Well, sloppily designed firmware for charging the battery could speed up degradation. E.g., firmware tells the battery to charge for two minutes followed by a discharge for 30 seconds the entire time the notebook is plugged in. That could certainly degrade the battery. And while the issue itself could be fixed through software, the long-lasting hardware damage cannot.
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Tests Find OS X Mountain Lion May Significantly Degrade Notebook Battery Life
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Well, sloppily designed firmware for charging the battery could speed up degradation. E.g., firmware tells the battery to charge for two minutes followed by a discharge for 30 seconds the entire time the notebook is plugged in. That could certainly degrade the battery. And while the issue itself could be fixed through software, the long-lasting hardware damage cannot.
No issues but I am using gfxCardStatus to force integrated graphics at all times. I don't trust Apple's automatic switching algorithm.
I donated too, IMO that program is the "missing off switch" Apple should have included in the preferences.
I've experienced slow ... wait... no, not experienced any slowdowns in gfx, running the retina display at 1680px.
My only battery related issues have to do with runaway programs and processes. I catch them quickly thanks to iPulse but there has been a number of them since ML. Sometimes there's misbehaving programs that eat 6% CPU even when hidden and in the background. Sometimes system processes inexplicably freak out - Finder, SystemUIService or whatever, Safari, etc. Sometimes Dropbox freaks, though that's usually only temporary at least.
I wish there were some very detailed controls over anything that's in the background because most of the time I want those programs to basically be frozen and not do anything.
Example just now: iPhoto. It's in a different space, not visible, and not importing or exporting or otherwise doing anything, but it eats 1.5% CPU. Not much but if a few programs do it then the CPU won't enter certain sleep states and use way more battery.
I donated too, IMO that program is the "missing off switch" Apple should have included in the preferences.
I've experienced slow ... wait... no, not experienced any slowdowns in gfx, running the retina display at 1680px.
My only battery related issues have to do with runaway programs and processes. I catch them quickly thanks to iPulse but there has been a number of them since ML. Sometimes there's misbehaving programs that eat 6% CPU even when hidden and in the background. Sometimes system processes inexplicably freak out - Finder, SystemUIService or whatever, Safari, etc. Sometimes Dropbox freaks, though that's usually only temporary at least.
I wish there were some very detailed controls over anything that's in the background because most of the time I want those programs to basically be frozen and not do anything.
Example just now: iPhoto. It's in a different space, not visible, and not importing or exporting or otherwise doing anything, but it eats 1.5% CPU. Not much but if a few programs do it then the CPU won't enter certain sleep states and use way more battery.
Agreed, with an extreme mistake like that, yes, the battery could be damaged. But even in that example, it would not immediately show anything close to a 30% performance loss, it would show over time.
However, just my opinion that the kind of bug that would slip through would much more likely be something that just wasn't putting something to sleep when it should've been, or not duty-cycling something properly, etc... some piece of firmware that is related to power-savings that has a bug, as opposed to a royal screw-up related to direct battery manipulation.
Bottom line is that it's most likely a firmware issue, that can be addressed easily with a firmware fix, and not cause any long-lasting issues.
poor battery life with new OS Mountain Liion
Battery life was negatively affected when Lion (10.7) was released. I have experienced it even with new battery.
Huge number of emails on the Apple support site, this past year mentioning 3-4 hour battery life and then only with lowering illumination and turning off other features. Some felt the issue related to dual graphic card settings in MBPros.
Whatever, problem never addressed.So, if there is now a reported issue with Mountain Lion , this is not a new issue. Maybe now it it will be addressed.
Battery life was negatively affected when Lion (10.7) was released. I have experienced it even with new battery.
Huge number of emails on the Apple support site, this past year mentioning 3-4 hour battery life and then only with lowering illumination and turning off other features. Some felt the issue related to dual graphic card settings in MBPros.
Whatever, problem never addressed.So, if there is now a reported issue with Mountain Lion , this is not a new issue. Maybe now it it will be addressed.
My wife has a MacBook Pro 13 (2.4Ghz Dual Core - 2010).
And since upgrading to Mountain Lion, it feels like the battery life has been sliced in half.
We can literally see it degrading before our eyes and we're only checking mail!
Hoping for a firmware fix soon
And since upgrading to Mountain Lion, it feels like the battery life has been sliced in half.
We can literally see it degrading before our eyes and we're only checking mail!
Hoping for a firmware fix soon
Even when brand new my 2010 macbook pro never got close to the advertised battery life, and since upgrading from SL to ML my battery life has at worst stayed the same, if not increased!
Interesting. Has anyone tried turning Wi-Fi off too? If the problem still happens with PN and Wi-Fi off, then it might even be a firmware problem. (In the SMC or some other component???)
I've been following this re: battery life
it is growing daily,
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135250?start=0&tstart=0
it is growing daily,
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4135250?start=0&tstart=0
This is kinda weird. I've had experiences with three MacBook Pros upgrading to Mountain Lion and two of them had a dropped battery life while the other's skyrocketed.
The first was my own - a 13", mid '09 model. Its battery life went from reasonable for its age to nothing short of catastrophic for a Mac - two hours seems average now - upon installing the final Developer's Preview of ML. The second, my new laptop, a 15" rMBP. Before ML it was getting a steady 7 hours, and now it's gone far above that, delivering around 8-9 or even 10 hours with light use, completely opposite to the complaints of poor battery life. And the third, a friend's 15" 2010 model (if memory serves) which, while not being completely trashed, has had around two hours shaved off. So from my experience I can't say that it's an issue with much rhyme or reason behind it... very, very confusing given that all three machines were upgraded, not clean installed. I might do a clean install on the 13" MBP as an experiment to see if that fixes anything.
The first was my own - a 13", mid '09 model. Its battery life went from reasonable for its age to nothing short of catastrophic for a Mac - two hours seems average now - upon installing the final Developer's Preview of ML. The second, my new laptop, a 15" rMBP. Before ML it was getting a steady 7 hours, and now it's gone far above that, delivering around 8-9 or even 10 hours with light use, completely opposite to the complaints of poor battery life. And the third, a friend's 15" 2010 model (if memory serves) which, while not being completely trashed, has had around two hours shaved off. So from my experience I can't say that it's an issue with much rhyme or reason behind it... very, very confusing given that all three machines were upgraded, not clean installed. I might do a clean install on the 13" MBP as an experiment to see if that fixes anything.
After the upgrade my mid 2012 MBA cannot even reach 6 hours , before the upgrade I can reach 7 hours easily.
Normal browsing and email replying for the usage.
Normal browsing and email replying for the usage.
let me know what happens
playsontheleft, post here, if you will' the results of your clean install on 13" macpro..that is what I was intending to do. I was going to try it on a new ssd leaving my original hd intact ... but now there is mention of irreparable damage to hardware via ML's modification to the MacBook pro's firmware, does that sound at all plausible? I'm getting over my head
playsontheleft, post here, if you will' the results of your clean install on 13" macpro..that is what I was intending to do. I was going to try it on a new ssd leaving my original hd intact ... but now there is mention of irreparable damage to hardware via ML's modification to the MacBook pro's firmware, does that sound at all plausible? I'm getting over my head
From that thread - this helped me:
http://jonathansblog.co.uk/how-i-fixed-my-mountain-lion-battery-issues-on-a-macbook-air-2012
I had done some earlier desktop issues fix, but once again lost all my desktop images, and once again had Dock consume about 1% CPU at all times.
From the link: apply this fix:
open terminal
Code:
$ rm ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
$ killall DockI think all of this might be related to Dock issues. I found the following problems, seemingly unrelated:
- Trackpad gestures didn't really work, erratic behavior
- Desktop wallpapers didn't work, then reset to different images at some point without me doing anything.
Googled both issues, and for both a "killall Dock" is part of the fix. Let's hope they'll fix this in 10.8.1.
i am trying out that comment , and settle for the default wall paper want to find out if it really saves up battery this time around.
Sad to say after 6 hours of using the MBA there is still no change after issuing the Kill command.
I have to agree with you this is not the solution for this problem.
I have to agree with you this is not the solution for this problem.
Definitely Seen on My 2012 MBA 11"
For some odd reason the fans kick in hard under normal usage and my battery life is seriously degraded. There's nothing in activity monitor that would suggest heavy CPU usage. I hope this gets fixed ASAP. Between this and the piss-poor Bootcamp drivers for Windows where the i7 doesn't get turboboost (and the i5 does), it's been a bit of a pain lately.
For some odd reason the fans kick in hard under normal usage and my battery life is seriously degraded. There's nothing in activity monitor that would suggest heavy CPU usage. I hope this gets fixed ASAP. Between this and the piss-poor Bootcamp drivers for Windows where the i7 doesn't get turboboost (and the i5 does), it's been a bit of a pain lately.
This happened to me one time. The computer was just sitting there and all of the sudden it started to get warm to the touch, then the fans kicked up to 3000rpm for a few minutes, then everything went back to normal. With no programs running. Luckily it hasn't happened again.
well that's not good. i normally have my macbooks plugged in, but when i do decide to go mobile i hope my battery lasts. hopefully a fix will be out soon
I recently (2 days ago) purchased my very first macbook and after the second charge the battery life has dropped from more than 6 hours to less than four!
If they correct this issue will the battery life increase again or will be like this for most of the time? Do you think they will correct it soon?
Sorry for the questions but I have never dealed with apple or its products before...
If they correct this issue will the battery life increase again or will be like this for most of the time? Do you think they will correct it soon?
Sorry for the questions but I have never dealed with apple or its products before...
Would the lower battery life have something to do with the poorer memory management? My computer never swapped before this upgrade and now it's swapping 500mb within an hour of using ML.
Ok I am having lots of little issues with ML - nothing I can put my finger on. Performance issues on the trackpad, and processes using too much CPU.
I have a hunch it has to do with migrating my old system in combination with sandboxing in ML though. I might try a clean install. It's about time anyway, I've migrated this system since 2005... I was digging through the console and I did find a lot of cruft, unused files / apps causing errors and so on.
I have a hunch it has to do with migrating my old system in combination with sandboxing in ML though. I might try a clean install. It's about time anyway, I've migrated this system since 2005... I was digging through the console and I did find a lot of cruft, unused files / apps causing errors and so on.
No, I have 16Gb of RAM and see no swapping at all, yet my battery-life has still just about halved.