MBP 7hr battery lie?

[deadkennedy]

I'd appreciate if this Flash vs Apple BS would be taken out of this thread until I solve my problem with battery life. I've used Flash in browsers since 1998 and never had any performance issues. If this is to happen now with the computer that's 400% more expensive than the previous most expensive I had, than I'm happy to take this rubbish back to the shop.

Anyway, running now on 60% brightness, one Flash banner on Mac Rumors and after one hour I have 75%. I'll run for one more hour and see if it comes to 50% or less.

 

[deadkennedy]

Here's a very good post written by GGJstudios so have a good read and follow some of the guidelines contained in the post, links and in your user manuals before having a go at Apple.

The OP has not mentioned what any of his MBP's settings are, his activities, whether all guidelines have been followed eg. calibration etc. Without sounding harsh, without the information it is difficult to say whether you have a duff battery or not and makes it difficult for some of us to empathise if the whole picture hasn't been painted.

I tried to explain as much as possible. For example now I'm doing only browsing with 8 tabs opened in Chrome, maybe few Flash banners here and there. I'm also copying files around in Finder and occasionally doing something in Terminal. My CPU usage is 2.5 - 5%, it changes, and Chrome doesn't take more than 2%. Display is on around 60% brightness. I have the most powerful MBP I could get, upgraded to 8GB RAM, 7200 rpm, bigger screen res.

Thanks

 

[bigjobby]

Do you know what graphics is on? If not download gfxCardStatus and run your MBP on Intel only (if you don't need to use nVidia). Chrome apparently has a tendency to switch to nVidia when it doesn't necessarily need it. Plenty of threads on this already. I don't use chrome so can't comment.

Also, have you done your battery calibration? This is more than highly recommended.

Knock down the display brightness if its feasible.

Hope this helps (a bit).

 

[runebinder]

Try turning your brightness down OP, I have mine set at about 4 notches, bluetooth off, wireless on and the back lit KB turned off. With that I get just over 7 hours doing web browsing and using office apps.

Also someone asked you before but didn't notice an answer, have you calibrated it properly? And what does Coconut battery say?

 

[deadkennedy]

I'll calibrate the battery and see what happens. Frankly, if I can achieve over 4hr maybe 4.5, I'd be happy. Anyway I don't need it at home but when on the plane or something it's good to know I can have my laptop useful for most of the duration of the long flights.

 

[runebinder]

I'll calibrate the battery and see what happens. Frankly, if I can achieve over 4hr maybe 4.5, I'd be happy. Anyway I don't need it at home but when on the plane or something it's good to know I can have my laptop useful for most of the duration of the long flights.

Definitely calibrate it before kicking up a stink at the store, I definitely saw improvements after calibrating mine.

 

[MetalPhreak]

Try something like iStat menus (http://bjango.com/apps/istatmenus/) that puts a CPU Usage icon in the top right corner. That way you can see if something is constantly using your CPU.

I left a paused video in Safari running in the background and it was constantly using 10-15%. Not sure whether it was flash/html5. I noticed the cpu usage icon and it said safari, so I checked and closed the video window. Time remaining on battery went up by an hour