Battery life and gauge

[pasadena]

So I've been using my MB for a few days now. The first couple of days I was downloading and installing so much stuff I decided to ignore the battery. But I find it ... strange.

First, it goes down faster than I'd expect it to. I've yet to test it thoroughly, so it might just be an impression. However, I've noticed a couple of things :

1) It tends to go down a bit when sleeping. I charged it full during the night, and used it for a while this morning. Mostly browsing stuff (forums, news, facebook). When I left for work, it was at 90%. When I came back tonight, it was at 81%. Obviously, nothing happened during the day. The MB was closed, Power sleep is off when not on the power adaptor. All apps were shut down, except those I have in the menu bar.

2) Now it's at 78% - been browsing for half an hour. It said 2:20 left at 80% (!!) and now it says 3:03.

I realize the "time remaining" thing is an extrapolation, taking into account what you're currently doing, but I find it both very imprecise and very low. I only have Mail and Firefox opened.

The only thing in "Apps using significant energy" is Firefox. I had the same thing while using Safari with no extensions.

It went down 2% during the time I took to write this post.

Anyone else noticing this ? What does your battery say ?

Here's my activity monitor : https://www.dropbox.com/s/os3r0eck5r6u4ns/Screenshot%202015-04-17%2018.32.58.png?dl=0

 

[pasadena]

EDIT : It's been exactly 30 minutes since I posted this. Battery went from 78% to 66% (but it now says 3:50 - I don't trust that estimation, but the % is worrying me).

 

[iRun26.2]

Relax, your new computer is indexing. It is very intensive. Wait a couple of days before being concerned with the battery gauges.

 

[pasadena]

Relax, your new computer is indexing. It is very intensive. Wait a couple of days before being concerned with the battery gauges.

It's already been a couple of days, although I haven't used it intensively. My personal stuff is 6Gb. Total used on the disk is 37Gb. I would think it's done indexing ?

How do you know when it's done ?

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Look for "mds" and "mds worker"(?) threads in Activity Monitor. These threads are spawned by indexing processes. If these processes are using significant CPU, Spotlight is indexing.

 

[IHelpId10t5]

Why are people so psychotic about "monitoring" their system performance instead of just enjoying their new devices?

Just use the device all day, don't "monitor" anything related to system performance, plug it in before bed, and it'll serve you well for years! There are millions of happy MB users that don't even know that Activity Monitor exists.

It's clear that your Mac's battery is being used by indexing or Firefox. Therefore, the first place I would look if you are really having a battery issue is to any browser extensions or add-ons that you are using. If your are using even a single browser extension in Firefox then you should uninstall it and see how your battery issue works out. Or, try another browser. I personally love Chrome despite the opinionated claims that it's a resource hog. I have no problems with Chrome, or my batteries, on 5 different Macs of various ages. And, I don't ever look at my battery status.

 

[pasadena]

Why are people so psychotic about "monitoring" their system performance instead of just enjoying their new devices?

Just use the device all day, don't "monitor" anything related to system performance, plug it in before bed, and it'll serve you well for years! There are millions of happy MB users that don't even know that Activity Monitor exists.

Yeah, except at this rate, no way I can use it all day and plug it before bed. I pulled up Activity Monitor for this reason.

It's clear that your Mac's battery is being used by indexing or Firefox. Therefore, the first place I would look if you are really having a battery issue is to any browser extensions or add-ons that you are using. If your are using even a single browser extension in Firefox then you should uninstall it and see how your battery issue works out. Or, try another browser. I personally love Chrome despite the opinionated claims that it's a resource hog. I have no problems with Chrome, or my batteries, on 5 different Macs of various ages. And, I don't ever look at my battery status.

As I said in my post, I saw the exact same behavior with Safari, which doesn't have any extension at all. I also saw it with FF before I installed any extension.

As for indexing, it's doesn't seem to be indexing at all.

It might be clear to you, but it's not clear to me.

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Look for "mds" and "mds worker"(?) threads in Activity Monitor. These threads are spawned by indexing processes. If these processes are using significant CPU, Spotlight is indexing.

I only have one mds and one mds_stores, and they're not using anything.

 

[dexterbell]

Based on my results over the 4 days Ive had it, there is no way you are going to get all day battery life if you are doing anything more than web browsing. Just me playing around in iMovie, browsing, streaming some videos for 20 minutes took a good 20-25% battery in an hour with my brightness at full and my keyboard light off. Doesn't bother me though, I work from home and Im never far away from an electrical outlet.

 

[jmgregory1]

Yeah, except at this rate, no way I can use it all day and plug it before bed. I pulled up Activity Monitor for this reason.



As I said in my post, I saw the exact same behavior with Safari, which doesn't have any extension at all. I also saw it with FF before I installed any extension.

As for indexing, it's doesn't seem to be indexing at all.

It might be clear to you, but it's not clear to me.

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I only have one mds and one mds_stores, and they're not using anything.

Give the computer a couple of weeks and try to use it in typical situations going from full charge to less than 10% battery and if you're not getting more than 5 hours usage from it, set up a Genius appointment. They can test to see if the battery is meeting specs and if not you'll likely get a replacement.