Battery life drastically reduced after Snow Leopard

[Ramius]

I own an aluminum MacBook from 2008. I just installed Snow Leopard on it, and after a full charge, it says it only has three hours left. While on a full charge on Leopard - it would have five hours left.

This thing ain't even a year old. I've not raped the battery with electricity. Normal use, this happened exclusively after installing Snow Leopard.

This is wierd. I though Snow Leopard was supposed to be using less power, or perhaps it's oposite? Does anyone know?

 

[techfreak85]

it is possible it is doing some background processes that happen when u install the os for the first time, (like spotlight indexing) that use the hard drive and processing power.

 

[Ramius]

it is possible it is doing some background processes that happen when u install the os for the first time, (like spotlight indexing) that use the hard drive and processing power.

No such thing. I've charged it several times after installing. It only reaches three hours now.

 

[techfreak85]

i was reading that restarting a few times helps..... have u restarted it since installing?

 

[gertruded]

I don't seem to be having the same problem after one full discharge and recharge. right now I am showing 5.05 hours when fully charged on an early 2009 Macbook with a mouse, extra keyboard, and a 320 gig 7200 HD. Before the cycling it showed 2 hrs fully charged. and I accually got got 3.5 hours to cutoff.

I only have Firefox on at this site as I type this.

 

[Ramius]

i was reading that restarting a few times helps..... have u restarted it since installing?

I've restarted the machine three times since upgrading.
Does anyone here have some facts about SL power consumptions? Was it supposed to be better or worse than Leopard?

 

[helix21]

I have exactly the same macbook as you and yes initially the battery life i thought took a setback so I calibrated it (which i think did more harm than good, according to coconut battery.app)
After about 10 restarts today was the ideal test, a 4.5 hour train journey. I was watching videos in full screen, 80% brightness, no bluetooth and no wifi for about 3.75 hours when I checked the battery meter and it reported 22% battery life left. I had finished seeing 4 episodes of house by then and switched to word processing and icon tweaking (using candybar). In the end, i came home with the mac still having 12% battery left

Conclusion: battery life hasnt taken a hit, but hasnt gained an improvement either

 

[Ramius]

I have exactly the same macbook as you and yes initially the battery life i thought took a setback so I calibrated it (which i think did more harm than good, according to coconut battery.app)
After about 10 restarts today was the ideal test, a 4.5 hour train journey. I was watching videos in full screen, 80% brightness, no bluetooth and no wifi for about 3.75 hours when I checked the battery meter and it reported 22% battery life left. I had finished seeing 4 episodes of house by then and switched to word processing and icon tweaking (using candybar). In the end, i came home with the mac still having 12% battery left

Conclusion: battery life hasnt taken a hit, but hasnt gained an improvement either

Well obviously you experienced the same thing I'm complaining about now.
How do you calibrate a battery? I should try that.

So after ten restarts, it started getting back to it's old self?