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What kind of life should be getting from a MBP15 battery?

M

Mojo67821

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 20, 2006
196
0
On a full charge I only get about 2 - 2.5 hours. Even less if I'm doing something intensive, or using windows.

Is that normal? I know they were replacing some MBP batteries, is mine defective?

Also, what kind of procedure is that? Would I have to send my comp in or is it something I can have done at the apple store?
 
Have you calibrated it? Are you using wifi? Is bluetooth on? What's your screen brightness?
 
Don't know how to calibrate.

I do use bluetooth for my mouse, but most of the time when it's on battery that means the bluetooth is not being used b/c i'm using the trackpad. Should I turn it off when it's not in use?

I'm always using wifi

The brightness is usually close to full.
 
Wow, that sounds like a pain in the ass. Is it worth it?

The idea of leaving my comp on till it goes to sleep and shuts down is kind of scary.

If I leave it to do this overnight, is that too long?
 
Mojo67821 said:
Wow, that sounds like a pain in the ass. Is it worth it?

The idea of leaving my comp on till it goes to sleep and shuts down is kind of scary.

If I leave it to do this overnight, is that too long?
Click to expand...
Yeah it's worth it. And not hat big of a hassle, and not scary at all :)

I just play Futurama episodes till it goes to sleep, and then let i sit there over night. When I wake up it's completely drained.

And you only have to do this like once a month to extend the life of your battery.
 
alright thanks.

I'll also try to lower the screen brightness and turn off bluetooth when I'm not using it.
 
Temujin said:
Check this out then http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284
I get around 4 hours on a full charge
Click to expand...

Wow, you are getting 4 hours? I've got a 2.16 with a 7200 rpm drive and get hardly 2 and a half.

As for "calibrating" the battery, I always run it until it says that I am running on reserve power and then plug it in. Tonight, I guess i'll let it run totally out, and then leave it overnight and plug it tomorrow morning. Does that really help?

Thanks for the article though!
 
when you're trying to maximize battery life, turn down the contrast of the screen to the lowest setting (before it goes completely off). Yeah it's a bit of a pain to work with but on my Powerbook I get about 1-2 extra hours.
 
BiikeMike said:
Wow, you are getting 4 hours? I've got a 2.16 with a 7200 rpm drive and get hardly 2 and a half.

As for "calibrating" the battery, I always run it until it says that I am running on reserve power and then plug it in. Tonight, I guess i'll let it run totally out, and then leave it overnight and plug it tomorrow morning. Does that really help?

Thanks for the article though!
Click to expand...

The 7200rpm will bring it down some.
 
Mojo67821 said:
On a full charge I only get about 2 - 2.5 hours. Even less if I'm doing something intensive, or using windows.

Is that normal? I know they were replacing some MBP batteries, is mine defective?

Also, what kind of procedure is that? Would I have to send my comp in or is it something I can have done at the apple store?
Click to expand...

Let's see, I had it on for an hour and a half and it depleted to about 50-something percent. :S

But I can get two episodes of Lost, and deplete it down to 34%. I think I'll try calibrating it, but not tonight.
 
Calibration is essential. Since every battery is slightly different, it lets the controller on the battery determine how much capacity it actually has. It will easily extend your battery charge, and will preserve the overall life of the battery by doing it once a month.
 
w_parietti22 said:
The 7200rpm will bring it down some.
Click to expand...

actually no. I was reading an article with some long explination as to why but i forgot where. It said that they have the same in power drainage and in some well built drives it even has better battery life with 7200 :confused:
 
Nate4747 said:
..it lets the controller on the battery determine how much capacity it actually has. It will easily extend your battery charge..
Click to expand...

Calibrating is to make the battery monitoring chip more precise. An uncalibrated chip might say you have 25% battery left when in reality it's only 20, or the other way around, giving misleading percentages and times. But in no way does it extend the battery life.

To be fair, older batteries many years ago could need a discharge/recharge occasionally to keep them in good condition, but not anymore. Now it only adds to the amount of discharge cycles, which is the major cause of wear on a battery.
 
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Stingray454 said:
Calibrating is to make the battery monitoring chip more precise. An uncalibrated chip might say you have 25% battery left when in reality it's only 20, or the other way around, giving misleading percentages and times. But in no way does it extend the battery life.

To be fair, older batteries many years ago could need a discharge/recharge occasionally to keep them in good condition, but not anymore. Now it only adds to the amount of discharge cycles, which is the major cause of wear on a battery.
Click to expand...
You know that you just answered a guy from 11 years ago, don't you?
[doublepost=1484275044][/doublepost]
McBeresford said:
Bump for relevance.
Click to expand...
What revelance? This is from 2006.
 
MarcBou said:
You know that you just answered a guy from 11 years ago, don't you?
[doublepost=1484275044][/doublepost]
What revelance? This is from 2006.
Click to expand...
69625241cb004692917155a556ee1866
 
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