MacBook Pro 13 inch 2009 model, battery drains quickly

[sophie8]

I am sorry, but here again a question about battery life.

I bought my Macbook Pro 13 inch last year in August. The health is on 88% with 84 cycles. Original battery capacity 5450 maH, current battery capacity 4809 mAH (Coconut and Istat Nano). I just read in another thread that there are users who have higher health capacity with many more cycles!

I took it to the Mac store in Bangkok two weeks ago since I believe that my battery drains quickly. They run a test and told me that my battery is healthy. Then they also downloaded some updates for my Mac and run disk repair under disk utility. The technician told me that these are heavy programs and if they battery drains very quickly there is something wrong. But according to him this was not the case. I have a 500 gb hdd and the technician said that since this is a big hdd (he reccommanded 320 gb maximum for 13 inch macbookpro), it will use more battery usage.

I don't use heavy programs, only internet (Facebook, gmail, very seldom watch movies, watch news papers), Itunes and sometimes Word. I do a lot of photo processing, but this I always do with my adaptor plugged in. I think I can only use around 3 hours. Sometimes 4 hours. Screen around 80% brightness. Keyboard lights, blue tooth turned off. Do you think that there is a problem with my battery? Oh and I do calibrate my laptop monthly.

Thanks a lot!

 

[GGJstudios]

It doesn't sound like there's anything wrong with your battery, other than the fact that your health is lower than would be expected with your number of cycles. Try turning your screen brightness down to 50% instead of 80% and see how it goes. Also, be sure to run on battery (not plugged in) for a few hours every 2-3 days, to keep the electrons moving. Also, make sure you're following the proper steps for calibrating.

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

 

[Mac-key]

I got my 13 inch MBP last August as well. And here is where my battery health and cycles sit.

Real world performance - I get probably 4:30 hours MAX with brightness set a couple notches above the lowest setting.

So even though your health is lower than mine - if you are getting 4 hours out of your battery then I think that's about right on par.