Saw battery life sharply decline in four days of use - retina MBP

[blobkat]

So I got this retina macbook pro on Friday, and on first charge, it lasted around 6 hours on normal settings.

Now, a full charge will only bring me 3 hours of time.

I found and tried the following solutions by various sources:

- Uninstall "publish to kindle" program
- didn't use migration assistant, so don't need to delete that one corrupt plist file
- install gfxcardstatus and turn it on integrated only (I don't find this an acceptable solution, btw)
- reset SMC & PRAM

Since I got it, I:

- installed 10.8.2
- installed various other programs, like SetResX, dropbox, bettersnaptool, XCode, Steam, google chrome,...

This is what coconutBattery has to say:

Current capacity: 8361 mAh
Design capacity: 8460 mAh
99%

Mac model: MacBookPro10,1
Age: 1 weeks
Battery loadcycles: 4
Battery temperature: 30.9°C
Battery power usage: 29.0 Watt

What could the difference be? The largest change between the first day and now is that I installed 10.8.2.

Is my battery botched?

 

[GGJstudios]

So I got this retina macbook pro on Friday, and on first charge, it lasted around 6 hours on normal settings.

Now, a full charge will only bring me 3 hours of time.

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​

- reset SMC & PRAM

PRAM/NVRAM has nothing to do with battery/power/charging issues. Resetting it will not help. Only resetting the SMC addresses such issues.

Mac OS X: What's stored in PRAM
When to reset NVRAM or PRAM​

What could the difference be? The largest change between the first day and now is that I installed 10.8.2.

Delete any unwanted/unneeded apps from the following locations:

• System Preferences > Accounts > yourusername > Login Items
  (Lion and ML users: System Preferences > Users & Groups > yourusername > Login Items)
  
  
• /Library/LaunchAgents/
  (Lion and ML users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path above)
  
  
• ~/Library/LaunchAgents/
  (Lion and ML users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path above)
  
  
• /Library/StartupItems/
  (Lion and ML users: In Finder, click Go > Go to Folder > then enter the path above)

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.

 

[blobkat]

Dude, you're my hero, I always overlooked the "my processes" button.

There's a parentalcontrolsd process that continuously takes up 92% CPU.

Since the problem arose around the time I installed a parental controlled developer account, this is probably it.

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Thanks OllyW for editing my oversized images, tight ship you guys are running here.

 

[tivoboy]

which one?

So I got this retina macbook pro on Friday, and on first charge, it lasted around 6 hours on normal settings.

Now, a full charge will only bring me 3 hours of time.

I found and tried the following solutions by various sources:

- Uninstall "publish to kindle" program
- didn't use migration assistant, so don't need to delete that one corrupt plist file
- install gfxcardstatus and turn it on integrated only (I don't find this an acceptable solution, btw)
- reset SMC & PRAM

Since I got it, I:

- installed 10.8.2
- installed various other programs, like SetResX, dropbox, bettersnaptool, XCode, Steam, google chrome,...

This is what coconutBattery has to say:

Current capacity: 8361 mAh
Design capacity: 8460 mAh
99%

Mac model: MacBookPro10,1
Age: 1 weeks
Battery loadcycles: 4
Battery temperature: 30.9°C
Battery power usage: 29.0 Watt

What could the difference be? The largest change between the first day and now is that I installed 10.8.2.

Is my battery botched?

what was the corrupt plist file that needs to be deleted? I did migration assistant, wondering.