2011 MBP with External Attached Low Battery Life

[Wanderer509]

hi there, i just made an observation today and was wondering if other ppl are experiencing the same problem.

i am draining my battery to keep the juice flowing with my external monitor plugged in, n i noticed that my battery life is abysmal (i am at 53% and its quoting me less than 2 hrs left, a far cry from the 7hrs a charge). I am doing nothing right now, just surfing and word processing.

I am wondering if the gfx card (in this case, 6750M) is forced turned on if external display is plugged in? if it is, is there a way to manipulate it such that it only does intel HD?

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Yes, the dedicated GPU is used for external displays.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

 

[Wanderer509]

Yes, the dedicated GPU is used for external displays.

i thinks thats so dumb if it forces the dedicated GPU just because i am on external. i am 110% sure intel HD3000 can do what i am doing now (then again, i guess apple assumed if i am using an external display i must have my power supply near by).

still, i wish it wasnt this case. i am very proud of the switchable graphics! damn j00 apple

would gfxcardstatus be able to force it to go integrated when not plugged in while using external? or is there some hardware wiring that disables it

 

[blueroom]

I guess the logic is that the external display is probably AC powered that you would also power the MBP too. Why not just plug in the MBP?

 

[Wanderer509]

I guess the logic is that the external display is probably AC powered that you would also power the MBP too. Why not just plug in the MBP?

i am trying to run my battery here n there in an effort to prolong its life as per apple recommendation.

anyways i tried gfxcardstatus, if i force it to intelHD3000 it will just turn off my external display. not cool =/

 

[simsaladimbamba]

Why not just plug in the MBP?

Because of this:

i am draining my battery to keep the juice flowing with my external monitor plugged in

which is unnecessary.

i am trying to run my battery here n there in an effort to prolong its life as per apple recommendation.

anyways i tried gfxcardstatus, if i force it to intelHD3000 it will just turn off my external display. not cool =/

I already linked to it, but please read it (again?), as Apple does not recommend what you do:

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

 

[Wanderer509]

Because of this:

which is unnecessary.



I already linked to it, but please read it again, as Apple does not recommend what you do:

well i am just doing what is recommended on the apple battery faq, doing it every few days (not because i am plugged into the external display, its just an observation i made regarding the external display). isn't it good measure to keep the electrons flowing anyways, have i been misled?

btw, i love how fast people reply on this forum.

@simsaladimbamba, i read it already before, thanks alot! but i guess i didnt notice the part about external forces discrete gfx.

AppleCare support recommends that if you leave your Mac plugged in most of the time, unplug it every 2 or 3 days and run on battery down to somewhere around 50%, then plug it back in. That keeps the electrons moving.

this is the clause i am referring to, in terms of what i am doing.





EDIT: i just gave myself a kernel panic, i am suspecting its because i was using gfxcardstatus and switching the gfx forcefully. anyways, things started quitting by itself (first safari, then twitter, then safari flash plug-in???) and finally the darkening screen+please restart box came up (i havent seen that screen since 10.5.0 from my last macbook!)

besides that i am happy to report my mbp is as stable as can be. first time something like this happened

 

[simsaladimbamba]

well i am just doing what is recommended on the apple battery faq, doing it every few days (not because i am plugged into the external display, its just an observation i made regarding the external display). isn't it good measure to keep the electrons flowing anyways, have i been misled?

btw, i love how fast people reply on this forum.

@simsaladimbamba, i read it already before, thanks alot! but i guess i didnt notice the part about external forces discrete gfx.

AppleCare support recommends that if you leave your Mac plugged in most of the time, unplug it every 2 or 3 days and run on battery down to somewhere around 50%, then plug it back in. That keeps the electrons moving.

this is the clause i am referring to, in terms of what i am doing.

Ah, I was interpreting your comments about using it on battery as using the battery till it runs out of juice (completely discharging it). May 2009 MBP has 200+ cycles and I still get more than five hours out of it, sometimes even seven with moderate use, and I have used it mostly with a power adapter.

 

[Wanderer509]

Ah, I was interpreting your comments about using it on battery as using the battery till it runs out of juice (completely discharging it). May 2009 MBP has 200+ cycles and I still get more than five hours out of it, sometimes even seven with moderate use, and I have used it mostly with a power adapter.

i used to do that with my old macbook, at the end of my time with it (with only 12X cycle, i always unplugged battery when not in use) and battery health was still 100%. i didnt read up as much back then so i did all the things i wasnt suppose to do (full discharge, unplug n use.)

 

[WestC07]

Is there any way to tell which GPU the MBP is currently running off of? I know between the two there is a huge impact on battery life so is there some sort of utility that shows which GPU is currently in use?

 

[superericla]

Is there any way to tell which GPU the MBP is currently running off of? I know between the two there is a huge impact on battery life so is there some sort of utility that shows which GPU is currently in use?

Yes. You could use gfxcardstatus.

 

[WestC07]

Yes. You could use gfxcardstatus.

Done! Thanks for the advice.