battery question on a new macbook air

[paul43]

hello all, I'm new here with a question. yesterday my new macbook air arrived, and at the end of the night I put it to sleep with about 90% battery, and today I come to see that its now at 66% is this normal? and what tips can you give me to preserve battery life?

 

[Hughmac]

Hi, first thing to do is to calibrate the battery by running the Air down until it goes to sleep i.e down to 0% power.
Then recharge immediately to 100% and use normally.

Usually it's best to recharge frequently, maybe at around 50%, and run it down completely every couple of months.

Others may have better ideas but this is the practice I follow.

By the way I have a brand new MacBook Air and battery life has been as expected so far.

Hope this helps,

Cheers

Hugh

 

[Weaselboy]

hello all, I'm new here with a question. yesterday my new macbook air arrived, and at the end of the night I put it to sleep with about 90% battery, and today I come to see that its now at 66% is this normal? and what tips can you give me to preserve battery life?

Did you happen to have any USB devices or SD cards plugged in to the Air?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4392

Give this a look.

Your Air has regular sleep that uses around 1% battery life per hour, then a deeper sleep called "stand by" mode that kicks in after three hours and then can last up to 30 days asleep. If you have something external devices plugged in it will prevent it from entering stand by mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

Also, look over this info from Apple on batteries. They no longer recommend routine discharging of the battery as it add unnecessary charge cycles to the battery.

 

[paul43]

Did you happen to have any USB devices or SD cards plugged in to the Air?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4392

Give this a look.

Your Air has regular sleep that uses around 1% battery life per hour, then a deeper sleep called "stand by" mode that kicks in after three hours and then can last up to 30 days asleep. If you have something external devices plugged in it will prevent it from entering stand by mode.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

Also, look over this info from Apple on batteries. They no longer recommend routine discharging of the battery as it add unnecessary charge cycles to the battery.

interesting stuff. as for external devices, all I have is a wireless logitech mouse that uses a usb, and a thunderbolt to ethernet cable.

 

[Weaselboy]

interesting stuff. as for external devices, all I have is a wireless logitech mouse that uses a usb, and a thunderbolt to ethernet cable.

There's your problem. Those external connections stop it from entering standby mode and keep it in the old ~1% per hour standard sleep mode. Unplug everything and charge it up and do a test tonight and I bet you see a big difference.

For a notebook to enter standby, it must be running on battery power and have no external connections (such as Ethernet, USB, Thunderbolt, SD card, displays, Bluetooth, and so on).

 

[paul43]

There's your problem. Those external connections stop it from entering standby mode and keep it in the old ~1% per hour standard sleep mode. Unplug everything and charge it up and do a test tonight and I bet you see a big difference.

will do. and I'll let you know

 

[paul43]

There's your problem. Those external connections stop it from entering standby mode and keep it in the old ~1% per hour standard sleep mode. Unplug everything and charge it up and do a test tonight and I bet you see a big difference.

so I charged it up to 100% before I went to sleep, and 6 hours later, its still at 100%. thanks again

 

[motrek]

so I charged it up to 100% before I went to sleep, and 6 hours later, its still at 100%. thanks again

Why not keep it plugged in when you're asleep anyway though?

 

[Weaselboy]

so I charged it up to 100% before I went to sleep, and 6 hours later, its still at 100%. thanks again

Yay! Everybody loves a happy ending.

 

[cliptheapex]

Today I lost about 10/15% battery while I was sleeping, on my new MBA 11'.
It's been like this since I got it, and I don't understand why it loses so much battery when I leave it running and closed.
I don't have anything plugged. I have dropbox running and f.lux. It shouldn't be their fault right? I also have Power Nap disabled.

 

[motrek]

Today I lost about 10/15% battery while I was sleeping, on my new MBA 11'.
It's been like this since I got it, and I don't understand why it loses so much battery when I leave it running and closed.
I don't have anything plugged. I have dropbox running and f.lux. It shouldn't be their fault right? I also have Power Nap disabled.

Your post is confusing. How are you "leaving it running" while the lid is closed?

I imagine this is possible but I believe MacBooks are configured by default to sleep when you close the lid.

 

[cliptheapex]

Your post is confusing. How are you "leaving it running" while the lid is closed?

I imagine this is possible but I believe MacBooks are configured by default to sleep when you close the lid.

Yes, I was trying to explain that I just close the lid. So it goes to sleep. But when I open it the next day it has drained around 10% battery.

 

[motrek]

Yes, I was trying to explain that I just close the lid. So it goes to sleep. But when I open it the next day it has drained around 10% battery.

Thanks for the clarification. No idea what could be going on, sorry. Does the Energy tab of Activity Monitor tell you anything interesting?

The laptop must be asleep for at least some of time because it can't stay on for 8 hours and only have 10% battery drain. That's odd.

 

[Weaselboy]

Today I lost about 10/15% battery while I was sleeping, on my new MBA 11'.
It's been like this since I got it, and I don't understand why it loses so much battery when I leave it running and closed.
I don't have anything plugged. I have dropbox running and f.lux. It shouldn't be their fault right? I also have Power Nap disabled.

Here are couple links to help trouble shoot.

http://www.cnet.com/news/troubleshooting-sleep-in-os-x/

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1776