Holy Crappy Battery Batman!

[marine610610]

If you buy a new battery, and it falls below 80% in less than a year will Apple replace it? I have Applecare for my 2.16 C2D MBP, and the current battery is starting to show its age, i was just wondering how Apple treats replacement batteries.

 

[zer0tails]

The CPU time for Spaces and Safari seem high. On my MBP using just Safari ( assuming that I don't have any flash pages open) the total CPU utilization is around 5-10%.

The way speedstep works on the C2D, The CPU changes speed and voltage depending on utilization. Even with only 35% utilization, your machine may be ramping up to a higher core speed, cutting down battery life. When on battery do you have the power settings for max battery life? This will enable more aggressive throttling.

I use a iStats (freeware) to add a CPU usage graph to my menu bar. If I see CPU time consistently over 25% I check it to see what's 'wrong'.

More RAM does take slightly more power, but it's very very little. Overall battery life would be decreased by a few minutes at most.

err404: appreciate the advice, keep it coming.

Yes, I have istats, and according to it, my cpu usage ranges from 26-31%. How would I check to see what's wrong here?

Not sure if this is applicable, but when plugged into power adapter, I run my energy saver preferences on the better performance mode.

What do you mean by this: "When on battery do you have the power settings for max battery life? This will enable more aggressive throttling. " ???

thanks

 

[cawesjmu]

I think batteries are covered...

Batteries are only covered for 1 year after purchase even if you have Apple Care.

I have an original MBP coreduo 2.0 ghz. I had my battery replaced about 2 months ago (~20 months after purchase). I had about 150 cycles on the battery and it had close to 50% health. I have apple care and the Apple Genius replaced it no questions asked. I said, hey, my battery is sucking, he looked at my iStat widget, and he said yeah, we'll get you a new one. Went to the back, got a fresh battery and I walked out. Maybe I got lucky, but my experience tells me batteries ARE covered under Apple care. Anybody have any documentation to prove I just got lucky?

 

[err404]

Maybe I got lucky, but my experience tells me batteries ARE covered under Apple care. Anybody have any documentation to prove I just got lucky?

Apple may be scared of battery explosions. They have gone through a recall program recently and that seems to have lead to a very generous attitude on replacements, even on unaffected parts. However, strictly speaking, it's one year.

 

[err404]

err404: appreciate the advice, keep it coming.

Yes, I have istats, and according to it, my cpu usage ranges from 26-31%. How would I check to see what's wrong here?

Not sure if this is applicable, but when plugged into power adapter, I run my energy saver preferences on the better performance mode.

What do you mean by this: "When on battery do you have the power settings for max battery life? This will enable more aggressive throttling. " ???

thanks

Bring up energy saver preferences and change the "Settings for:" to "Battery" then change "Optimization" to "Better Battery Life".
I'm not sure if this affect the FBS throttling or not, but it may help some.

If you are feeling adventurous, try downloading Coolbook. Don't bother registering it. This will show you your actual CPU speed. Mine is almost always 1002Mhz unless I am under load.

Your problem ultimately your CPU load. You had mentioned Spaces taking ~15%? I'm not sure what this is. The OSX Spaces function does not run under a separate process.

 

[MacLadybug]

If you buy a new battery, and it falls below 80% in less than a year will Apple replace it? I have Applecare for my 2.16 C2D MBP, and the current battery is starting to show its age, i was just wondering how Apple treats replacement batteries.

My experience is that they replace it. I had 2 free replacements between December and May. Just call Apple support and document that you are having trouble. They will make it right. Keep track of your case numbers for each phone call.