Faulty battery on new m7?

[titleistman18]

Hey everyone,

I just got a new rMB m7. I'm thoroughly impressed with the computer going from my 2013 13" rMBP. The new computer has been handling everything I've thrown at it.

However, I'm having an issue with the battery I think. Apple advertises "up to 10 hours," which I don't expect getting. But I was anticipating getting around 7 or 8 hours with light usage.

Since I've gotten it, I've had no charge last longer than 4 or 5 hours. I reset the SMC and have found no improvement. I'm doing a test cycle with half brightness only running Safari and it's estimating only a max of 6 hours.

Is this what I should expect or should I take it to Apple for a new one?

 

[cursedearth]

There might be something wrong with your battery. This what my 2015 rMB shows:

 

[Queen6]

Dropbox may be consuming a lot of CPU cycles, have a look at Activity Monitor. Ultimately something is consuming power or the battery is not reaching full charge. You can view the battery status with the System Information App or DL Coconutbattery for more detail on the batteries status.

Q-6

 

[titleistman18]

Dropbox may be consuming a lot of CPU cycles, have a look at Activity Monitor. Ultimately something is consuming power or the battery is not reaching full charge. You can view the battery status with the System Information App or DL Coconutbattery for more detail on the batteries status.

Q-6

I've been watching Dropbox, Adobe Creative Cloud and Google Drive. None of them jump above 3% CPU usage.

My percentage stuck at 83% (4:51 remaining) for about 30 minutes. Then it dropped down to 80% (5:51 remaining) for the last 15 minutes. Obviously don't want to take into account the numbers so much, but I'm confused why it's a) sticking at various percentages for such a long period of time, and b) not recalculating the time remaining each time I check the battery status.

Here's a screenshot of my battery info. Not sure what is relevant though.

 

[touchstoned]

Skylake has much higher load power consumption than Broadwell, and the M7 in your 2016 rMB clocks up to 3.1Ghz and probably draws >20W for short periods. It wouldn't surprise me at all if the 2016 M7 had substantially worse battery life under load than the 2015 rMB. Standby power consumption should be slightly better, but the lack of FIVR in Skylake means the VRMs are all on the motherboard and are much less efficient.


That said, your quoted battery life of 6 hours is way too low for a discrepancy between skylake and broadwell, so I think your battery is probably borked.

 

[Queen6]

I would give it a little time, your rMB is only on 4 battery cycles, it takes a few cycles to see the full capacity of the battery, equally be mindful of your return period. The numbers indicated in your post don't present any issue.

My own 2015 1.2 rMB battery is as follows:

• Design Capacity 5297 mAh
• Actual Capacity 4810 mAh
• load-cycles 65

From my own observations the battery capacity fluctuates between 91% - 95%. It has to be said that the rMB battery or the software is less stable than previous portable Mac`s, only time will tell if the is really the case.

Q-6

 

[titleistman18]

I would give it a little time, your rMB is only on 4 battery cycles, it takes a few cycles to see the full capacity of the battery, equally be mindful of your return period. The numbers indicated in your post don't present any issue.

My own 2015 1.2 rMB battery is as follows:

• Design Capacity 5297 mAh
• Actual Capacity 4810 mAh
• load-cycles 65

From my own observations the battery capacity fluctuates between 91% - 95%. It has to be said that the rMB battery or the software is less stable than previous portable Mac`s, only time will tell if the is really the case.

Q-6

Thanks for the thoughts here.

I took it into Apple. Diagnostics indicated the hardware passed, but in the time we were talking, the battery experienced a 10% drop in one change. They recommended exchanging it. However, since it's a custom build and they had none in stock, they're allowing me to continue using the old one until the new one comes in.

Hopefully the new one takes care of it!

 

[boast]

That's good!

One thing I would of done is to create a new account, reboot and then log into that new account and web surf like normal (don't log into iCloud or anything, just use Safari) and see if the issue persists.

 

[titleistman18]

That's good!

One thing I would of done is to create a new account, reboot and then log into that new account and web surf like normal (don't log into iCloud or anything, just use Safari) and see if the issue persists.

Thanks! This was a good idea. I tried that as well and now showing even worse (not sure how that's possible!).

 

[titleistman18]

Also, thought this represents the problem. 99% charge, 35 minutes until full!? Can't wait for my replacement...

 

[ocrane]

Hey everyone,

I just got a new rMB m7. I'm thoroughly impressed with the computer going from my 2013 13" rMBP. The new computer has been handling everything I've thrown at it.

However, I'm having an issue with the battery I think. Apple advertises "up to 10 hours," which I don't expect getting. But I was anticipating getting around 7 or 8 hours with light usage.

Since I've gotten it, I've had no charge last longer than 4 or 5 hours. I reset the SMC and have found no improvement. I'm doing a test cycle with half brightness only running Safari and it's estimating only a max of 6 hours.

Is this what I should expect or should I take it to Apple for a new one?

Mine took about a week or so to "break in" before it was accurately reporting the battery stats

 

[Picapau21]

After 10 charge cycles mine is reporting 97% battery heath which seems incorrect. I'll keep an eye on it to see it drops any further. Wondering if its is a misread by the software rather than an actual battery issue.

 

[titleistman18]

After 10 charge cycles mine is reporting 97% battery heath which seems incorrect. I'll keep an eye on it to see it drops any further. Wondering if its is a misread by the software rather than an actual battery issue.

Yup! Apple Genius told me that they've heard indications that OSX is not correctly reading the battery.

Given the news, I decided to return my rMB and wait until the rMBP.

 

[Picapau21]

Yup! Apple Genius told me that they've heard indications that OSX is not correctly reading the battery.

Given the news, I decided to return my rMB and wait until the rMBP.

Interesting.

I've decided to keep the rMB largely because it ticks all the boxes I need in a laptop. I don't need more power or a larger screen so wouldn't really gain any benefit from waiting for the new MBP's. I have apple care for the next 3 years so if there are issues with the battery I will get them to replace it.