Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Momentus XT - Huge Battery Drain?

I

ironclaw

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 17, 2010
8
0
Hi Folks,

I recently upgraded to a 500GB Momentus XT on the strength of the reviews. Really impressed but my battery life has dropped considerably I feel. As I'm tying here I had a full over night charge, in 20 minutes I've dropped to 89% (Wifi On)

Taking the Momentus Specs (Firmware SD24):

5V start max current 1.0A
Average idle power 0.8W
Average operating power 1.1W
Average seek power 2.2W

Now the original Fuji Drive (MJA2160BH)

Spin Up: 1A
Read/Write: 1.4W
Idle: 0.6W
Standby: 0.13W

All told the specs arn't that different. The idle power is slightly higher but the average "operating" / "read/write" is lower, so hence that should sort of cancel out over a battery run.

The reason it bothers me is my battery life has been halved I believe. I used get 5 ish hours out of a battery, yesterday was the first day I had to charge twice in the same day.

Other than that, really impressed with the drive. Boot time is fantastic. Noise is audible I have to say, you'd know the computer was on. Vibrations are more noticeable but nothing that bother me too much. Well worth the money!

Anyone else notice a battery drain?

ironclaw.
 
specs mean nothing
check the tomshardwareguide.com tests
they tell you a more accurate picture.
The Momentus is a true power sucker but that still only means about .5-.8W difference. Maybe 20-30 min battery life in very low usage. High load it makes no difference or it might just be better because it finishes some tasks sooner.
 
Thank you for the replies folks. I'll calibrate and see. I used get 6 hours out of the battery. I'm looking at 3 hours tops now. Seems like a very large dip :(
 
That seems unusually large and doesn't seem to be a common case. What processes are you running when on battery power? Obviously (as you probably know) certain things drain the battery quicker than others.
 
I've been running the momentus xt for a while now in my 2010 MBP. I ran firmware SD22 for a long time and that ate my battery life considerably but I honestly didn't care :)

When I upgraded to SD24 my normal everyday usage of my MBP ( ~40% screen brightness, wifi internet surfing, no adobe flash usage ) my battery life was extended by almost 2hrs. I can get about 7-8hrs usage if i'm not doing anything cpu intensive like flash or games. But i'd say average 5-6hrs.
 
copland007 said:
I've been running the momentus xt for a while now in my 2010 MBP. I ran firmware SD22 for a long time and that ate my battery life considerably but I honestly didn't care :)

When I upgraded to SD24 my normal everyday usage of my MBP ( ~40% screen brightness, wifi internet surfing, no adobe flash usage ) my battery life was extended by almost 2hrs. I can get about 7-8hrs usage if i'm not doing anything cpu intensive like flash or games. But i'd say average 5-6hrs.
Click to expand...

Agreed, the SD24 firmware increased my battery life by a decent amount. Every computer is different though.
 
Thanks again for the replies. I updated the day I got it to SD24 so I can't comment before that. Perhaps I'm over reacting. I do alot of spurts and then sleep, then more in the day, then sleep.

However today I was downloading a large file over Wifi which took 30 minutes. I went from 100% to 75%. Close to the AP so output power would have been low. No other process's running. Looking at those numbers, its about 1 hour per 25%. So all told, 4 hours.

I always run a dimmed screen so that isn't the hog. I remember when I used click the battery and get a 4 hours+ The max I've seen recently is circa 3:10.

I think I'll calibrate and see if I can see an increase.

EDIT: Can you let the computer sleep during the calibration process? I'm not sure if I'll have 10 or so hours to do the calibration without sleeping.
 
ironclaw said:
EDIT: Can you let the computer sleep during the calibration process? I'm not sure if I'll have 10 or so hours to do the calibration without sleeping.
Click to expand...
If you read the Battery FAQ link I posted, it gives you detailed steps for calibration.
 
With the computer still on, disconnect the power adapter and continue to use your computer.

Can you sleep during this phase? To get to this point I'd be looking at five hours. Charge + Two hours on the plug.

If not I'll just set it up on my desk and tell it not to sleep for the day. Let it run out.
 
ironclaw said:
With the computer still on, disconnect the power adapter and continue to use your computer.

Can you sleep during this phase? To get to this point I'd be looking at five hours. Charge + Two hours on the plug.

If not I'll just set it up on my desk and tell it not to sleep for the day. Let it run out.
Click to expand...
After 2 hours fully charged and plugged in, you unplug it and allow it to drain completely. If I understand what you're asking, yes, you can allow it to sleep until it's drained, but it would take a LOT longer than keeping it awake and using it until it depletes. It's faster if you use something like Caffeine (link in the FAQ) to force it to stay awake while it's draining.
 
GGJstudios said:
After 2 hours fully charged and plugged in, you unplug it and allow it to drain completely. If I understand what you're asking, yes, you can allow it to sleep until it's drained, but it would take a LOT longer than keeping it awake and using it until it depletes. It's faster if you use something like Caffeine (link in the FAQ) to force it to stay awake while it's draining.
Click to expand...

Cheers GGJstudios. I'll give it a go. Think I'd feel better if I let it do it in one big cycle.
 
Mamentus XT battery drain due to insomniac drive

Hi everyone,

My Momentus XT 250GB is killing my battery. The cause is rather obvious after careful observation over a couple months of ownership - the drive's platter never stops spinning (that, despite applying all f/w updates - currently on SD24). I, too, have experienced a battery life drop of gigantic proportions (-40% or more).

What's more, the drive regularly freezes for a couple seconds, during which time I must wait for whatever I'm doing to complete (be it opening a link on Safari, or any UI operation (like opening a folder), etc etc.). But that's an issue for another thread...

So, in a nutshell: The drives keeps working when I don't want it working (battery life dives vertically), and refuses to work smoothly when I want it to (jerky operation).

I have two questions:

1) Is anyone else experiencing the same CAUSE of battery depletion, or do your battery problems in relation to the MomentusXT manifest themselves in different ways?

2) Has anyone managed to find a solution yet? I have tried turning off/on the relevant power management option under Sys Prefs on OSX, to no avail.

As it stands, this is positively the worst drive I have ever used (Seagate's horrendous customer service will be the subject of another rant). I, too, purchased on the strength of the reviews, which appear to not reflect reality at all - the reality being, battery issues aside, that the drive's performance depends on how/what the drive's controller decides to keep on the NAND. The result is that some operations are faster, some aren't. Overall, not as stable/predictable as the stock 5400rpm drive! (Can't believe I'm saying this, but Apple's choice seems to provide the best balance of battery/speed/reliability than all this 'hybrid' BS...)

Thanks for reading.

All the best
 
Samalakas said:
Hi everyone,

My Momentus XT 250GB is killing my battery. The cause is rather obvious after careful observation over a couple months of ownership - the drive's platter never stops spinning (that, despite applying all f/w updates - currently on SD24). I, too, have experienced a battery life drop of gigantic proportions (-40% or more).

What's more, the drive regularly freezes for a couple seconds, during which time I must wait for whatever I'm doing to complete (be it opening a link on Safari, or any UI operation (like opening a folder), etc etc.). But that's an issue for another thread...

So, in a nutshell: The drives keeps working when I don't want it working (battery life dives vertically), and refuses to work smoothly when I want it to (jerky operation).

I have two questions:

1) Is anyone else experiencing the same CAUSE of battery depletion, or do your battery problems in relation to the MomentusXT manifest themselves in different ways?

2) Has anyone managed to find a solution yet? I have tried turning off/on the relevant power management option under Sys Prefs on OSX, to no avail.

As it stands, this is positively the worst drive I have ever used (Seagate's horrendous customer service will be the subject of another rant). I, too, purchased on the strength of the reviews, which appear to not reflect reality at all - the reality being, battery issues aside, that the drive's performance depends on how/what the drive's controller decides to keep on the NAND. The result is that some operations are faster, some aren't. Overall, not as stable/predictable as the stock 5400rpm drive! (Can't believe I'm saying this, but Apple's choice seems to provide the best balance of battery/speed/reliability than all this 'hybrid' BS...)

Thanks for reading.

All the best
Click to expand...

I bought the Seagate Momentus XT as well and applied the SD24 firmware update immediately. I thought it was working well initially. Boot up times were shorter, programs loaded up quicker...

However, the more I used it, the more I noticed that the spinning ball would come up randomly. Opening a link, opening a new tab and scrolling down a page seemed to be when stuttering would start. Then I finally watched a movie on my MBP. It stuttered several times during the movie. Then I tested it with music. Even music would stutter.

Unfortunately, by the time I figured out it was the HD, I was past the time limit set by NewEgg and I couldn't return the drive. I solved my problems by buying a Western Digital Scorpio Black. I'm using the Seagate as an external drive. Supposedly, they are working on a new firmware update that'll be out in 2-4 weeks. I read this on the Seagate forums. Maybe SD25 will solve the problems, but I doubt.
 
I have noticed the my battery life cut down some since installing the drive, but honestly it is worth it as the speed is really noticable, and I havent looked back since.
 
yep! down from about 4 hrs to about 2 and change (late 08 15"). went from SD22 to SD24. no more beachballing, but battery life now sucks big time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back