rMBP 2014 - Issues during battery calibration

[konradsa]

When I calibrating my battery yesterday on my 2014 rMBP, I noticed a couple of issues, was wondering if they are normal:

1) When the battery was draining low, I did not get a low battery warning or anything like that. The laptop pretty much just shut off when it reached 0% (not even shut down gracefully, I just cut the power, and it had a fresh reboot when I plugged it in this morning again)

2) I was running a Flash video in Chrome to drain the last couple of percent faster. I noticed that the laptop got very sluggish, and in the Intel Power Gadget it looked like the frequency was locked to the minimum frequency. Didn't really seem like the laptop was running hot, the fans were not spinning up either, but still looks like it was being throttled. Was this caused by Flash, or by the low battery state? The CPU seemed to scale up fine again this morning after I plugged it in.

 

[Bending Pixels]

You really don't need to do this (battery calibration) with the newer (2010 and later) MBP's. Simply use it on battery power on a regular basis to "exercise" the battery. This support article from Apple notes batteries are pre-calibrated.

 

[konradsa]

You really don't need to do this (battery calibration) with the newer (2010 and later) MBP's. Simply use it on battery power on a regular basis to "exercise" the battery. This support article from Apple notes batteries are pre-calibrated.

I know, but Apple also recommend to drain the battery once a month, so I was trying to combine this with a calibration.

 

[konradsa]

Looks like the slowdown may be normal on low battery, just wondering if someone can confirm: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/61293/computer-slows-when-battery-is-low

But still surprised I didn't see a low battery warning and and automatic sleep.

 

[Bending Pixels]

Apple told you to drain the battery once a month? Was that someone at the Apple Store, or did you read it on the internet?

FWIW, when i picked up my new rMBP, I asked about battery calibration. Was told directly not to worry about it as it was no longer necessary.

 

[GGJstudios]

When I calibrating my battery yesterday on my 2014 rMBP, I noticed a couple of issues, was wondering if they are normal:

The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries in older Apple notebooks.

I know, but Apple also recommend to drain the battery once a month, so I was trying to combine this with a calibration.

That doesn't mean drain it to zero. It means use at least one cycle, which could be draining it to 50% and recharging, then doing that again, or draining to 75% and recharging 4 times, etc. See the WHAT IS A CYCLE? section in the following link.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery.

​

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

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

 

[konradsa]

The built-in batteries in the newer Mac unibody notebooks come pre-calibrated and do not require regular calibration like the removable batteries in older Apple notebooks.

That doesn't mean drain it to zero. *It means use at least one cycle, which could be draining it to 50% and recharging, then doing that again, or draining to 75% and recharging 4 times, etc. *See WHAT IS A CYCLE? section in the following link.

Run on battery whenever you need to and plug it in whenever you can. You can plug or unplug any time you need to, regardless of the charged percentage, and you never need to completely drain your battery.

​

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

Apple Notebook Battery FAQ​

That link actually explained why I didn't see the low battery warning. I disabled the menubar battery icon, since I am using MiniBatteryLogger. Looks like this icon is required to get the low charge warning.

 

[GP-SE]

Looks like the slowdown may be normal on low battery, just wondering if someone can confirm: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/61293/computer-slows-when-battery-is-low

But still surprised I didn't see a low battery warning and and automatic sleep.

it is normal, when I drained my battery very low I had the same thing happen, the computer became very sluggish. I'm assuming the CPU went into a low power state.