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Battery loss while sleeping? What percent do you see overnight?

Mindflux

Mindflux

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Oct 20, 2007
1,987
1
Austin
I know that there is power applied to the RAM in the system during sleep to keep the system's state intact, but I left my new MB sleeping overnight and lost from what I can tell approximately 20% of my battery power.

I'm now on Cycle 3 of the battery and my battery health is at 98%. Is this typical to see?

Thanks.
 
Mindflux said:
I know that there is power applied to the RAM in the system during sleep to keep the system's state intact, but I left my new MB sleeping overnight and lost from what I can tell approximately 20% of my battery power.

I'm now on Cycle 3 of the battery and my battery health is at 98%. Is this typical to see?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Battery health should stay at 100% for a good while after you purchase a new laptop. I usually leave my MB plugged in, so I wouldn't know how much battery is being used for a night or sleep. But from what I've seen while letting it sleep during the day, your consumption sounds about right...
 
VSMacOne said:
Battery health should stay at 100% for a good while after you purchase a new laptop. I usually leave my MB plugged in, so I wouldn't know how much battery is being used for a night or sleep. But from what I've seen while letting it sleep during the day, your consumption sounds about right...
Click to expand...

Well I'll run this one down to dead and recharge it to it's fullest and see if the health changes. Maybe it's just a bad calibration.
 
Mindflux said:
Well I'll run this one down to dead and recharge it to it's fullest and see if the health changes. Maybe it's just a bad calibration.
Click to expand...

That's what I would do.
To answer you earlier question, mine would lose anywhere from 1-2% per hour of standby.
 
Mindflux said:
I'll report back when I calibrate the battery :) Thanks for everyone's assistance.

:cool:
Click to expand...

I'm sure you know this, so disregard it if you do, but make sure you calibrate like Apple says to do, on their website... :confused:
 
well, it really just depends on how much you sleep, but basically just think about 1-2 hours per percentage point...so a typical 8 hour sleep would be around 5-7 percent...thats what ive been noticing
 
Yeah it depends on how long you sleep :) On my aluminum Macbook I typically lose 5% of the battery after sleeping for 6-7 hours.
 
I bought an AL macbook on Friday. Calibrated the battery. Put it to sleep Sunday with a 17% charge and when I woke it it was in hibernation-- completely gone. Put it to sleep last night (Monday) with a 100% charge and woke up this morning to 92%. My G4 ibook did not lose anything close to that. This is very disappointing. I'm going to contact apple.
 
rosalindavenue said:
I bought an AL macbook on Friday. Calibrated the battery. Put it to sleep Sunday with a 17% charge and when I woke it it was in hibernation-- completely gone. Put it to sleep last night (Monday) with a 100% charge and woke up this morning to 92%. My G4 ibook did not lose anything close to that. This is very disappointing. I'm going to contact apple.
Click to expand...

Sometimes, MB would not wake from sleep when it's below a certain percentage of battery power, so it didn't mean all 17% was gone in the first night. When it happens next time, you can plug in the ac and immediately check the battery. I am not surprised if it had close to 10% left.

In the second case, losing 8% overnight in the sleep mode is perfectly normal.
 
Average 10 - 12 %. Since this is my first Macbook/OS X I am not sure if this is normal. Compared to my Thinkpad/XP, this seems high by about 5%.
 
I've lost 1% when my white macbook was on ac all day and then unplugged but not sleeping in the night... probably just the battery losing charge.

When it is sleeping it loses about 12-15%, although most of the time I turn it off at night. The macbook is a month old and has 100% health, 16 cycles - after calibration that is.
 
silverblack said:
Sometimes, MB would not wake from sleep when it's below a certain percentage of battery power, so it didn't mean all 17% was gone in the first night. When it happens next time, you can plug in the ac and immediately check the battery. I am not surprised if it had close to 10% left.

In the second case, losing 8% overnight in the sleep mode is perfectly normal.
Click to expand...

Wow that's a lot to lose. I'm certain the g4 ibook did not lost that kind of power. I guess I should power down at night. Bummer.

I have a phone appt with Apple Tech Support today and I will post if they have anything to add.
 
Ok spoke with Apple. As this thread predicted, this is normal behavior. The tech guy said that the fans & some components are still up in sleep, etc. (I don't know if this is correct but that is what he said.) He put me on hold to check and said that the battery losses I am experiencing apparently normal. He recommended that I power down overnight.

This is a (small) bummer. I loved my g4 ibook's instant, non-battery draining sleep. The Al macbook takes about 10 seconds to go to sleep (writing a disk image of RAM, I understand), then it does not go completely to sleep, as some components are still running. I read some of the tips about the different sorts of sleep (safe sleep, hibernation, etc) but I am reluctant to change that setting without knowing more.

Thanks for your help, posters.
 
FYI, I have been switching the default sleep to the fast sleep (mode 0) and it's been great. I want to get going as soon as I close the lid - don't want to wait 10 seconds to lock down the HDD. Besides, I always save all my work before I sleep the MB. So nothing to lose.

I highly recommend mode 0 sleep. Besides, the change is completely reversible if you don't like it. Nothing to lose.

(It won't however help with the battery draining issue. But hey, it's just a computer. Don't baby it, especially the battery - which is replaceable. Use it in a way that's most convenient to you.)
 
silverblack said:
FYI, I have been switching the default sleep to the fast sleep (mode 0) and it's been great. I want to get going as soon as I close the lid - don't want to wait 10 seconds to lock down the HDD. Besides, I always save all my work before I sleep the MB. So nothing to lose.

I highly recommend mode 0 sleep. Besides, the change is completely reversible if you don't like it. Nothing to lose.
Click to expand...

I can check the ibook when I get home, but was the old G4 sleep the mode 0 sleep?
 
rosalindavenue said:
I can check the ibook when I get home, but was the old G4 sleep the mode 0 sleep?
Click to expand...

Yup. Also stated in the article you provided link above.
BTW, make sure you do the last step to recover the 2 GB (or 4 GB depending on the amount of RAM you have) from the HDD.
 
I just leave my MB plugged in all the time when I don't need to use it on the run or away from a power outlet (which happens at least a couple of times a week).
I also LOVE convenience of (almost) instant sleep and leave it in sleep mode 90% of the time, because i like to leave the documents i'm working on open and have everything ready. I do a restart every once in a while, but not too often.
This seems to be working fine for me, and I don't think it's too bad for the battery/system. Like the silverblack put it, I use it in the way that's most convenient to me.
 
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