MacBook Air (1.1 GHz core i5) from 2020 not lasting a full high school day - help me make it to end of school year

[eoren1]

Purchased the MacBook Air 9,1 with a 1.1 GHz core i5 processor for my daughter in 2020. She is finishing up high school this year and I would really like this MacBook Air to make it so she can move up to an m5 model once college starts. However, she has been complaining about fans spinning up and the computer not lasting a full 'day' (7:30-3:30).

I ended up doing a clean install of Sequoia and advised her to use Safari instead of Chrome. I have every battery saving option enabled in System Settings including trying constant low power mode but she still notes a dead MacBook by about 3pm.

I checked on it last night and she only had Safari (4 tabs) and Mail open but even trying to CMD-Q Safari took 30 seconds for the system to respond and finally quit the program. I had her restart the computer and it seemed a bit better after. I have checked Activity Monitor at times and not found any obvious culprits.

Anyone have advice for pushing this laptop for another 6 months of relatively light high school use?

 

[1BadManVan]

Are you waiting for the M5 air to be released or just the M5 pro? Honestly might be time to retire that device and move to the m5 pro or m4 air.

 

[Bigwaff]

Anyone have advice for pushing this laptop for another 6 months of relatively light high school use?

Download and install Coconut Battery. It should tell you the Battery Health percentage. Curious what it reports.

coconutBattery 4 - by coconut-flavour.com

With coconutBattery you are always aware of your current battery health. It shows you live information about the battery in your Mac and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad)

www.coconut-flavour.com

Also, you might consider removing the bottom case and use compressed air to blow out any dust/debris collected over time.

 

[eoren1]

Are you waiting for the M5 air to be released or just the M5 pro? Honestly might be time to retire that device and move to the m5 pro or m4 air.

Waiting on the M5 Air. She doesn't need a Pro. Can get a lot more from buying at college which would be nice and just seems like a waste to buy now when her use case is so limited

 

[eoren1]

Download and install Coconut Battery. It should tell you the Battery Health percentage. Curious what it reports.

coconutBattery 4 - by coconut-flavour.com

With coconutBattery you are always aware of your current battery health. It shows you live information about the battery in your Mac and iOS devices (iPhone, iPad)

www.coconut-flavour.com

Also, you might consider removing the bottom case and use compressed air to blow out any dust/debris collected over time.

Coconut info:
Battery health 77.2%
Full charge capacity 3,380 Mac (design capacity 4,381 Mac)
Charge cycles 528

Have it on a small power bank that states Charging with 1.0W (will try others). Bedside USB-C Apple wall plug reads as 10.0W charging speed

I think the answer for the rest of the school year is for her to bring a power bank to school

 

[Bigwaff]

Coconut info:
Battery health 77.2%
Full charge capacity 3,380 Mac (design capacity 4,381 Mac)
Charge cycles 528

Apple recommends servicing (i.e. replacing) a battery with under 80% health status.

 

[bzgnyc2]

Coconut info:
Battery health 77.2%
Full charge capacity 3,380 Mac (design capacity 4,381 Mac)
Charge cycles 528

Have it on a small power bank that states Charging with 1.0W (will try others). Bedside USB-C Apple wall plug reads as 10.0W charging speed

I think the answer for the rest of the school year is for her to bring a power bank to school

Either that or replace the battery ($160). I know it seems like a waste if you're planning to replace but maybe worth it as a bridge. It would probably boost her battery life by ~ 30% (maybe more if things aren't linear).

Also I would look at Brave over Safari on Intel-based Macs these days. Apple has been optimizing Safari for Apple Silicon for the past few years and these days I find Brave relatively more efficient on Intel.

I am assume you have screen brightness at the minimum that doesn't strain the eyes (I have the i3 version of the same and I prefer ~ 50% brightness).

Last, this part is not normal: "even trying to CMD-Q Safari took 30 seconds for the system to respond and finally quit the program." When that happens next time check Memory under Activity Monitor. If the laptop only has 8GB you might be running out which will cause the system to work harder compressing and swapping (which will use more energy.) I find this issue more frequent with the WebKit used in more recent versions of Safari. Again I find that Brave works better overall along these lines -- I don't think it starts out as low as Safari but seems to manage memory better over time.

 

[eXan]

Can she charge during the day even for a little bit?

 

[ignatius345]

I had that exact MacBook Air (my last Intel Mac, actually) and I always struggled to get anything more than maybe 5 hours battery life out of it. That processor is hot and power hungry and doesn't even perform very well. Frankly it was one of the worst Macs I've had, especially in light of the M1 that replaced it.

I would suggest either:

1. Get her an M4 Air now instead of later (the M5 is just going to be incrementally faster)
2. Find a used M1 Air now for probably like $400. It will be a huge jump in battery life and speed from the i5. Sell the i5 to recoup maybe half of that, so your net price is like $200.

 

[aliasfox]

Just pick up a USB-C power bank, maybe a 20,000 mah unit, for like $20-30. Should double her MBA’s battery capacity, or otherwise help her top up her phone during the day. Would be useful on any new laptop, too, especially if she’ll be flying with it over the next few years. I wouldn’t drop $200 on a new internal battery service from Apple at this point, nor would I bother to do it myself if the machine’s going to be retired in a few months.

As for tinkering on the device, it sounds like her Safari may have corrupted preferences. I haven’t had to do this in a while, but I remember finding and deleting the old prefs file out of the Application Support folder, and having Safari run much smoother after that (it rebuilds the file when Safari’s reopened). Anybody else who might remember the details, please chime in?

A freshly installed OS should help things a bit, but that’s obviously much more involved.

 

[IJustWannaTalk]

Need a new battery or charged during the day.

Note: it's amazing in my lifetime we've gone from laptops with 2-3 hours of charge to ones that are EXPECTED to last more than a full work day.

 

[T'hain Esh Kelch]

1. Charge during the day.
2. Get a powerbank.
3. Get a modern Mac. Those models just can't cope anymore (I have the same model, it has been retired).

 

[eoren1]

Thanks everyone!
Ordered a $45 20,000 mAh power bank
Will wait on M5 Air and her school year to start for the updated MacBook