Macbook Air (Mid 2012 model) gets 3 hrs. battery life

[dubs83]

My mid 2012 Macbook air only gets 3 hours of battery life when fully charged and only using the internet. I usually only use Firefox for web surfing and don't have any programs open in the background (I do CMD + TAB and close out programs I'm not using).

Does anyone know why this is happening? I should note the laptop gets pretty warm in my lap and sometimes can hear the fan reving up. Can't figure out what program it could be or if my battery is dying.

Thanks for the help.

PS - I'm running OS X version 10.8.4. I haven't upgraded to OSX Maverick because I haven't been hearing good things about it, and can't imagine that would effect battery life.

 

[MarvinHC]

Firefox can be a battery drain, especially if you go to websites that use Flash.

How does the battery hold up when you use Safari instead?

 

[dubs83]

I'll try out safari. I should note in Activity Monitor it shows Google Drive as using 100% of CPU, thought usually fluctuates between 70-100%. Nothing else is even close to that. Can I not use Google Drive? Just seems weird. I should also note that my battery life isn't much better when simply typing in Word. Lasts maybe 4 hours on full battery. I'll shut down google drive to see if that helps, but that shouldn't drain the battery like this

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Google drive running at 100% would do it. Kill Google drive and let us know what your results are like.

 

[flowrider]

PS - I'm running OS X version 10.8.4. I haven't upgraded to OSX Maverick because I haven't been hearing good things about it.

What have you been "hearing" that's not good? I've used Mavericks on both my Mac Pro and MBA since day one with excellent results. I'm also using (toggling Back & forth) Yosemite, and with each new build, it gets better and more stable.

Unlike Windoze, upgrades to the Mac OS are not complete rewrites that throw everything away, Mac OS updates build upon the good from prior OSs and makes them better. What makes it more compelling is that Apple now doesn't charge for updates.

Note, you're not even running there latest version of Mountain Lion, 10.8.5, and I'd bet you haven't installed the latest Security Update No. 2014-004 dated 9/18/14.

Lou

 

[FuNGi]

I'll try out safari. I should note in Activity Monitor it shows Google Drive as using 100% of CPU, thought usually fluctuates between 70-100%. Nothing else is even close to that. Can I not use Google Drive? Just seems weird. I should also note that my battery life isn't much better when simply typing in Word. Lasts maybe 4 hours on full battery. I'll shut down google drive to see if that helps, but that shouldn't drain the battery like this

Update your computer and kill or let Google Drive finish indexing or whatever it's doing. Your browser choice will not have such a large impact.

I'm running 10.9.4 on my late-2010 13" MBA and regularly get 5–7 hours of battery life depending on screen brightness and wifi use.