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2011 17" MacBook Pro Power Drawing Issue

A

aqualaguna

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 26, 2010
5
0
I have the latest 17" MacBook Pro, 2.2ghz stock and I've only tested this with OS X. When the power is being pushed, the battery status will report that it's no longer charging and the battery will be used and will slowly lose spend its charge. If it's fully charged, it will slowly lose its charge even if the power is connected.

This occurred when playing Starcraft 2, World of Warcraft, streaming with FlashLiveMediaEncoder, running intensive WebGL applications.

I have attempted to resolve this issue by reinstalling OS X, resetting the PRAM and SMU, I had the MacBook Pro exchanged for a new one and it also exhibits the same issue.

Did I draw two unlucky straws? I haven't seen any other reports of this issue.
 
I sure hope you're just unlucky, cause I just ordered one of those! :confused:

EDIT: Are you using the power-cable that came with the new MBP? Have you plugged it into a socket that already provide a lot of other things with power? Try different cables and sockets in the wall.
 
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I've tried different power cables and power sockets. The Genius also tried it at the bar and had the same issue.

I hope that I'm just unlucky too. It's awesome otherwise!
 
Hopefully you'll get a fixed MBP soon. Two bad models in a row means a bad batch or even worse a major flaw. My guess is we would have heard more about it if this was common. Please report back when you know more. :)
 
That's 3/3. Third one has the same problem, right out of the box. I'll stick with it and hope that a firmware update comes along to fix it. I tested it with Windows 7 with Boot Camp and it also stops charging. :(

I wonder why no one else has reported an issue, or maybe it's related to some of the battery issues people are talking about. I'm so confused! :confused:
 
It seems like when the Radeon GPU is being run pretty hard like with 3D graphics. I tried running the CPU to 100% and it didn't happen, but it wasn't a thorough test.
 
How did you get another one so fast?

Start asking people with 17" threads if they experience this. If they don't it should mean a bad batch. Hopefully everything is easily fixed with a firmware update!

Edit: what did they tell you after giving you the third? Apple must have some idea on what this is about...
 
I have a few Apple Stores nearby. I went to another store for this one hoping it was just that one shipment had bad ones. :(
 
Have you checked to see if it happens at about the same temperature each time? Does the MBP start charging again once temperatures drop back to normal?

Perhaps it's a 'feature' to give the CPU/GPU as much power/thermal headroom as possible. Just speculation.
 
I wa going to say the same thing with turbo boost and the gpu being used perhaps the adapter can't keep up.
 
haruhiko said:
Wow, if wall power cannot provide enough power, what else can? :eek:
Click to expand...

I have no solid clue to back my argument but I think I read somewhere that MBP with battery removed operate worse than when it has battery on. So yeah basically I think the wall power is not enough for the MBP to run at full speed.
 
This is a common "issue" or "feature" with all macbook pros from at least the last few generations. The magsafe can not supply enough power when the processor and GPU are under heavy load. As a result, battery power is used to supplement the magsafe power in order to push the available wattage up. This will happen with every macbook, no matter how many returns you do.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=9489649

It's one of the things that kind of peeves me off about this computer design, but it's not really a dealbreaker for me.
 
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This is how it works out in my head:

Under normal charging and use, a portion of the power goes to operate the notebook, and the other portion goes to charge the battery.

Under heavy loads, ALL of the power goes to operate the notebook, leaving no power left over to charge the battery.

Under EXTREMELY heavy loads, all of the power goes to operate the notebook, plus some power from the battery.

More power is needed than is available thru the wall charger, so it draws on battery power as a supplement.
 
huythanhv2 said:
I have no solid clue to back my argument but I think I read somewhere that MBP with battery removed operate worse than when it has battery on. So yeah basically I think the wall power is not enough for the MBP to run at full speed.
Click to expand...


I can't believe I just read that....


"You've done smoked yourself retarded" - Thurgood Jenkins
 
huythanhv2 said:
I have no solid clue to back my argument but I think I read somewhere that MBP with battery removed operate worse than when it has battery on. So yeah basically I think the wall power is not enough for the MBP to run at full speed.
Click to expand...

When the battery WAS removed on earlier models and connected to power it would run in CPU limp mode and only use 50% of processor capabilities. Clearly this isn't relevant any longer.
 
This has got to be a firmware issue. I've noticed other power related issues at launches. Don't know why.

Otherwise it's a recall, which is unlikely.
 
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Yikes!

My new 13" just did it. Went to: "Not charging" when it was being stressed. It only lasted a few seconds but i've never seen that before.

This it the 13". So i'll bet we are going to have problems across the board.
 
The power brick provides 85W. The CPU alone uses 45W. Can't find the wattage on the 6750M (I'll assume it's at least 23W, the power draw of the 320M). Then factor in all the other components (display, RAM, HDD etc) then it's easy to see how the system exceeds 85W.
 
So that means he cannot play any games on it without having more juice left on the battety? That's silly! and if you don't have a battery in it you can't use the mbp for anything demanding?
 
How about the watt usage vs provided on the 13"? If the W provided by the magsafe isn't sufficient, apple clearly needs to provide more capable magsafes!

What did they say about it the last time it occured?
 
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