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Fed up with this battery life.

B

bradFace

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 22, 2013
9
0
Hi Guys,

I brought the Macbook air 2013 when it came out earlier this year. OS x leopard was amazing with battery life on the laptop. Was getting nearly 12+ hrs with an i7.

Since i updated my Air to Mavericks on the day it was released. Battery has been awful...I wouldn't be bothered if i was getting around 9-10 hrs but I'm not. My battery drains with nothing running. At the moment my battery says 2.50hrs on 78%! This is dropping fast.

I've done disk repair and reinstalled... Don't have a clue what to do now?

Any ideas?

Very tempted to revert back to Leopard... :(
 
bradFace said:
Hi Guys,

I brought the Macbook air 2013 when it came out earlier this year. OS x leopard was amazing with battery life on the laptop. Was getting nearly 12+ hrs with an i7.

Since i updated my Air to Mavericks on the day it was released. Battery has been awful...I wouldn't be bothered if i was getting around 9-10 hrs but I'm not. My battery drains with nothing running. At the moment my battery says 2.50hrs on 78%! This is dropping fast.

I've done disk repair and reinstalled... Don't have a clue what to do now?

Any ideas?

Very tempted to revert back to Leopard... :(
Click to expand...

97% and 20.00hrs mine says i have iTunes open and safari 1 tab.....i done a upgrade there at the weekend, was an update not a clean install, i can't think why yours is not performing how it should......id be angry too.....My update is amazing the laptop is so much better then it was on the last XOS
 
bradFace said:
Hi Guys,

I brought the Macbook air 2013 when it came out earlier this year. OS x leopard was amazing with battery life on the laptop. Was getting nearly 12+ hrs with an i7.

Since i updated my Air to Mavericks on the day it was released. Battery has been awful...I wouldn't be bothered if i was getting around 9-10 hrs but I'm not. My battery drains with nothing running.
Click to expand...
Only when your computer is off or sleeping is there nothing running. The rest of the time, there are always many processes running, some of which may be contributing to your poor battery life.

Follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.
  1. Launch Activity Monitor
  2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
  3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top). (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
  4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
  5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
  6. Post your screenshots.

Also, the "time remaining" indication is an ever-changing estimate, based on the current workload of your system. It will fluctuate up and down from minute to minute as your power demands change. It is not perfectly accurate, but only an estimate. The only true measure of battery life is how long you can operate from a full charge until your Mac sleeps or shuts down due to the battery being drained.

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.
 
I had a similar issue with my MBA 2013 11". I found that Google Chrome is not battery friendly with Mavericks. If you click on your battery icon, it will show apps using an excessive amount of CPU. Google Chrome was using 47%.

Like others said, when I'm using Safari and Spotify and have a few finder windows open, I show around 10 plus hours on full charge, which is better for me than pre-mavericks.
 
Thanks for the replies ! I will have a look into that sometime soon ^^

Yeah I don't use Google Chrome that much anymore, usually Safari.

:)
 
Unfortunately, you can't just drive wo knowing how some function of the engine works.

I bet you will find your answer in the Activity Monitor.
 
Not sure if you did this, but doing an SMC reset resolved the issue for me on my 2013 MBA as well as my bfs 2012 MBA.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
  3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time. (I had to hold these down for more then 10 seconds for it to work. The magsafe light flickered colours when I released the keys)
  4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
  5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.
  6. Note: The LED on the MagSafe power adapter may change states or temporarily turn off when you reset the SMC.

Now I'm back to 13-14 hours on a full charge. (i5) However, I did notice that firefox uses more power than safari, especially when viewing youtube.
 
bradFace said:
Hi Guys,

I brought the Macbook air 2013 when it came out earlier this year. OS x leopard was amazing with battery life on the laptop. Was getting nearly 12+ hrs with an i7.

Since i updated my Air to Mavericks on the day it was released. Battery has been awful...I wouldn't be bothered if i was getting around 9-10 hrs but I'm not. My battery drains with nothing running. At the moment my battery says 2.50hrs on 78%! This is dropping fast.

I've done disk repair and reinstalled... Don't have a clue what to do now?

Any ideas?

Very tempted to revert back to Leopard... :(
Click to expand...

How did a 2013 MBA come pre-installed with Leopard? :confused:

Since you still have the 1 year AppleCare I'd say take it in if SMC Reset doesn't sort it out.
 
GGJstudios said:
Also, the "time remaining" indication is an ever-changing estimate, based on the current workload of your system. It will fluctuate up and down from minute to minute as your power demands change.
Click to expand...

I can attest to that. After a full charge my Mid-13 MBA Ultimate was showing 20h. Within 15-20 minutes of medium use that estimate went down to 9.xh with a 90-ish% rating. I find the % to be a more accurate measure than the time indicator.
 
DisplacedMic said:
that's a good point - the 2013 airs came w/ ML
Click to expand...

Hahaha thats funny, just made myself laugh! I meant to say Mountain lion haha not leopard.. what a plonker!

I've performed a SMC reset many times lol no difference !

Will do the activity log soon just got back from work so when i have time i will post it.
 
bradFace said:
Hahaha thats funny, just made myself laugh! I meant to say Mountain lion haha not leopard.. what a plonker!

I've performed a SMC reset many times lol no difference !

Will do the activity log soon just got back from work so when i have time i will post it.
Click to expand...

apple store time
 
DisplacedMic said:
apple store time
Click to expand...

I agree.

I've been running my computer 24/7 for the last several weeks allowing a game to run in it's own window. Nearly everyday I take my Air/ w i7 to work and open it immediately to get the game running asap. I'm easily getting 10+ hours everyday with battery to spare.

My usage is pretty light. In addition to the running game I'm using Safari and Mail all day and some other occasional apps. Usually right at 50% brightness. Which with the 2013 is very bright. Close to 75% on my 2010 and 2011.
 
fabiovirgi7 said:
Seriously? All of them?
Click to expand...

no, some of them came with snow cougar.

----------
Jefe's MacAir said:
I agree.

I've been running my computer 24/7 for the last several weeks allowing a game to run in it's own window. Nearly everyday I take my Air/ w i7 to work and open it immediately to get the game running asap. I'm easily getting 10+ hours everyday with battery to spare.

My usage is pretty light. In addition to the running game I'm using Safari and Mail all day and some other occasional apps. Usually right at 50% brightness. Which with the 2013 is very bright. Close to 75% on my 2010 and 2011.
Click to expand...

my 11 gets 5-6. although i just came home, made myself some dinner, sat down and opened my laptop and it's at 3%
DOH!

/first world problems
 
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