Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Extend battery life for a long flight?

L

Lvanhoff

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 31, 2008
23
0
I am about to go on a 10 hour flight. I have a macbook pro, about a year old. The battery life sucks...I get maybe 2 hours out of the battery at best. I have a spare battery as well. It also only gets about 2 hours. But I'd love to be able to work on a project for most of the flight. All I would need open is Photoshop to work on my project.

Can anyone suggest anything to extend the battery time? (short of asking someone in a better class of service on the plane if I can recharge the battery with their outlet ;-)

Thanks!
Laura
 
ok so 10 hours minus 3 for taxi, take off and landing minus 1 for eating and meal service minus 30 mins for toilet breaks, stretching legs, reading, duty free, other stuff etc is about 5.5 hours, well get a third spare battery. Make sure your screen is dim and all unnessecary processes are killed such as safari and email.
 
only a year old and such poor battery life?
how many cycles do you have on those batteries?
my year old mbp has about 200 cycles and still up to four hours, if i dim the screen and kill the wlan/bluetooth.
 
Coconut says...

Even though its been plugged in all morning it says it is only 97% charged.

Current battery capacity 77%

Battery-Loadcycles 5
Age of mac 14 months

And th charger is connected, green light, but on coconut it says charger is not connected and battery is not charging.

Hussi-I wish I could kill 4 hours with take off/landing/eating :) But I have a project I could really use the nine realistic hours to work on.
 
One minor tip is to make sure AirPort is turned off. You save a bit of battery not constantly looking for signals that aren't there. As mentioned, keep the brightness at a minimum. Also, ask the airline if there's a power option at your seat. Some airlines offer this now, and you just buy a power adapter from Apple. Though I haven't encountered any airlines that offer it on cross-country domestic flights.. even in 1st class.

In the end though, you're asking a battery powered device to do something processor intensive and power consumptive (Photoshop). The only REAL solution is to get more batteries. :(
 
Lvanhoff said:
Even though its been plugged in all morning it says it is only 97% charged.

Current battery capacity 77%

Battery-Loadcycles 5
Age of mac 14 months

And th charger is connected, green light, but on coconut it says charger is not connected and battery is not charging.

Hussi-I wish I could kill 4 hours with take off/landing/eating :) But I have a project I could really use the nine realistic hours to work on.
Click to expand...

On an international flight you wont get 9 realistic hours, maybe internal yes, anyway good luck :)
 
thanks

thanks for the tips...shall do.

Checked the airline seats...no two seats available together with plugs so, we're in the back :)

What about only having 74% battery capacity...is that just the way it goes that batteries get worn out?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back