2018 MBP - Battery draining even when plugged in?

[thebitguru]

I am on a 2018 MBP with i9/32GB/1TB that I got a few days ago. I was on a video call (camera, screen share, and MBP speakers) for around two hours today. I started with 100% battery and ended up with 89% even though the MBP was plugged in all this time. CPU usage wasn't significant during this time, but even if it was, battery drain still doesn't make sense. I haven't noticed this in the past few days, and I did upgrade to the Supplemental Upgrade 2 that was release yesterday. Below are a few pictures of the iStat Menus graphs for some more data.

I haven't had a chance to try a heavy workload since then so I will try that once I get some time.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts on what might be going on here? Am I really somehow taxing this thing more than what it was designed for?

 

[New_Mac_Smell]

Obvious, but are you using the charger and cable that came with the machine or any after market stuff?

Failing that, I'd just call Apple or take it in.

 

[thebitguru]

Thanks for the response. Yup, using the stock charger and cable that came with the laptop.

I am going to give this a few more days and see if I can reproduce it. I also am curious to hear if anyone else has experienced this...

 

[fokmik]

Dis you make the first cpu related update for the 2018 Mbp?

 

[thebitguru]

Yes, I have applied all of the updates.

 

[youssman]

I have seen the same behaviour when playing a game on a i9/32GB/1TB.

The macbook was plugged in, 100% of battery. After 30mn of gaming, the battery went down to 85%.

I had only the first update at that time.

Btw, have you noticed a huge battery drain when le macbook is closed, and supposed to be in sleep mode ? Mine cannot stay one night without going to 0%...

 

[thebitguru]

You mean like the picture attached? :| This happened to me yesterday morning for the first time with this MBP. Yesterday, the CPU was throttled so much even after charging that I had to restart to get it back to normal. This morning I am noticing that, along with the battery at 0%, the sound refuses to come out of the MBP speakers.

Honestly, I love the speed of the 2018 MBP, but I am quite disappointed with some of these odd issues. This is the sort of stuff that I would run into in a Linux machine and never with a mac. The whole "it just works" no longer seems to apply to Apple stuff

Please let me know if you learn anything about any of these issues. Thanks!

 

[chabig]

I wouldn't worry about it in the least. My recommendation is to get rid of all that menu bar system monitoring stuff and just use the machine. Your job isn't to monitor hardware. In fact, maybe it's all that crap you've got running that taxes the machine! Have you ever seen how much CPU activity monitor uses?

 

[thebitguru]

The iStat Menus widgets are quite helpful and they are not that taxing on the CPU/memory.

Also, the sleep problem existed on my 2016 MBP when I wasn't using iStat Menus so I am pretty sure that isn't the cause.

 

[chabig]

What's Skitch? Start by dumping that.

 

[thebitguru]

I used Skitch to create and markup the screenshots when posting here. It wasn't running during the battery drain.

One question: even at 100% CPU, memory, GPU, and disk usage, should the battery ever go down when plugged in?

 

[chabig]

I used Skitch to create and markup the screenshots when posting here.

Why? macOS already has powerful screen shot tools.

One question: even at 100% CPU, memory, GPU, and disk usage, should the battery ever go down when plugged in?

Probably. If the power adapter is built to handle the absolute maximum load, it will be bigger and heavier. Why do that when you have a charge accumulator (i.e., battery) already built into the product. Under load it makes sense to use the battery as a power supplement.

 

[Howard2k]

I used Skitch to create and markup the screenshots when posting here. It wasn't running during the battery drain.

One question: even at 100% CPU, memory, GPU, and disk usage, should the battery ever go down when plugged in?

Isn't it an 87W PSU? So yeah, it would certainly drain under max loads. It's 45W at base clock for the CPU alone, but if you're bursting and running accessories too, I imagine it's not difficult to max out that 87W.

 

[thebitguru]

I never noticed this with my 2016 MBP under max loads; granted it comparatively had lower power needs.

Also, the above screenshots cover a relatively simple use case where the system wasn't really under full load. It's unfortunate that Apple is making these types of compromises... I am hoping that this is a software issue (like the throttling issue) and will be fixed in either Mojave or another future release.

 

[SOLLERBOY]

the 2011 17" could also do this, the charger can't supply enough power when everything is maxed out.

 

[chabig]

It's unfortunate that Apple is making these types of compromises.

It's not unfortunate. It's rock solid engineering.

 

[Howard2k]

I never noticed this with my 2016 MBP under max loads; granted it comparatively had lower power needs.

Also, the above screenshots cover a relatively simple use case where the system wasn't really under full load. It's unfortunate that Apple is making these types of compromises... I am hoping that this is a software issue (like the throttling issue) and will be fixed in either Mojave or another future release.

I think you're falsely extrapolating data points.

You asked if it would drain under max loads. Yes it will. Just like the 2016.

It shouldn't drain under low loads. I think you're misinterpreting what your system is doing (it's working way harder than you think) or you have some other software that is draining the battery. You also muddied the water by throwing in sleep.

You need to consider whether you have several separate issues.

Draining under heavy load - normal.
Draining while sleeping while not plugged in - normal, to some degree.
Draining while sleeping while plugged in - not normal, perhaps there is a task that is keeping it awake and it's actually not sleeping?

 

[chabig]

You need to consider whether you have several separate issues...

Or stop worrying about it completely. Though based on the number of menu extras he has running to monitor system performance, he's probably obsessive compulsive and can't stop thinking about it.

 

[macintoshmac]

It's not unfortunate. It's rock solid engineering.

That one cracked me up.

 

[SmilingKy]

I have same problem, new mbp 2018 ...

 

[Eason85]

That one cracked me up.

Hahaha I don't think he's intentionally trolling. He is actually serious!

@thebitguru Coffee Lake is extremely power hungry, and can use up to 90W for an i9 or 75W for the i7-8750H. Apple has designed themselves into a corner with their current MBPs and thus, it looks like they can't supply them with enough power under load. Unfortunately this is not good for the longevity of your battery, even if performance isn't affected.

Since it sounds like your machine has some problems anyway, I would return it for a base i7-8750H which will perform nearly the same and use much less power.

 

[thebitguru]

FYI, I ended up keeping the i9 model and, fortunately, whatever the problem was I have not hit it again. My guess is that they have improved the throttling to prevent this issue.

The heat and the constant fans on the other hand is an consistent issue now :|

 

[phackwer]

I am on a 2018 MBP with i9/32GB/1TB that I got a few days ago. I was on a video call (camera, screen share, and MBP speakers) for around two hours today. I started with 100% battery and ended up with 89% even though the MBP was plugged in all this time. CPU usage wasn't significant during this time, but even if it was, battery drain still doesn't make sense. I haven't noticed this in the past few days, and I did upgrade to the Supplemental Upgrade 2 that was release yesterday. Below are a few pictures of the iStat Menus graphs for some more data.

I haven't had a chance to try a heavy workload since then so I will try that once I get some time.

Has anyone else experienced this? Any thoughts on what might be going on here? Am I really somehow taxing this thing more than what it was designed for?

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View attachment 778599

View attachment 778600

I've noticed the same behaviour here sometimes. I unplug and plug the power adapter and it returns to normal charging. This has been happening to me after updating to Mojave, which has updated my firmware too. Didn't happened before till this OS update. Now it happens even when I downgraded back to High Sierra, so this is something related to the firmware upgrade. Probably something they added to avoid throttling on i9's or even to get more power to the CPUs. Problem is that this has a negative impact here.

 

[ari_ra]

hi, can anyone of you guys confirm the 87watt power supply is correctly registered as such? mine is registered as per 60 wattage (system report --> power), which is odd. i do my 3d renderings on the machine, on the go, and the battery constantly just drains, which is annoying.

 

[ShapeCZ]

hi, can anyone of you guys confirm the 87watt power supply is correctly registered as such? mine is registered as per 60 wattage (system report --> power), which is odd. i do my 3d renderings on the machine, on the go, and the battery constantly just drains, which is annoying.

Look at my screenshot. I am using this charger of AliExpress: http://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/cOWr7BLE
My MacBook Pro 2017 higher version is in a screenshot as well.

I thought I'm having this problem as this charger might not supply the full 87W as the original charger. But now I see we are all having the same problem! I'm mad at Apple for this terrible mistake.
ari_ra, which charger are you using? The Apple's original 87W that came with it?

Anybody has a solution? I want a charger that will charge the battery or at least keep it charged at an intensive load. I started a game called Kingdom Come in Windows. After 60 minutes, I lost 20%. It wasn't even fully loaded!

When I have a low battery, I can't load the computer. When I need to leave and have it charged fully, it might not be.

It puts excessive and unneeded wear on the battery. Shame on you, Apple!