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    Poor Battery Life Unibody 15" MBP

    Discussion in 'Apple and Mac OS X' started by newfiejudd, Feb 2, 2009.

  1. newfiejudd

    newfiejudd Notebook Deity

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    I have recently purchased the unibody 15.4", and I can't get more then 2 hours of battery life while web surfing on wireless with Screen brightness at half and backlighting turned off. I am running the 9400m also.

    Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
     
    newfiejudd, Feb 2, 2009
    #1
  2. cjro9

    cjro9 Notebook Geek

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    Really!? I thought they were supposed to have amazing battery life!
     
    cjro9, Feb 2, 2009
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  3. diggy

    diggy Notebook Deity

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    Have you checked in System Profiler to check the health of the battery, or downloaded Coconut Battery?
     
    diggy, Feb 2, 2009
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  4. newfiejudd

    newfiejudd Notebook Deity

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    Yeah I have done that. Here is the info relayed by CoconutBattery

    Current Battery Capacity: 4536 mAh
    Original Battery Capacity: 4600 mAh
    98%

    Battery-Loadcycles 8
    On my 17" MBP I have the option of better performance or Better battery life. I notice now I don't have that setting with this 15". All I have under preferences -> Energy Saver.
    Graphics Better Battery life
    Or Higher Performance.
    I realize that will switch from integrated to dedicated. But will that throttle the CPU. I notice my CPU is always running at 60c Plus and my Fan is always 4k rpm it is like my CPU will not throttle down.
     
    newfiejudd, Feb 2, 2009
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  5. Lee Howley

    Lee Howley Notebook Consultant

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    Check for background processes. Its possible some program is using your CPU when it shouldn't be. I am probably stating the obvious, but just encase you haven't done it i thought i would suggest it.
     
    Lee Howley, Feb 2, 2009
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  6. orthorim

    orthorim Notebook Evangelist

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    Thats the problem then. With a constant 60% CPU, battery life will suck. Check activity monitor which program is using the CPU and post it here and we might bad able to help. Sometimes just shutting down the offending process will do the trick.
     
    orthorim, Feb 3, 2009
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  7. newfiejudd

    newfiejudd Notebook Deity

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    Orthorim My Temps are 60c but my CPU load is 0% to 15% on idle nothing serious at all. Total online time last night before my battery died was 1:45 minutes. That was 1/2 LCD brightness and the Keyboard Backlighting turned off, BT off and only wireless turned on. I do have a wireless N router, and using N as my standard with my WIFI.

    Thanks for the suggestions guy, much appreciated. But still lost at waht it could be.
     
    newfiejudd, Feb 3, 2009
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