MBP Late 2011 13" - battery drains completely after overnight in sleep mode

[snowydog]

Hi everyone

I only got my mbp back in October - its my first apple laptop so I'm still learning...

I leave my battery in sleep mode overnight and come back in the morning and it won't turn on cos my battery has drained completely.

I used to leave my windows laptop in hibernate mode and it didn't really drain the battery....but sleep mode does with my MBP

I left it on sleep last night and had planned taking it to uni this morning but now I can't cos it needs charged - it was on 1% when I plugged the charger in!

Could it be because I left it hooked up to the external monitor, or maybe because I left my wireless mouse (microsoft one) in?

Bit worried as I know this should be happening....

On another note - I slept in late today - uni starts at 11.15am and my eyes are still opening here and it's 10.30am ...eek!! - I have a 20min drive to get there

 

[miles01110]

Could it be because I left it hooked up to the external monitor, or maybe because I left my wireless mouse (microsoft one) in?

If it's either one of those it's probably the mouse.

 

[GGJstudios]

I leave my battery in sleep mode overnight and come back in the morning and it won't turn on cos my battery has drained completely.

Why not leave it plugged in overnight, so it won't drain the battery at all? You should always have it plugged in if you're using an external display.

You may find some useful ideas here:

Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode
Determine why your Mac wakes up from sleep
One sleep problem caused by printers - solved

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[hawk1410]

Why not leave it plugged in overnight, so it won't drain the battery at all? You should always have it plugged in if you're using an external display.

You may find some useful ideas here:

Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode
Determine why your Mac wakes up from sleep
One sleep problem caused by printers - solved

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Doesn't leaving your Mac plugged in affect charge cycles?

 

[GGJstudios]

Doesn't leaving you Mac plugged in affect charge cycles?

You can leave it plugged in overnight, so it's fully charged when you need it. Just don't leave it plugged in all the time, as batteries need to be used to stay healthy. Also, see the WHAT IS A CYCLE? section of the Battery FAQ I posted.

 

[iforbes]

But none of these suggestions answer the basic question...should the battery drain overnight when in sleep mode?

 

[snowydog]

If it's either one of those it's probably the mouse.

I'll try leaving it in sleep mode later on today without the mouse plugged in and see if there's a noticeable difference - I'm hoping it's just this instead of a battery problem

Why not leave it plugged in overnight, so it won't drain the battery at all? You should always have it plugged in if you're using an external display.

You may find some useful ideas here:

Mac OS X: Why your Mac might not sleep or stay in sleep mode
Determine why your Mac wakes up from sleep
One sleep problem caused by printers - solved

This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions:

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Thanks for these! I'll get reading on them. I don't like to leave it on charge because I get worried about ruining my battery. My old laptop had this problem - although it was windows ... left it on charge most of the time and eventually the battery was ruined and I could only use the laptop while on charge, otherwise it would drain after 10mins of use. Obviously I'm new to the Mac so not sure if that happens the same way but I imagined it could have so it's kind of put me off leaving it in - even overnight.

I had put it in sleep so I didn't need to charge overnight and that's why I thought I'd have enough battery for class today - cos when I put it in sleep, it was in the 90%'s.....so I assumed it would be ok, though it's happened before but I thought I had done it properly this time.

I'll read over the links you sent me - will be useful for managing my battery from now on.

I gotta find out if it is the mouse or monitor draining the battery...probably the mouse.

What about the wireless keyboard? should I be turning it off properly every time I finish using it? I read that it goes off when the laptop goes off?

I feel like a bit of an idiot with all these simple questions but I gotta ask

 

[barredfreak]

It's alright. Everyone was once a new user.

You should unplug any external displays/hardware from your Mac before closing the lid, because your Mac may search for these devices regularly, causing the battery to be used up.

I find that if you remove all your external devices from your Mac, you should wake up to find the battery in the same percentage/losing 3-4% overnight.

Hope this helps.

 

[GuitarG20]

But none of these suggestions answer the basic question...should the battery drain overnight when in sleep mode?

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A406 Safari/7534.48.3)

No

correct. However, if the computer went out of sleep mode for whatever reason (aka a device you left plugged in turned it back on) then it makes sense that it would be drained, depending on how long you left it.

It's alright. Everyone was once a new user.

You should unplug any external displays/hardware from your Mac before closing the lid, because your Mac may search for these devices regularly, causing the battery to be used up.

I find that if you remove all your external devices from your Mac, you should wake up to find the battery in the same percentage/losing 3-4% overnight.

Hope this helps.

I think what the poster meant by this is that external devices plugged in can turn the computer back on from sleep mode, thus giving you the same battery usage as when the computer is running, since it is running.

 

[GGJstudios]

But none of these suggestions answer the basic question...should the battery drain overnight when in sleep mode?

Yes, they do. The first links I posted addressed the fact that the Mac likely did not remain in sleep mode the whole time. If it had been in sleep mode the whole time, it could not have drained the battery.

I'll try leaving it in sleep mode later on today without the mouse plugged in and see if there's a noticeable difference - I'm hoping it's just this instead of a battery problem

It's not a battery problem.

I don't like to leave it on charge because I get worried about ruining my battery.

As long as you don't leave it plugged in for weeks at a time without ever running on battery, it won't ruin your battery.

I gotta find out if it is the mouse or monitor draining the battery...probably the mouse.

Your mouse won't drain your battery. It can, however, cause your Mac to wake up or not sleep, which will mean your Mac drains the battery faster than if it was in sleep mode. Just plug in your Mac overnight. It really isn't a problem.

What about the wireless keyboard? should I be turning it off properly every time I finish using it? I read that it goes off when the laptop goes off?

If you're talking about the Apple Wireless Keyboard, you don't need to turn it off. It powers down when it's not in use.

Apple - Apple Wireless Keyboard - Explore the cable-free, incredibly thin keyboard.

And its intelligent power management system conserves battery life. So when you’re not using it, the keyboard automatically powers down. The instant you start typing, your keyboard turns on.

 

[thundersteele]

Ok, to summarize:

a) for the future, just leave the laptop plugged in over night. It does not harm the battery.

b) to check if there is a problem with sleep mode, disconnect the mouse + screen before putting it to sleep.

 

[calvol]

Just shut it down at night. There's a constant load on the battery in sleep mode, which adds to your cycle-count. Booting back up only takes 15-20secs (with SnowL).

 

[wineandcarbs]

Disconnect the mouse and monitor when you put it in sleep mode to see if one of these are causing it.

The battery shouldn't drain overnight in sleep mode. My early-2011 MBP is usually left in sleep mode and unplugged overnight (I'll put it on the charger if the battery is low but if the battery is fairly charged I don't bother), and when I wake up the battery is not dead.