Brand new MBA13" (early2014) battery drain?

[qwdudeqw]

hey y'all, so I just got a new MBA13" (early 2014 version; Yosemite 10.10) and it seems like the battery is going faster than the advertised 12h. All I've got is 2 Safari tabs, and one PDF open in preview, but after only 2 hours i'm already down to 70% (estimated 6h remaining)...I got off apple support yesterday and they told me to do a SMC reset to resync the battery monitor, but no luck.

In terms of stats, Activity Monitor tells me Im only using 2% of total CPU, and the biggest thing I'm running is 2 tabs in Safari...

Is anyone else having this issue? Solutions? Since I still have warranty, do you guys think I should return this one and get a new one in hopes of better battery...

 

[motrek]

hey y'all, so I just got a new MBA13" (early 2014 version; Yosemite 10.10) and it seems like the battery is going faster than the advertised 12h. All I've got is 2 Safari tabs, and one PDF open in preview, but after only 2 hours i'm already down to 70% (estimated 6h remaining)...I got off apple support yesterday and they told me to do a SMC reset to resync the battery monitor, but no luck.

In terms of stats, Activity Monitor tells me Im only using 2% of total CPU, and the biggest thing I'm running is 2 tabs in Safari...

Is anyone else having this issue? Solutions? Since I still have warranty, do you guys think I should return this one and get a new one in hopes of better battery...

Do you have anything plugged in via USB?

Screen brightness?

When did you get the machine? I would use it for a few days and see what the actual battery life is vs. software predictions.

 

[26139]

Okay...

Have you actually run the battery all the way down and timed it?

 

[qwdudeqw]

Thanks for your response!! I'm currently in the process of running it down so I'll update later haha...I do have a USB flash drive in (but ejected it)...but can that thing really suck up that many hoursnof energy?

 

[motrek]

Thanks for your response!! I'm currently in the process of running it down so I'll update later haha...I do have a USB flash drive in (but ejected it)...but can that thing really suck up that many hoursnof energy?

Probably not but if you were running an external hard drive or charging an iPhone then that could easily cut your battery life in half.

BTW -- please download the Battery Health app and see how much capacity it's reporting vs. original capacity. That will tell you if something is wrong with the battery vs. software using all your power.

 

[qwdudeqw]

Probably not but if you were running an external hard drive or charging an iPhone then that could easily cut your battery life in half.

BTW -- please download the Battery Health app and see how much capacity it's reporting vs. original capacity. That will tell you if something is wrong with the battery vs. software using all your power.

Attached is the report for my battery - everything seems to be normal. Nothing energy intense in my CPU either...Very odd. And note how the battery monitor is giving me such low-ball hours. As of now, I've used it for about 4.5h on the battery.

 

[motrek]

Attached is the report for my battery - everything seems to be normal. Nothing energy intense in my CPU either...Very odd. And note how the battery monitor is giving me such low-ball hours. As of now, I've used it for about 4.5h on the battery.

I don't see an attachment.

 

[qwdudeqw]

I don't see an attachment.

Apologies! Here you go Edited prev post

 

[johannnn]

You've used it 4,5h and have 52% left? That sounds perfectly fine.

USB drives and flash are two frequent battery killers in my experience.

 

[motrek]

You've used it 4,5h and have 52% left? That sounds perfectly fine.

USB drives and flash are two frequent battery killers in my experience.

Yeah, Apple's advertised battery life of 12 hours is for "web browsing." Turning your screen brightness up or doing something a little more CPU intensive could easily turn 12 hours into 9.

 

[qwdudeqw]

Yeah, Apple's advertised battery life of 12 hours is for "web browsing." Turning your screen brightness up or doing something a little more CPU intensive could easily turn 12 hours into 9.

Now, another thing to note would be that I'm leaving in a USB 3.0 (but ejected)...would that significantly affect battery life? Not sure if that makes a diff at all.

 

[GGJstudios]

Now, another thing to note would be that I'm leaving in a USB 3.0 (but ejected)...would that significantly affect battery life? Not sure if that makes a diff at all.

Yes, it could. If you don't need it, unplug it to maximize battery life. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

​

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[motrek]

Now, another thing to note would be that I'm leaving in a USB 3.0 (but ejected)...would that significantly affect battery life? Not sure if that makes a diff at all.

A USB 3 what? Flash drive? Hard drive?

Depending on the make and model, an external hard drive might keep spinning even after being "ejected" and that would be an enormous power drain.

Otherwise you're talking about keeping some controller chips powered, probably in some kind of idle state. That takes a non-zero amount of power but probably not very significant either. After all, a lot of power running through a USB device would overheat and fry the chips.

 

[joshlalonde]

Oh, make sure to turn off bluetooth! That's not included in the 12 hour estimate

Don't worry, I get the 12 hour estimated battery even when I'm not web browsing, or at least It doesn't run out before I need it to. It always has like 20% left before I plug it in.

Besides, think about other "all-day battery life" promising devices like Surface Pro 3 which only offer 9 hours browsing.

I've played Minecraft (fairly intensive, gets the fans running loud, hot) on battery before and by the time I realized, it had been 2 hours and there was still 6 hours remaining estimated.

Don't worry about battery, just enjoy your MacBook.