Battery depletion on brand new MBA

[benblanchard]

I have a brand new MBA 2012 running Mountain Lion.

I have recently installed the 10.8.1 update that claims to solve battery issues.

Sometime the battery seems to deplete incredibly quickly, whereas others it seems to be about right.

I recently charged the MBA up fully. When I turned on, the battery indicator showed 100% with 8:53 remaining.
The battery then depleted to 85% under light use from Chrome and the Twitter app. At 85% it showed 3:07 hours remaining.

Now obviously something is up, so I checked activity monitor but there's nothing using a high % of my CPU.

So does anyone have any idea what's up with my battery?!

Would appreciate some help.

Thanks,

Ben

 

[simsaladimbamba]

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Also know, that the battery time is dependent on current CPU use and screen brightness.

______________________________________________________
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by GGJstudios
The F.A.Q. includes the following topics:

• BATTERY INFORMATION
• BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE
• AC POWER
• CALIBRATION
• BATTERY LIFESPAN
• CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH
• CHARGING
• WHAT IS A CYCLE?
• BATTERIES ARE NOT COVERED
• BULGING OR SWELLING BATTERY

______________________________________________________​

Using Activity Monitor to show you CPU and RAM usage​

 

[dcorban]

My first thought is Chrome = Adobe Flash = battery drain.

It would definitely explain your 85% but only 3 hours remaining paradox.

 

[benblanchard]

I enabled the ClickToPlay feature in chrome so flash doesn't run until I click on the object wanting to run flash. I've also installed an AdBlock extension.

It's just a little confusing!

 

[Wowzera]

I enabled the ClickToPlay feature in chrome so flash doesn't run until I click on the object wanting to run flash. I've also installed an AdBlock extension.

It's just a little confusing!

I have a macbook air mid2012 without flash installed and running mountain lion 10.8.1 and still have a battery life a lot worst than Lion.

Mine shows now 4:50 at 100% and running only Microsoft Word and Safari. Mail in the background. Notification Center disabled.

 

[Roman2K~]

Now obviously something is up, so I checked activity monitor but there's nothing using a high % of my CPU.

You need to list "All processes", not just "My processes". All = user + system. If you see "mds" and "mdworker", those are Spotlight indexing your disk (temporary).

 

[chacolo]

This does not look so bad. What was your brightness ?

 

[benblanchard]

This does not look so bad. What was your brightness ?

Brightness is set to 4.

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You need to list "All processes", not just "My processes". All = user + system. If you see "mds" and "mdworker", those are Spotlight indexing your disk (temporary).

 

[dominicdiep]

Yup. Battery is definitely worse for me on ML. At most I get around 4.5 hours.

 

[Statelymwhite]

I was feeling the same way until I realized Bluetooth was on unnecessarily. I also tend to keep my brightness on the high side, though perhaps I should change that when running on battery.

 

[benblanchard]

Yup. Battery is definitely worse for me on ML. At most I get around 4.5 hours.

This is my first Mac Portable so I wouldn't know how battery life differs with ML, but I was a little bit surprised at how low it got.

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I was feeling the same way until I realized Bluetooth was on unnecessarily. I also tend to keep my brightness on the high side, though perhaps I should change that when running on battery.

I turned Bluetooth off almost as soon as I first turned on the machine, so it can't have had an effect really.

 

[Biscotti]

I got around 6:30 - 7 hours on Lion. I could go pretty much all day w/o charging… and now I'm getting around 5 hours of battery life IF I am lucky. Screen set to 4-5, and safari and word and excel use and mail.

This is just ridiculous. My battery health is also at 92% after 10 months and 153 cycles…

This is a problem. Just TEEEWWAAABBBLLEEEE.