MacBook Air 11" 2013 battery drain issue

[tf108]

Hello MR members,

I got myself a MBA 11" 2013 last year during August which was running ML 10.8.5 and months ago, I upgraded it to Mavericks 10.9.

Before that, the battery could last for 8-9 hours on moderate-heavy usage (surfing the web with Chrome up to >10 tabs, watching videos on YT, etc) on ML. After the upgrade to Mavericks, the battery went ******* and could only last for up to 3 hours tops.

It was really bad, but I couldn't find the time to downgrade therefore I had to bear with it for around 2 months. 3 weeks ago, I had some time therefore I downgraded it to ML using Internet Recovery. However, battery improved significantly but was still terrible (say 4 hours on moderate usage). I thought upgrading to Mavericks again might solve it, but it didn't. I then downgraded it back to ML for the 2nd time, but still no change.

3 days ago, I sent it to my local authorized Apple Service Centre and the tech personnel found no problem with it. They told me that the hardware check shows that the battery is performing normal and there was no problem at all, with the Battery Indicator stating ~11 hours @ 90% charge. He told me Chrome was a battery hog, but I never had such problems on ML. However, when I'm using it now, the battery has depleted 20% over the course of 30 minutes with 4:47 hours remaining on 64%.

Any ways to resolve this issue?

 

[Dweez]

I'd get a second opinion, either at another Apple store or an authorized Apple repair depot.

How many cycles on your battery, and how do you cycle / condition the battery?

 

[tf108]

I'd get a second opinion, either at another Apple store or an authorized Apple repair depot.

How many cycles on your battery, and how do you cycle / condition the battery?

I'm not really sure if there is an Apple store in Singapore, all of them are resellers in Singapore. The service centre I visited was what Apple recommended, it was the only option.

The technician mentioned that he had escalated the issue to Apple but they rejected a battery replacement.

Currently 115 cycles on my battery. Usually, I try to use it to <20% and recharge to full. I might try a SMC/PRAM reset but I doubt it does any good.. Sigh

 

[Gav2k]

I get exactly the same with the current build of chrome. Safari gives the quoted figures tho.

 

[tf108]

I get exactly the same with the current build of chrome. Safari gives the quoted figures tho.

Are you running ML or Mavericks?

What do you mean by your sentence above?

 

[Gav2k]

Are you running ML or Mavericks?

What do you mean by your sentence above?

Ok I have a late 2013 11" MBA so I'm running mavericks.

Basically I have found the latest build of chrome to be worst than the last when it comes to battery life. Chrome has always been a resource hog but in this build it seems to take it to a new level.

What I ment was if I do the same tasks using safari my quotes and actual battery usage figures are around apples estimates.

 

[tf108]

Any help guys?

I just clean installed ML once again (sigh). I used the battery to 15% and recharged it up to 100% and leaving the charger attached for extra 6 hours.

coconutBattery shows my maximum charge at 93.4% @ 4763. That's ridiculous for 116 loadcycles. I remember getting 101-105% @ 30 load cycles.

 

[BrickbookPro]

I had the same issue. SMC and PRAM reset fixed it!

Hello MR members,

I got myself a MBA 11" 2013 last year during August which was running ML 10.8.5 and months ago, I upgraded it to Mavericks 10.9.

Before that, the battery could last for 8-9 hours on moderate-heavy usage (surfing the web with Chrome up to >10 tabs, watching videos on YT, etc) on ML. After the upgrade to Mavericks, the battery went ******* and could only last for up to 3 hours tops.

It was really bad, but I couldn't find the time to downgrade therefore I had to bear with it for around 2 months. 3 weeks ago, I had some time therefore I downgraded it to ML using Internet Recovery. However, battery improved significantly but was still terrible (say 4 hours on moderate usage). I thought upgrading to Mavericks again might solve it, but it didn't. I then downgraded it back to ML for the 2nd time, but still no change.

3 days ago, I sent it to my local authorized Apple Service Centre and the tech personnel found no problem with it. They told me that the hardware check shows that the battery is performing normal and there was no problem at all, with the Battery Indicator stating ~11 hours @ 90% charge. He told me Chrome was a battery hog, but I never had such problems on ML. However, when I'm using it now, the battery has depleted 20% over the course of 30 minutes with 4:47 hours remaining on 64%.

Any ways to resolve this issue?