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hold on ill redo it ignore the pic below
 

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yes i have calibrated it. Ill do the other stuff after the Apple appt, do I need to back up anything in case I get it replaced? no idea how to do that but ill ask the apple guy too
 
Thanks, that screenshot is alright, but as I said before, the CPU does not seem to be the culprit, as only 16% of it are used. Thus again: SMC reset? Calibration? Did or didn't you do that, and if you did calibrate your battery, how often did you do it?
 
Thanks, that screenshot is alright, but as I said before, the CPU does not seem to be the culprit, as only 16% of it are used. Thus again: SMC reset? Calibration? Did or didn't you do that, and if you did calibrate your battery, how often did you do it?

Last time was a couple months ago, a lot before that. No to everything else, I will try those after the Apple appt if I get a replacment. Would you try getting the replacement? How do you even back up a macbook pro
 
Then the lack of calibration might be the cause of the "bad" battery life, as Apple recommends to at least calibrate on a monthly basis.

Backing up can be done via an external HDD + Time Machine, CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper.
 
I am just going to take a guess but the reason you have poor battery life is that flash player is using 13% of your CPU while it should probably be idle.
I mean if you are just viewing the activity manager and everything else in the background is idle, your CPU usage should be no higher than 1-2%.
Kill the flash plug in and calibrate your battery and you will be fine.
 
I am just going to take a guess but the reason you have poor battery life is that flash player is using 13% of your CPU while it should probably be idle.
I mean if you are just viewing the activity manager and everything else in the background is idle, your CPU usage should be no higher than 1-2%.
Kill the flash plug in and calibrate your battery and you will be fine.

I have a 2009 17" MBP and when I use it on battery, I get up to six hours of use out of it, even when the CPU is used between 10 - 20% (both cores).

17% CPU usage (both cores) should not affect battery life that much, as the Flash plugin only uses 13% of one core, so it's only 38% out of the 17% used on both cores.
 
I have a 2009 17" MBP and when I use it on battery, I get up to six hours of use out of it, even when the CPU is used between 10 - 20% (both cores).

17% CPU usage (both cores) should not affect battery life that much, as the Flash plugin only uses 13% of one core, so it's only 38% out of the 17% used on both cores.

Well this is about a 13" which does not have as big of a battery, and then at least on my 13", if the laptop is anything more than idle, the battery life indicator drops dramatically.
I have seen it with the backlight dimmed say 10+ hours, and as soon as I touched the trackpad, it would drop to 5-7.
While this is the extreme, it seems to be typical that any use of the CPU dramatically alters the battery life.

All I am saying is that the thread starter should at least try killing the flash process and see if battery life improves.
 
yes, snow leapord. If I take to Apple and set up an appt, what happens? will they give me a replacement?

Just making sure you know, they will install a replacement battery, they will not replace the entire computer. They just remove the bottom panel, remove the tri-wing screws and disconnect the battery. Then the pop in a new one. Your data should be fine. Even if the battery is removed, the data will remain on the hard drive. Once more, it sounds like you think you will be getting a replacement computer. They WILL NOT give you a new computer. They will ONLY INSTALL A NEW BATTERY.
 
Any tips to get the best out of a battery? After the initial charge should you just use it on the battery, let it drain, and charge back up again? I take it that it wears out the battery to have it on charge all the time?
 
i quit the flash player...what happens now? will i not be able to watch flash videos?
 
i quit the flash player...what happens now? will i not be able to watch flash videos?

Flash is a CPU hog and of course will kill the battery's charge. This is well documented. And maybe you should kill it now because you are diagnosing a problem. You can restart it later.
 
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