Got my MBP last night, battery lasted 2 hours only: Advise.

[Amerabian]

Hi everyone,

I got my MacBook Pro 13.3" baseline last night.

It came fully charged I had it plugged in while I was working on it since last night.

I'm pretty worried because now I'm at work and I noticed the battery is draining too quickly.. It didn't even last 2 hours (with very low screen contrast and only browsing every now and then).

I will let it shut off by itself, recharge it fully and then unplug the power and see how much time remaining it calculates.

Could it be possible that I got a defective battery or something?

Had anyone experienced the same thing?

(I tried looking around the internet, found some similar experiences on NON-MBPs)..

Anything else besides what I mentioned I should do?

Thanks in advance.

 

[simsaladimbamba]

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Have a look at Activity Monitor (Applications / Utilities /) and select All Processes and sort by CPU to see what the culprit may be.

image below uses sorting by CPU as an example

Further reading:

Mac OS X: Reading system memory usage in Activity Monitor
Making The Most of Activity Monitor​

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This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:
Apple Notebook Battery FAQ by GGJstudios
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[Amerabian]

The highest CPU usage is by firefox = 2.2%

I scanned all the processed quickly, nothing out of the ordinary.

I know I can take it to an apple store and have the battery replaced but I'm still sruprised/annoyed that this is happening.

30 mins left 'till the battery drains.. I'll see how it goes after another full charge.

The battery thingie showed battery health = 97%

I guess only another full charge will tell if the battery is actually shot or not.

 

[Sedulous]

New battery with 97% health and a CPU load of only 2% should easily last more than two hours. Maybe the calibration is really far off?

 

[Amerabian]

I did not calibrate it since I got it last night.

5 minutes left until the machine turns off/sleeps.

I'll recharge it fully, then check how the battery operates.

I hope this solves the problem.

How much should I "really" get out of a new MBP's battery? It's advertised as 7 hours, so I'm expecting something around 6 hours..

What should I get of battery life on a new 13.3" 2011 model?

 

[kobyh15]

I have the i7 and just browsing in Firefox with a couple tabs and Mail open I can get about 7 or so. It's pretty good.

 

[Amerabian]

I have the i7 and just browsing in Firefox with a couple tabs and Mail open I can get about 7 or so. It's pretty good.

This means when I finish this charge and see the battery longevity less than 6 hours, I'm taking it to an apple store for a battery replacement.

Fingers crossed

 

[kobyh15]

This means when I finish this charge and see the battery longevity less than 6 hours, I'm taking it to an apple store for a battery replacement.

Fingers crossed

Yeah probably a good idea. I get estimates higher than 7 when I'm just reading on a website for a while or whatever. Sometimes close to 9. Obviously it's just basing its prediction on what you're doing at the time. Actual battery life with light browsing and Mail open has been 7 or so though. Hope you get it figured out!

 

[snaky69]

This means when I finish this charge and see the battery longevity less than 6 hours, I'm taking it to an apple store for a battery replacement.

Fingers crossed

What were you browsing exactly? Anything else being run? Was spotlight indexing(that would be my guess).

 

[GGJstudios]

I did not calibrate it since I got it last night.
5 minutes left until the machine turns off/sleeps.
I'll recharge it fully, then check how the battery operates.

I'm sure you know that simply running the battery down until it turns off/sleeps, then recharging it is not calibration. For the exact steps, see the CALIBRATION section of the following link. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[legreve]

How much were you really doing? How high was your brightness settings, did you have sound turned on and anything else of what the others mention?

With full brightness, sound on, maybe playing some music as you steady surf the web, maybe watch some youtube funnies, and downloading something... yes, the battery will eat fast.
I can keep mine alive in idle[/B mode with medium brightness for 7 hours, but as soon as I start using it in a normal fashion, I can get around 3-4 hours at best.

Don't take benchmark battery life as a base for how long you can keep it running. I'd say that you in general will get around 4 hours out of it... maybe a bit more if you turn things off.

 

[Amerabian]

Just an update:

- Yes, calibrating the battery as stated on apple's support page solved the issue.

To those who asked what I was doing:
Not much! I had firefox on facebook, skype online, msn online, and irc online. No calling, no video, no music. Brightness was 3 blocks, no intensive processing going on at all.

Now, after doing the calibration process..
Just as I unplugged the power cord, I got around 10 hours (of doing nothing), I think that's about right.

 

[acedickson]

Just an update:

- Yes, calibrating the battery as stated on apple's support page solved the issue.

To those who asked what I was doing:
Not much! I had firefox on facebook, skype online, msn online, and irc online. No calling, no video, no music. Brightness was 3 blocks, no intensive processing going on at all.

Now, after doing the calibration process..
Just as I unplugged the power cord, I got around 10 hours (of doing nothing), I think that's about right.

Good to hear! Hope everything continues to work out well with your battery.