2007 Mac should be in 1 mode.

To check this:
pmset -g | grep hibernatemode

To modify it:
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode X

 

[GGJstudios]

First is last week I had my laptop charged all day at work and I closed the lid to my laptop (which puts the laptop in sleep mode) and unplugged the charger. It was sitting at 100%, when I opened it back up the next day (probably 9 hours in sleep) it was showing only 82% battery left. Now on my 2007 MacBook I could do that at any % and it would only come down 2% within a 12 hour period. Any ideas?

It's normal for your MBP to consume about 1% of battery power for every hour in sleep mode. If it consumes much more than that, it's likely that it didn't stay in sleep mode the whole time.

Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode
Determine why your Mac wakes up from sleep

I have calibrated the battery one the first day of receiving this laptop and after that little issue.

Calibration does not affect your battery's health or performance. It only makes your battery readings more accurate.

I maybe get 3 hours out of my battery and I only run Chrome, Word, Excel and Mail.

Your battery life is dependent on many factors. Read the link below for details.

Also now my battery always stops at 97% full charge and never goes past that number even if I shutdown the mbp and leave it charged for a few hours. Its like it's capped out.

It's normal for your MBP to stop charging between 93-99%. Read the link below for details.

So my thoughts are to take it to Apple since I only have 18 cycles and ask for a new battery

There's nothing wrong with your battery.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[DustinT]

Ya, I don't think you have anything to worry about either. From the looks of it you might want to go a little easier on your battery though, 3 hours is pretty low. But, if you need all those programs running don't worry about it. Conservative users like me can typically stretch 6-8 hours on normal usage but than I tend to be pretty easy on mine when I'm on battery. Music, email, web and writing. The web stuff isn't on heavy flash sites. Like, netflix which kills the battery in 2 hours. shesh!

 

[AFPoster]

Ya, I don't think you have anything to worry about either. From the looks of it you might want to go a little easier on your battery though, 3 hours is pretty low. But, if you need all those programs running don't worry about it. Conservative users like me can typically stretch 6-8 hours on normal usage but than I tend to be pretty easy on mine when I'm on battery. Music, email, web and writing. The web stuff isn't on heavy flash sites. Like, netflix which kills the battery in 2 hours. shesh!

When I get the 3 hours of use all I've done is had mail open and chrome looking at MacRumors and checking my stocks (non-flash) and having word open to edit documents. I don't know how much easier I can be on the system when on battery.

Thanks GGJstudios I'm checking everything now!

 

[shadddi]

When I get the 3 hours of use all I've done is had mail open and chrome looking at MacRumors and checking my stocks (non-flash) and having word open to edit documents. I don't know how much easier I can be on the system when on battery.

Thanks GGJstudios I'm checking everything now!

With chrome open MacOS is using the discrete graphic card. I think thats why your battery only got 3 hours.

You could use gfxCardStatus to check/switch the active graphic card.