Horrible Battery Life on 17" uMBP with SL 10.6.4

[Repo]

Back when I was running Leopard and up until a month or two ago with Snow Leopard, my C2D MBP would get around 6 to 7 hours battery life depending on usage with the 9400M. Now I'm lucky to get 3. I noticed this recently, and haven't installed anything new or changed my usage habits, so I'm guessing it's the OS update or another software. Any suggestions or similar problems?

 

[sadcamper]

Calibrate your battery & repair permissions.

 

[Repo]

I calibrated my battery about two or three weeks ago, but it couldn't hurt to do it again. I'll repair permissions as well.

 

[Repo]

Calibrating and permission repair don't seem to have helped. Any other thoughts?

 

[bhattsan]

I'm guessing you tried PRAM reset? Was the problem there with 10.6.3?

 

[Repo]

Yes, I've tried a PRAM reset. Honestly, I can't remember if this was happening with 10.6.3, since my MBP is usually plugged in, however in the past couple months the poor battery life has become very noticeable and problematic, which is why I'm wondering if 10.6.4 is to blame.

 

[elpmas]

What are your settings when you use it? Do you have graphic intense applications? What is the health of your battery?

 

[Repo]

Early 2009 17" uMBP with SL 10.6.4

Health: 100%
Apps: Firefox, iTunes, Mail, iCal, maybe Dashboard
GPU: 9400M
Screen Brightness: 80-100%

Resulting battery life is around 3 hours until dead.