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If macbook retina gets too hot, can it damage the battery ?

A

anonymous4a

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Aug 6, 2012
471
3
hey guys, my macbook retina battery has been getting average battery life until today. I just checked it and the calculated time remaining is 50% less than what it usually shows.

I have been running the macbook pretty hot in bootcamp windows 7 when playing games, could that have damaged the battery? Cocunut battery says 100% capacity though, my battery looks perfect in the app.

But calculated time remaining has dropped 50% in both mac osx and windows 7 bootcamp. I've heard of reseting pram and vram.. would that do anything ?
 
anonymous4a said:
hey guys, my macbook retina battery has been getting average battery life until today. I just checked it and the calculated time remaining is 50% less than what it usually shows.
Click to expand...
From the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link:
  • Your "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.
Click to expand...
anonymous4a said:
I've heard of reseting pram and vram.. would that do anything ?
Click to expand...
PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do with battery/power/charging issues. Resetting it will not help.
This should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions:
 
anonymous4a said:
yeah, so my time remaining at the same percentage from yesterday compared to today has dropped 50 %.. like my windows 7 partition used to show around 4 hours on full charge, but now it shows around 2 hours
Click to expand...
It's likely due to something placing higher than usual demands on your system.
  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).
  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.
 
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can battery on macbook retina get damaged if running too hot windows 7

my battery life estimated time remaining has dropped 50 % on mac os and windows 7 bootcamp on macbook retina. For instance, on windows 7 on a full charge, it would show me around 4 hours remaining, now it shows me 2 hours remaining.

I've been gaming on windows 7 a lot these past 2 days and the macbook runs pretty hot, like the keys on the keyboard get uncomfortably hot.. Could that have damaged the battery ?

( when I run cocunut battery on mac os and istat , it says my battery is at maximum capacity though )
 
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here are the pictures
 

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anonymous4a said:
sorry
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There's nothing in those screen shots that indicate high demands on system resources, at least at the time of the screen shots. Check again at a time when you see the estimated time drop significantly. There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the Battery FAQ for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.
 
If macbook retina gets too hot, can it damage the battery ?

my macbook retina gets really hot when running windows 7 and gaming, the left side of the keyboard especially gets uncomfortably hot, could it have damaged the battery ?

I ask because I'm seeing 50 % drop in estimated battery life for both Mac os x and windows 7. For instance, Windows used to give me a reading of 4 hours estimated life on a full charge, now it only says about 2 hours. Same as os x.

So just from gaming on a mac, bootcamp windows 7, could it have damaged the battery ?

( cocunut and istat read that the battery holds its original maximum capacity though )
 
No, it cannot damage the battery. Your Mac will shut down if it truly overheats. Relax and enjoy your Mac.
 
No, your Mac will manage heat by itself and shut down to prevent any damage to its own components. There is a heat sensor specifically for the battery.

The heat and estimated battery time go down for the same reason: your computer is under heavy load, yet one is not directly linked to the other. "Correlation does not imply causation."
 
the macbook retina gets hot only when I'm running bootcamp windows 7 and not in os x. Does it still shut down if gets too hot in Windows 7 ?
 
anonymous4a said:
the macbook retina gets hot only when I'm running bootcamp windows 7 and not in os x. Does it still turn if gets too hot in Windows 7 ?
Click to expand...
Yes, the shutdown protection is in the Intel chip, not the OS. You don't need to start 3 threads on the same question and it's against forum rules.
 
I'm asking specifically if macbook retina battery can get damaged if its running too hot, I'm really puzzled why the battery would show such a sharp drop in time remaining if its not damaged and like i've shown you, there's no high demands on system resources
 
anonymous4a said:
I'm asking specifically if macbook retina battery can get damaged if its running too hot, I'm really puzzled why the battery would show such a sharp drop in time remaining if its not damaged and like i've shown you, there's no high demands on system resources
Click to expand...

Your battery is not damaged and will not get too hot, as your Mac will shut down before temps could cause damage. Time remaining is not accurate. Reboot your Mac and stop worrying.
 
Until today, my os x used to show 10 hours estimated time remaining on a full charge, now it shows 5 hours on full charge . These times are when I have nothing running

My bootcamp Windows used to show 4 hours estimated time remaining on full charge, now it shows 2


So if not the battery, than what ?

I've rebooted, tried smc reset, pram and nvram reset
 
anonymous4a said:
I'm asking specifically if macbook retina battery can get damaged if its running too hot, I'm really puzzled why the battery would show such a sharp drop in time remaining if its not damaged and like i've shown you, there's no high demands on system resources
Click to expand...

Windows under Boot Camp is known to give a much lower battery life than OS X to begin with. If you are gaming, you most likely are using a lot of resources too.

The time remaining is just an estimation, it basically tells you the time you can still use your Mac considering you would keep the same load as currently. If you suddenly change the load at which your Mac is at, the remaining time will change drastically because it will do a new prevision according to the current load.

For example, a Mac displaying 4h left and suddenly displaying 2h left does not mean you just emptied half of your battery, it just means you are using twice as much battery power as you used to.

If you want to know the actual drain your computer has depending on the task you do, you'd be better looking at the battery percentage and how fast it goes down. Some utilities like iStat Menus also give you how much power (in Watts) you currently use.
 
ok, forgot to mention, I go to task manager/ activity monitor and close apps that are running, the times I'm giving are when I have no apps running, I realize that if I have some app running, than the time remaining would change accordingly, is there any app that would tell you if your battery is damaged ?
 
Anything that uses the discrete graphics card will drain the battery almost faster than it can charge. If you're gaming, or have any program open that requires its use, you better be plugged in if you want more than 45 minutes of up time.
 
For very extended periods of time, heat will reduce any battery capacity faster than normal. The cooler the battery runs the better life it will have, but it's not like 10 hours of constant gaming will destroy it or anything.

If you were getting 10 hours estimation before, then you must have had brightness on very low or wifi turned off. Are the newer estimates at the same brightness/wifi & bluetooth status?
 
my settings were and still are 40 % brightness, gfxcardstatus app integrated graphics only, notifications off, bluetooth off but wifi on.

ah, I've been gaming for 6 hours straight on a/c and it stays hot all the time.. is there anyway to check if it did damage the battery ?
 
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anonymous4a said:
my settings were and still are 40 % brightness, gfxcardstatus app integrated graphics only, notifications off, bluetooth off but wifi on.

ah , I might have gamed for 10 hours straight on a/c and the laptop was really hot all the time...is there anyway to actually check if it did damage the battery ?
Click to expand...
Your battery is not damaged.

Read the CHECKING STATUS AND HEALTH section of the following link. This should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions:
 
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