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Post your Macbook battery time

twoodcc

twoodcc

macrumors P6
Original poster
Feb 3, 2005
15,307
26
Right side of wrong
i think my macbook's battery isn't normal.

i usually run on 2 bars of brightness, and i never get even 4 hours of life, and Apple said i'd get 6 hours.

my 15" powerbook got better than this.

what is everyone else getting?

i'm usually only doing one or 2 things, like surfing or word
 
I get three hours on average while mainly surfing using a wireless connection. This is with a brand new battery that I just received from Apple after my previous one went bad.
 
According to Apple, you need to meet strict conditions in order to get the 6 hours. Even then I doubt anybody can reach 6 hours. I'd love to post mines but I'm still charging. :eek:
 
scott523 said:
According to Apple, you need to meet strict conditions in order to get the 6 hours. Even then I doubt anybody can reach 6 hours. I'd love to post mines but I'm still charging. :eek:
Click to expand...

well, even my laptop just sitting there, it still says less than 5 hours. and what's the point if you can't do anything?
 
twoodcc said:
i think my macbook's battery isn't normal.

i usually run on 2 bars of brightness, and i never get even 4 hours of life, and Apple said i'd get 6 hours.

my 15" powerbook got better than this.

what is everyone else getting?

i'm usually only doing one or 2 things, like surfing or word
Click to expand...

Turning off bluetooth and airport might help you get a little more time, if you're not using them. I typically get between 3 and 4 hours doing pretty light weight stuff (Mail, Word, Firefox, Adium, VPN) with the brightness at about half.
 
PSUchris said:
Turning off bluetooth and airport might help you get a little more time, if you're not using them. I typically get between 3 and 4 hours doing pretty light weight stuff (Mail, Word, Firefox, Adium, VPN) with the brightness at about half.
Click to expand...

dang. i have bluetooth turned off, but i usually have to use wireless for internet. i'm assuming you do as well?
 
How long have you had the computer? My MBP was only getting a couple of hours on its first few days, but it manages nearly 4 hours now after 1 1/2 weeks' use.
 
I made 2 tests. The first was with Firefox on, wireless off --- the battery time was 7:16 (this could be over-rated but the previous number was 7:26). Second was with Firefox on, wireless on --- the battery time was 4:99. So yea... the only way to get 6 hours is to make a clean boot, full battery, then doing some word processing. Any wireless or other applications would likely pull it down below 6 hours. :(

I also haven't mentioned to you that I have a super-charged battery for no apparent reason:
 

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My 2 year old 15" PowerBook gets around 2 1/2 hours from the battery when web surfing with wireless.
The engery saving is switched to Longest Battery Life, and Reduced Processor. The screen brightness is set to one maybe 2 bars.

I have gained an extra 15 minutes or so since I changed the HD.
 
I'm mainly using just wireless at the moment with the screen brightness on it's lowest, and I get 3-4 hours, depending on how often I go into standby between lectures...
 

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Hmm, well my Macbook is still pretty new (less than a week old) but I'm getting around 5 hours with wireless and bluetooth on all the time. I did follow the Apple doc on battery calibration though.

I unplugged the power about 5 min ago and right now it says 5:21 remaining.

Macbook C2D 2.0GHz, 2GB, 160GB
 
I usually have Air Port and Bluetooth off, and I see numbers that jump around all over the place, even after draining my battery down to zero. My solution is simply to show the battery icon instead of the time remaining. The time remaining constantly gets adjusted based on what you're doing, so it can go from 4:00 to 3:40 during the course of 1 minute, for example.

Regardless, I've been seeing between 3 and 4.5 hours of battery time.
 
I get up to about 4 hours, TBH it's a lot better than PC laptops which seem to get about 1.5 to 2 hours, remember the 6 hours is with the computer not doing anything and the backlight off ;).

I find having airport/bluetooth off makes virtually no difference so I leave them on.
 
I actually got the advertised 6 hours when we drove to Nashville, with screen on one, wi-fi on, bluetooth on-and-off periodically.
 
I get ~3 1/2 hours with full screen brightness and wireless, while doing loads of things at once (inc Dreamweaver & Photoshop).
 
Real unhealthy or what!?!?!

Check this out!!
Happened from one day to the other - drop to almost 50% of capacity. What could cause this? Already tried re-calibrating - but it makes no difference! I think it might have happened while I was installing Windoze, does this make sense? Anyway, should I call apple and ask for a new battery? Only had this macine for about a month,,,:mad:


attachmentid=63973&stc=1&d=1166006482
 

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Yah Airport and Bluetooth need to be off to get good battery times. On my MBP I get over four hours with brightness down to one and airport and bluetooth off. Remember an MBP requires more power than an MB as well.

ZballZ said:
Check this out!!
Happened from one day to the other - drop to almost 50% of capacity. What could cause this? Already tried re-calibrating - but it makes no difference! I think it might have happened while I was installing Windoze, does this make sense? Anyway, should I call apple and ask for a new battery? Only had this macine for about a month,,,:mad:


attachmentid=63973&stc=1&d=1166006482
Click to expand...

Umm sometimes Coconut Battery messes up huge! So give it a little while. Mine one dy went from 98% to 70% and then it went back up to like 97-98%. If it doesn't go back in a few days call apple. And sometimes batteries make mistakes as well when calculating time left and how much capacity you have left.
 
Not MB, but still...

I felt left out. Perhaps you can use this for comparison. It's from the G4 PB in my signature. I get at least 3.5 hours using Office with Airport/BT turned off.

It's good enough for me.

David
 

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aaron.lee2006 said:
Umm sometimes Coconut Battery messes up huge! So give it a little while. Mine one dy went from 98% to 70% and then it went back up to like 97-98%. If it doesn't go back in a few days call apple. And sometimes batteries make mistakes as well when calculating time left and how much capacity you have left.
Click to expand...

yeah I guess it could be coconutbattery that messes up. But OSX also say (when its on 100%) that I have max 2 hours of use. (before it said 3-3.5 hours). So it does seem like there is less voltage in the battery....:confused: :mad:
 
I know it said mackbook but my MBP gets around 3 hours with 2 bars less from full brightness when doing light macrumors surfing... i love the battery life on mine. Got a 2 and half hour movie in once with a half an hour left of life after wards.
 
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