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uMBP Late 2008 - really short battery life?

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poematik14

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 29, 2009
63
0
So I have a late 2008 model uMBP that I bought refurb from the Apple Store in July. (Great deal) Anyway, I am only getting 2:10 hours of battery life, on average, when it isint plugged in. And that is with the wifi off, bluetooth off, no applications except for microsoft word, (taking notes in class)

Is this normal? I thought the 2008 models are getting 5.5 hours with "wireless productivty" too!

Should I get a new battery?
 
poematik14 said:
So I have a late 2008 model uMBP that I bought refurb from the Apple Store in July. (Great deal) Anyway, I am only getting 2:10 hours of battery life, on average, when it isint plugged in. And that is with the wifi off, bluetooth off, no applications except for microsoft word, (taking notes in class)

Is this normal? I thought the 2008 models are getting 5.5 hours with "wireless productivty" too!

Should I get a new battery?
Click to expand...

definitely not normal. i can get a lot more than that from my early 2008 "Penryn" 15'' MBP. If you have SL, it's able to tell you the battery condition if you hold option + click the battery icon. Get a widget or program like coconut battery and see how many charge cycles your battery has.
 
coconuat battery tells me that my battery is fine and theres nothing wrong with it, I have 16 cycles and full mAH charge.

The SL battery condition tells me it is normal as well.

How do i calibrate the battery?
 
Ok I am doing the calibration process. I fully charged it and it wants me to let it drain till it dies, leave it dead for 5 hours and then turn it back on and charge it.

Honestly if this persists Im just gonna throw the thing on craigslist and get me a new 17" :)
 
iLog.Genius said:
Using the 9400M or 9600M GT? If it's the 9600M GT, I could see the computer only lasting 2:10 of course depending on what you're doing.
Click to expand...

I use the 9400 for everything unless Im working in CS4 or something then its the 9600 and the power is usualy plugged in too
 
Getting 2:30-3:00 was pretty normal for my idea of light usage with the 9400M, so 2:10 might not be far off depending on your usage patterns. This was for the low-end 2.4ghz model. If you have a faster drive or faster CPU, all of these would affect your results.
 
7even said:
Getting 2:30-3:00 was pretty normal for my idea of light usage with the 9400M, so 2:10 might not be far off depending on your usage patterns. This was for the low-end 2.4ghz model. If you have more RAM, faster drive, faster CPU, all of these would affect your results.
Click to expand...

Oh ok I thought I was the only one lol. I have the low end model (2GB, 250GB, 2.4ghz)

More ram equals less battery life? interesting.
 
poematik14 said:
Oh ok I thought I was the only one lol. I have the low end model (2GB, 250GB, 2.4ghz)

More ram equals less battery life? interesting.
Click to expand...

i get around 3hrs... those people claiming to get 4 -5 hours are probably only running word and want to show off how awesome their battery is. go to an apple store yourself, unplug the laptop and you only get 2-3 hrs
 
poematik14 said:
Oh ok I thought I was the only one lol. I have the low end model (2GB, 250GB, 2.4ghz)

More ram equals less battery life? interesting.
Click to expand...

Actually, I forgot that in either case you'd have 2 memory sticks.. and I suppose in the end it's a moot point since more RAM = less hard drive usage. Never mind :p
 
I manage to pull off 4 "school hrs" on my 2007 MBP easily (4x 45mins) when I only use Word with slightly dims screen, and then i usually have about 15 mins left. I bought a new battery this summer tho. I do also always have airport on too.

You should be able to do that on a uMBP too, which Apple claims to have half an hour more battery life than my model.
 
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