Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

2015 MBA Battery Drain

ron7624

ron7624

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
2,228
437
Houston, Texas area
I know I've read about this here, but haven't been able to find it.
My 3 week old 11" maxed out MBA lost 29% battery. From 100 to 71% in 24 hours with the clamshell closed.
I remember reading it should drop 2 or 3 %, not 30 I have added Chrome and a weather program but not much else. I thought the battery was draining fast during use so I charged it up, closed it and did not touch for 24 hours. Is Google doing this to me?
Obviously I am new to the world of Apple notebooks and in my learning curve.
 
ron7624 said:
I know I've read about this here, but haven't been able to find it.
My 3 week old 11" maxed out MBA lost 29% battery. From 100 to 71% in 24 hours with the clamshell closed.
I remember reading it should drop 2 or 3 %, not 30 I have added Chrome and a weather program but not much else. I thought the battery was draining fast during use so I charged it up, closed it and did not touch for 24 hours. Is Google doing this to me?
Obviously I am new to the world of Apple notebooks and in my learning curve.
Click to expand...

Do you have anything plugged into the laptop? (USB devices or SD cards.)

Sometimes this prevents the laptop from going into hibernation mode.
 
I bought the 32gb for my 2014 mba 11 and saw it was draining. I now just use it on an in and out basis. First time i ever encountered this happening with a thumb drive.
 
RUGGLES99 said:
I bought the 32gb for my 2014 mba 11 and saw it was draining. I now just use it on an in and out basis. First time i ever encountered this happening with a thumb drive.
Click to expand...
can you share which thumb drive it is?

I'm planning to buy a 32/64 tiny thing (from sandisk) and I'm afraid of having that drain....
 
motrek said:
Do you have anything plugged into the laptop? (USB devices or SD cards.)

Sometimes this prevents the laptop from going into hibernation mode.
Click to expand...

No nothing plugged in.

I did buy the Ssandisk usb 3.0 thumb drive and set it up with my personal files, I do not leave it plugged in. And no, it wasn't plugged in during my test period.
 
ron7624 said:
No nothing plugged in.

I did buy the Ssandisk usb 3.0 thumb drive and set it up with my personal files, I do not leave it plugged in. And no, it wasn't plugged in during my test period.
Click to expand...

Maybe there's a program that's preventing the laptop from sleeping? Can you try closing all your programs and seeing if it sleeps correctly then? If so, it's a process of elimination. Maybe there's a better way to do this but I don't know what it might be.
 
and by the way.... if you leave that on the MBA, do you know if it will go normally to sleep?
 
motrek said:
Maybe there's a program that's preventing the laptop from sleeping? Can you try closing all your programs and seeing if it sleeps correctly then? If so, it's a process of elimination. Maybe there's a better way to do this but I don't know what it might be.
Click to expand...

I was sure to have no dots visible under the icons on the doc. So I'm thinking that Chrome is the culprit. Although I don't use Chrome as my standard browser, it is available to me. My next test will be to delete everything google. The problem with that is I've got to use google to connect - it's a future job related thing. But will delete to see....

----------
LetsTryMac said:
and by the way.... if you leave that on the MBA, do you know if it will go normally to sleep?
Click to expand...

Not sure. I unplugged it at the first sign of battery issues. I will say that it's really fast.
 
ron7624 said:
Not sure. I unplugged it at the first sign of battery issues. I will say that it's really fast.
Click to expand...

What capacity it is? 32gb?64gb?

If you can make a simple test one of these days... you just need to close the lid and leave it for 30 mins/ 1hour...
Some people refer that the usb stick will heat, and that will be a sign that could be working.

(the objective of that kind of small usb stick is to leave it there "always")
 
LetsTryMac said:
What capacity it is? 32gb?64gb?

If you can make a simple test one of these days... you just need to close the lid and leave it for 30 mins/ 1hour...
Some people refer that the usb stick will heat, and that will be a sign that could be working.

(the objective of that kind of small usb stick is to leave it there "always")
Click to expand...

32gb. And yes, the intent was to leave it plugged in always.
 
Shut it down

I've not been able to stop the drain, but have decided to simply shut the MacBook down when not in use. It only takes about 15 seconds to boot up and I have no reason for it to update anything constantly when not in use.
I need the Google apps that probably drain it so getting rid of them is not an option.
Problem Solved !
 
ron7624 said:
I was sure to have no dots visible under the icons on the doc. So I'm thinking that Chrome is the culprit. Although I don't use Chrome as my standard browser, it is available to me. My next test will be to delete everything google. The problem with that is I've got to use google to connect - it's a future job related thing. But will delete to see.... ...
Click to expand...

If a program isn't running then it won't take any power.

So the problem isn't Chrome.

Maybe you have some other Google software that's taking power.

What if you reboot, run Activity Monitor, switch to the Energy tab, and then close the laptop lid for a while. Maybe the offending software will show up in that tab.
 
I already saw people complaining about battery life and the Transcend JetDrive. It seems to have something to do with the card reader, which is kept powered even when the lid is closed. It should exist something that could really make the card reader to turn off when the computer goes to sleep.
 
brdeveloper said:
I already saw people complaining about battery life and the Transcend JetDrive. It seems to have something to do with the card reader, which is kept powered even when the lid is closed. It should exist something that could really make the card reader to turn off when the computer goes to sleep.
Click to expand...

no, that wasn't it. I took the usb 3.0 Sandisk thumb drive out, rebooted my machine and then closed the lid for 24 hours and still had a 28% drain.
When I first got the machine, before adding anything any programs to the os, I could close the lid and not loose anything. When I started adding the stuff I needed it no longer held its charge.
If I can't use what I want, what good is that.
My solution is working just fine though, I just Shut Down and that works for me.
I only shut down overnight. During the day it just doesn't matter for the times I close the lid to move around.
 
You could try this :
System preferences => Energy Saver => Uncheck "Wake for network access" under "Power Adapter" settings. That should prevent your mac from waking up randomly.
 
The very tiny sandisk 32 gb drains battery in my 2014 base 11". Btw, sandisk has THE worst customer service. I will never by an sd product again.
 
Can you specify which model do you have?

There are at least two "tiny models" from sandisk.
I'm looking for a very small usb with 32/64gb and the ultra fit usb 3.0 looks a very good candidate.

Can you detail a bit more your experience with it?
 
ron7624 said:
Thats impressive, but he word that you used is the key. New. When mine was new it held a charge too. As i added apps, the drain became appearant.
Click to expand...

Then some app is keeping your computer from going into hibernation mode correctly, and it's probably worthwhile to figure out which one it is. The power drain has nothing to do with the state of the battery.
 
motrek said:
Then some app is keeping your computer from going into hibernation mode correctly, and it's probably worthwhile to figure out which one it is. The power drain has nothing to do with the state of the battery.
Click to expand...

Agreed. But, I need those apps. My solution works. Turn it off and there will be no drain. With a 14 second boot, its no big deal to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back