battery level fluctuates

[amitface]

I got my SR MBP this morning, and I noticed something just now.. the battery level indicator fluctuates. I just charged it up completely, and it said 4:47 to go, then a little bit later, it said 4:31, then 4:58. It did this earlier, so I thought charging the battery might help, but it didn't.

Will calibration fix this? It's very annoying.

 

[anirban]

I got my SR MBP this morning, and I noticed something just now.. the battery level indicator fluctuates. I just charged it up completely, and it said 4:47 to go, then a little bit later, it said 4:31, then 4:58. It did this earlier, so I thought charging the battery might help, but it didn't.

Will calibration fix this? It's very annoying.

I believe that it is just a realtime estimate calculated by the power management system, based on the task that you are performing on the machine.

For example, if you are playing iTunes with full volume while surfing Safari, it will give you a time, lets say 3hrs. Then you close iTunes, and just use Safari, then the time will be a more- because less battery power is being used.

 

[OutThere]

As long as the percentage doesn't fluctuate, there's no problem. The number of minutes remaining is supposed to fluctuate to reflect how long you have left with regard to how you're using your computer. (ie it will go down if you are editing in iMovie, but up if you turn down the brightness and just type in textedit.)

edit: anirban got there first, doh.

 

[Smoothie]

I'm guessing here, but the battery life will fluctuate depending upon the activity of the computer at the time. If it's just idling, the remaining life will be longer. So if you just were doing some processor intensive stuff and then let it sit at idle, the remaining battery life will increase.

 

[AceOfBass]

yeah mine does that too, but since the % doesn't change I don't worry about it. but mine says like 2:40 something for a while before it goes up to like 4 hrs