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... there's no harm in doing so anyways... least, no harm that I know of...
No harm, but a hassle:
After resetting NVRAM or PRAM you may need to reconfigure your settings for speaker volume, screen resolution, startup disk selection, time zone information.
It's like repairing permissions. If the problem being addressed isn't directly affected by repairing permissions, doing so is a useless exercise. There are appropriate times to reset NVRAM or SMC or repair permissions. Knowing when it is or isn't appropriate to do makes the use of these tools more effective.
 
It's like repairing permissions. If the problem being addressed isn't directly affected by repairing permissions, doing so is a useless exercise. There are appropriate times to reset NVRAM or SMC or repair permissions. Knowing when it is or isn't appropriate to do makes the use of these tools more effective.

ah, I didn't have to reconfigure anything. I didn't know that. I'll stop making that suggestion then.
 
OS X version?

Hi- wanted to mention this being I had issues with battery life as well.

What OS version are you running?

The reason I ask is I also have an early 2011 model- purchased under 10.6.6-7 not sure, battery life was as advertised. But when I upgraded to 10.6.8- battery was 3 hrs no matter what I did.

Went back to 10.6.7 and have that near 7 hr or sometimes longer battery life.


Not upgrading to lion yet so sorry if this isn't relevant- or maybe?
 
The reason I ask is I also have an early 2011 model- purchased under 10.6.6-7 not sure, battery life was as advertised. But when I upgraded to 10.6.8- battery was 3 hrs no matter what I did.

Went back to 10.6.7 and have that near 7 hr or sometimes longer battery life.
The BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the Battery FAQ in post #2 has more info on differences between not only OS versions, but hardware models.
 
3-4 hours might be normal for Lion users. On Snow Leopard I have no problem getting 7 hours.

No, 7 hours is also normal for Lion. However, Lion might be a bit more sensitive to applications that put load on the CPU. I'm not sure, this is just a guess.

3 hours with HD video playback sounds fine.

Yesterday I gave a 90 minutes Keynote presentation with an external projector connected, and my display on full brightness. I went on to work about three more hours on the machine. Battery was down to 20% or so at the end of the day. It's great to know that I don't need to connect a charger for a presentation. One less cable to trip over.
 
Thanks for the help, guys!

Yes I use Firefox and I'm always on discreet graphics since on Intel the UI in OS X feels sluggish (especially in Firefox in things like scrolling).

Yes my graphics card is Radeon 6750

I understand now why my battery life is not what it could be.

gfxcardstatus had been giving me problems that's why I stopped using it some time ago (the screen would freeze on occasion when manually switching graphics).
 
Unless you're just browsing text based sites then you won't get 7-10 hours. Pictures require graphics processing too.
 
firefox and chrome have always done that, and probably always will.

Many programs trigger the discrete card. Papers2, a pdf manager, does it as well. I have a 2011 2Ghz MBP running Lion and also typically get only 4 hrs of battery life. I'm not going to baby my application list etc. but do regularly turn off various antennas and backlighting. And yes, I do "train" the battery periodically. I just don't know how to get 7 hours out of this thing unless the light is on a single block and I'm only reading a pdf.
 
I've never had Chrome use less battery than Safari.

I have a set list of websites that I visit everyday. I have gfxCardStatus forcing integrated while on battery power, and no other apps open. My screen brightness is unaltered. Chrome ALWAYS gives poorer battery life so much so that I don't use it when 'on the road' with my MBP. It's just not worth the battery consumption.

I'm sure others would agree that it is a battery hog.

*edit Perhaps running Clicktoflash and Adblocker in Safari helps...
 
To others maybe reading this thread and looking for ideas, if you have a new Macbook and the battery life is not what you think it should be ... you can also make an appointment to go to an apple store and have a tech look it over. If its new and under warranty it won't cost you anything for them to take a look. There can sometimes be other reasons beside the software you are running, that could be impacting the battery life per charge. And they will also ask you about what you are doing when on battery and offer up some similar tips like you are reading here.

Anyway if you are not sure about all of the other things mentioned in this thread you can have Apple take a look. If the other stuff mentioned here is not really helping, sometimes you might just actually have a battery that is flawed, and in a new macbook they will install a fresh one for you if its looking like its clearly performing way lower than it should given your use.
 
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