My Macbook Air has really bad battery life - worried..

[kanzaz]

Hi,

I've realised by Macbook Air seems to have pretty poor battery performance. Initially, I thought I had probably just been using the laptop more than I perceived. However, I've noticed the battery is just regularly draining quickly....

Right now the battery is at 81% and only has 2 h 53 remaining, and I've only really got safari open...I really hope this isn't a manufacturing defect, as I go to University next week and my laptop is critical to my studies.

I've downloaded Coconut Battery and there are some slight anomalies.

The maximum charge is 6472/6700 mAh - not sure if this is normal or not.

It also says I've had 26 battery load cycles...although I've only had the laptop for just under 3 weeks.

I noticed my fan would also run quite heavily at times (It isn't now) so I did some sort of reset I saw on a site - holding down ****, ctrl, and option after shut down and then pressing the power button. The CPU region also seems to heat up very quickly, specifically the top left of the laptop just around the escape key. At the moment the CPU is around 76-78 degrees celsius. I'm not sure but this seems slightly high.

I'm slightly worried that my AIr is faulty...please help.

Heres my current Activity monitor..

Many Thanks,

kanzaz

 

[GGJstudios]

There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[kanzaz]

There are many factors that impact your battery life. See the BATTERY LIFE FROM A CHARGE section of the following link for details, including tips on how to maximize your battery life.

The link below should answer most, if not all, of your battery/charging questions. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend you take the time to read it.

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

Thanks for the quick reply. The thing is Apple quote around 7 hours and I'm doing nothing intensive and screen brightness is low, but battery seems to drop so quickly. Something seems slightly odd...

 

[GGJstudios]

Thanks for the quick reply. The thing is Apple quote around 7 hours and I'm doing nothing intensive and screen brightness is low, but battery seems to drop so quickly. Something seems slightly odd...

Read the section on battery life (including the first sentence) and follow the suggestions.

 

[kanzaz]

Read the section on battery life (including the first sentence) and follow the suggestions.

I did read it before posting.

But the thing is my 17 inch massive Dell can do 2-3 hours of battery life while web browsing. If an ultra portable is unable to do this, don't you think something may be wrong?

This coupled with the heat issue has me worried.

I mean Apple say far more, and for them to give a figure that wide of the ball mark would be pretty poor.

 

[jbzcar]

Hi,

I've realised by Macbook Air seems to have pretty poor battery performance. Initially, I thought I had probably just been using the laptop more than I perceived. However, I've noticed the battery is just regularly draining quickly....

Right now the battery is at 81% and only has 2 h 53 remaining, and I've only really got safari open...I really hope this isn't a manufacturing defect, as I go to University next week and my laptop is critical to my studies.

I've downloaded Coconut Battery and there are some slight anomalies.

The maximum charge is 6472/6700 mAh - not sure if this is normal or not.

It also says I've had 26 battery load cycles...although I've only had the laptop for just under 3 weeks.

I noticed my fan would also run quite heavily at times (It isn't now) so I did some sort of reset I saw on a site - holding down ****, ctrl, and option after shut down and then pressing the power button. The CPU region also seems to heat up very quickly, specifically the top left of the laptop just around the escape key. At the moment the CPU is around 76-78 degrees celsius. I'm not sure but this seems slightly high.

I'm slightly worried that my AIr is faulty...please help.

Heres my current Activity monitor..

Many Thanks,

kanzaz

78 degrees C seems freakishly warm for not doing anything processor intensive. My idle is about ~54 C and I can run Handbrake full bore on my Air and not break much higher than ~80 C.

 

[kanzaz]

78 degrees C seems freakishly warm for not doing anything processor intensive. My idle is about ~54 C and I can run Handbrake full bore on my Air and not break much higher than ~80 C.

Its 77 celsius right now, and all I'm doing is browsing the web. Looking at some of the battery life people are getting with their airs (in the 10.8.2 battery life thread) I think they may be something wrong...help please.

 

[mully1121]

If you're near an Apple Store take it in (or call tech support). They're really the only ones who can fix it (if the machine is defective).

 

[JonLa]

Actually have you confirmed - run it flat in those 3 hours that this is true? I'm not doubting you, but my battery on my 2010 Air is constantly recalculating - I can be on 90% and it says 3 hrs, then look again and its says 5, depending on what I'm doing. It may well be that after 3 hours of web browsing and working you still have another 2 left, for example....

 

[twintin]

I mean Apple say far more, and for them to give a figure that wide of the ball mark would be pretty poor.

My screen is at full brightness right now and after around 2h of light use I have 67% left with remaining showing 3:30.

In your case I have noticed that a process named WindowsServer uses 28% of the CPU, which does not seem normal and may explain your temperature and short battery life. Not sure what may cause this.

 

[GGJstudios]

But the thing is my 17 inch massive Dell can do 2-3 hours of battery life while web browsing. If an ultra portable is unable to do this, don't you think something may be wrong?

This coupled with the heat issue has me worried.

Even with only web browsing, if you're on sites with Flash content, your temps are not abnormal, nor is your battery life. Flash is notorious for consuming system resources, raising temps and decreasing battery life. For Flash-related issues:

• Find your Flash version and make sure it's the latest version available. Never install or update Flash from a pop-up on a website. Always go to Adobe's site to get Flash or updates.
• Install ClickToFlash (Safari), Flashblock (Firefox) or FlashBlock (Chrome) to control which Flash content plays on websites.
• Try using the YouTube HTML5 Video Player to watch YouTube videos, when available. (May impact fullscreen viewing. See link for details.) Some have reported better performance with HTML5, while some have reported worse. Try it and find out what works best for you.

follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
   (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

 

[tiwizard]

follow every step of the following instructions precisely. Do not skip any steps.

1. Launch Activity Monitor
2. Change "My Processes" at the top to "All Processes"
3. Click on the "% CPU" column heading once or twice, so the arrow points downward (highest values on top).
   (If that column isn't visible, right-click on the column headings and check it, NOT "CPU Time")
4. Click on the System Memory tab at the bottom.
5. Take a screen shot of the entire Activity Monitor window, then scroll down to see the rest of the list, take another screen shot
6. Post your screenshots.

He already did that.

 

[GGJstudios]

He already did that.

He didn't follow all those steps, as the System Memory tab is not visible. Also, the mix of processes changes constantly and a new screen shot may reveal something that isn't in the first shot.

 

[tiwizard]

He didn't follow all those steps, as the System Memory tab is not visible. Also, the mix of processes changes constantly and a new screen shot may reveal something that isn't in the first shot.

Judging by the "Real Mem" column, he is not maxing out his RAM. And even if he was, RAM usage is not a likely culprit for a significant decrease in battery life in a brand new Macbook Air.

And sure, the list will fluctuate, but a new 13 inch Macbook Air with battery life like that should have an obvious, consistent CPU hog if it were in fact a program on the computer causing it. Unless, of course, he chose to take the screenshot at the perfect moment where its CPU usage decreases to an insignificant number.

 

[GGJstudios]

Judging by the "Real Mem" column, he is not maxing out his RAM. And even if he was, RAM usage is not a likely culprit for a significant decrease in battery life in a brand new Macbook Air.

The Real Mem column only shows current memory usage. It doesn't show if there has been paging activity prior to the screen shot. Significant paging activity could, indeed, account for a decrease in battery life.

a new 13 inch Macbook Air with battery life like that should have an obvious, consistent CPU hog if it were in fact a program on the computer causing it.

Also not necessarily true. The purpose of getting screen shots is to work with facts, not conjecture. If you don't want to see other screen shots, don't look at them, but it doesn't make sense to try to dissuade the OP from providing information that could be helpful in troubleshooting.