Battery life/monitoring issue

[Martlets93]

I did a forum search and tried to read through everything that came up. I tried some of the suggestions, but nothing seems to work.

I have an early 2011 MBP with 2Ghz i7 and 8GB RAM. I'm running Lion 10.7.3

Within the last few weeks it seems my battery life has really taken a nose dive. I seem to only get a few hours on it with normal usage. Battery cycle count is 64, and the condition is "Normal". Coconut Battery says it's life is 95%.

Any ideas? Are there any apps I could install that may shed some light on this? I saw a few people suggest iStat, but I don't know much about it. This is my first Mac, and I'm not as familiar as I am with the PC.

 

[allieverything]

Try gfxcardstatus. Google it. It seems to give me an extra 30 min or so set to integrated.


EDIT: Also, make sure your brightness is down and your keyboard back light is off. You may also want to recalibrate.

 

[GGJstudios]

I did a forum search and tried to read through everything that came up. I tried some of the suggestions, but nothing seems to work.

I have an early 2011 MBP with 2Ghz i7 and 8GB RAM. I'm running Lion 10.7.3

Within the last few weeks it seems my battery life has really taken a nose dive. I seem to only get a few hours on it with normal usage. Battery cycle count is 64, and the condition is "Normal". Coconut Battery says it's life is 95%.

How is 95% considered a "nose dive"? If you read almost any battery thread on this forum, you should have found your answers, as the following link has been posted in over 1000 battery threads. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

You may also want to recalibrate.

The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries. Read the link I posted.

 

[Martlets93]

How is 95% considered a "nose dive"? If you read almost any battery thread on this forum, you should have found your answers, as the following link has been posted in over 1000 battery threads. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries. Read the link I posted.

Thanks. I read that before I posted. 95% isn't a nose dive. Turning my computer on a month ago and having the batter last 6 hours during normal browsing, then turning it on a week ago and having it last 2 hours with the same usage is a nose dive.

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks. I read that before I posted. 95% isn't a nose dive. Turning my computer on a month ago and having the batter last 6 hours during normal browsing, then turning it on a week ago and having it last 2 hours with the same usage is a nose dive.

Read the section I mentioned again. It addresses the vast majority of factors on battery life from a charge. Rarely is there a situation it doesn't cover.

 

[thundersteele]

@OP

Since you know that the battery capacity is still roughly the same, it should be quite clear that the reduced battery life must be due to an increased power consumption.

Things that use the most power, in descending order:
CPU
discrete GPU
Screen
Wifi, Bluetooth, HDD, ODD (in use), Keyboard light, logic board in general

The last items are in no particular order, but they also have no dramatic impact on the battery life.

The most likely reason for an increased power usage is higher CPU usage, and possibly the use of the discrete graphics card. From the Battery FAQ:

If your battery is draining quickly and you're not sure why, launch Activity Monitor and change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes", then click on the CPU column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). Then look to see what may be consuming system resources.

This should help with CPU usage.

If you're using a MacBook Pro with both integrated and discrete graphics cards, you can install gfxCardStatus to manually select your integrated GPU, which will help reduce power demands and give you more life on a battery charge.

This should help with the GPU usage.

Post screenshots of activity monitor during use, if you can't figure it out yourself.