Extremely Slow when battery is 0%-1%

[alco933]

I am using a MacBook Pro for work and have never used one before. It's really nice but one major quirk it seems to have is that I will set it to standby on Friday afternoon and then I start it again on Monday it will sometimes be completely drained and sometimes it will have about 50-70% battery left. I'm not understanding the wide disparity of remaining charge times for the exact same periods of time every week.

Also , on the times it goes down to 0% , it is unusable , even when plugged in, until it gets up to about 2-4% and is very slow. I can't even log in if it is 0% battery when plugged in.
It seems like it is always operating on battery even if it is plugged in.

I would expect that when you plug something in , it should run like a normal laptop would.

Are these things typical?

 

[joe-h2o]

No, there is something wrong if those are typical results.

Reset the SMC and see if it improves the behaviour.

If it is running flat over the weekend then then computer is waking up for some reason and not returning to sleep until the battery drops right down.

The system should force the machine to sleep at well above 0% charge, so if it is not doing that then you need to investigate. Does it have any third party kernel extensions installed?

 

[alco933]

No, there is something wrong if those are typical results.

Reset the SMC and see if it improves the behaviour.

If it is running flat over the weekend then then computer is waking up for some reason and not returning to sleep until the battery drops right down.

The system should force the machine to sleep at well above 0% charge, so if it is not doing that then you need to investigate. Does it have any third party kernel extensions installed?

Thanks for the quick reply.
But not understanding "SMC" as a new MAC user. Preferences or something?
Same for "kernel extensions installed". Applications?

 

[JohnDS]

Reset SMC: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295
[doublepost=1456753581][/doublepost]Also in your system prefs under Energy Saver, under Battery, check "put hard drives to sleep when possible" and uncheck "power nap".

 

[alco933]

Reset SMC: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/HT201295
[doublepost=1456753581][/doublepost]Also in your system prefs under Energy Saver, under Battery, check "put hard drives to sleep when possible" and uncheck "power nap".

Already had those set that way.

 

[aimbdd]

The computer being slow while at 0-1 % is normal. The computer is self throttling as to not over draw the computer. The charger doesn't provide enough energy to run the computer at 100% load which is why it doesn't return to normal even while plugged in until it's up to 2%. It needs a buffer. So the battery doesn't run out and the computer turn off.

 

[Udi]

aimbdd is correct, this is normal behaviour.

Furthermore, draining the battery to below 10% (particularly 0-1%) isn't good practice on any modern Lithium battery. Doing this regularly will permanently reduce the battery capacity over time, Lithium Polymer chemistry prefers to be in the 20-80% charge range for maximum longevity. This is also the reason Apple recommend that the charge level is set at 50% for long term storage - it's no coincidence that this is the median value of aforementioned range.

So if you care about maximising battery life, it's a good idea to avoid draining completely flat unless absolutely necessary - and in doing so you'll avoid your issue also.

 

[Ovedius]

The computer being slow while at 0-1 % is normal. The computer is self throttling as to not over draw the computer. The charger doesn't provide enough energy to run the computer at 100% load which is why it doesn't return to normal even while plugged in until it's up to 2%. It needs a buffer. So the battery doesn't run out and the computer turn off.

I always assumed it was a combination of throttling av backuping important system stuff so that you could resume where you left off once you power it up again.
Of course, I know absolutely ZILTCH about these things so I just do what I always do; draw ignorant, half-assed conclusions.

 

[ralphgmr]

The computer being slow while at 0-1 % is normal. The computer is self throttling as to not over draw the computer. The charger doesn't provide enough energy to run the computer at 100% load which is why it doesn't return to normal even while plugged in until it's up to 2%. It needs a buffer. So the battery doesn't run out and the computer turn off.

Is there anyway of turning this off somehow?

The battery from my Macbook Air from 2011 stopped working altogether. I brought to a service shop and technician told me, there is a problem with the motherboard as well, so the new battery he tried won't charge. So to fix the whole thing he told me would cost me around 300$ (new motherboard + new battery). It's simply not worth it. If I can't turn this slowdown thing off I'm gonna throw the laptop in the trash bin, because there is no way of using it being this slow.

 

[SurfaceBookUser]

Is there anyway of turning this off somehow?

The battery from my Macbook Air from 2011 stopped working altogether. I brought to a service shop and technician told me, there is a problem with the motherboard as well, so the new battery he tried won't charge. So to fix the whole thing he told me would cost me around 300$ (new motherboard + new battery). It's simply not worth it. If I can't turn this slowdown thing off I'm gonna throw the laptop in the trash bin, because there is no way of using it being this slow.

I'm not sure, it doesn't seem to be trivial. I believe the feature is called SpeedStep if you wanted to research how to disable it.