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OS X Mountain Lion users reporting laptop battery life issues - Page 2

post #41 of 71
8/3/12 at 5:21pm

Late 2008 Aluminium MacBook seems about the same.

 

Using Flash heavy sites in Firefox cause the fans to go nuts.

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"The cobbler's children have no shoes", is a saying that applies a lot to companies who provide products and services. -KDarling on Google Search.

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post #42 of 71
8/3/12 at 5:42pm
Snow Leopard's running just fine.
"And just like that, everyone here realizes you're just another sweaty little Google licker with an axe to grind and no idea what he's talking about." --addabox
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"And just like that, everyone here realizes you're just another sweaty little Google licker with an axe to grind and no idea what he's talking about." --addabox
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post #43 of 71
8/3/12 at 5:50pm

I know it's a useless comment but I've seen NO changes in BL with the ML update. The Oct2011 MBAir seems to running a bit cooler and the fan never runs during normal work or browsing. Likewise no adverse changes in the sister's MBPro. WiFi, 3G dongle, non-Apple software &c.. everything works as before (except VMware which needed and on-line update).  

 

What I have noticed is a markedly smoother and faster OS. Been a perfect update for me.

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post #44 of 71
8/3/12 at 6:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post

Time for an update. 

Good news, though: all you beautiful people still running the GM, fully expecting it to update, are about to find out.   1wink.gif

You raise an interesting notion. Are we certain there were zero changes between GM and release

And given the comments about 'with use' how do we know the issue isn't really from some third party app or plug in and not ML alone
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post #45 of 71
8/3/12 at 6:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post

Snow Leopard's running just fine.

Except when you need to develop and test against the latest iOS SDK, then you need the latest XCode, which Apple doesn't let you run on perfectly capable 10.6 machines. Sigh...

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post #46 of 71
8/3/12 at 6:38pm

I'd suggest installing iStat and gfxCardStatus... in the menu bar you can see if the CPU is active and which GPU is being used.

 

I've noticed a lot of CPU activity being used by Mail even when it's not doing anything. 7 - 10% of the CPU is common. My battery life seems to have dropped from 7 hours to about 6 with integrated graphics.

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others.
15" Matte MacBook Pro: 2.66Ghz i7, 8GB RAM, GT330m 512MB, 512GB SSD

iPhone 5 Black 32GB

iPad 3rd Generation, 32GB

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Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others.
15" Matte MacBook Pro: 2.66Ghz i7, 8GB RAM, GT330m 512MB, 512GB SSD

iPhone 5 Black 32GB

iPad 3rd Generation, 32GB

Mac Mini Core2Duo 2.26ghz,...

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post #47 of 71
8/3/12 at 8:00pm

Upgraded to Mountain Lion the day it came out on this 15" high-end late 2011 MacBook Pro, and the only issue I have experienced was with Safari 6 glitching a lot, which seems to have been fixed.  Haven't noticed any additional system load, loss of battery life, or anything else.

 

Power Nap is supposed to only work when the Mac is connecting to an external power source, so it is unlikely to cause battery problems (though I can't really test since my Mac isn't eligible for the feature)...

 

The battery problems on the iPhone 4S are a hardware rather than software problem (mine does not and has never had that issue).  Disabling Location Data should fix the problem as it's related to power management issues on the GPS hardware (a friend of mine has the same issue and she stopped complaining after I told her to do that).

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post #48 of 71
8/3/12 at 8:30pm

I use my MacBook Pro extensively and I updated to 10.8.   Safari was misbehaving and that was fixed with a "Reset Safari".  They have changed the functionality of some of the Unix commands (grep for example has lost the -P  option and now supports a non standard -p) which annoys the hell out of development scripts.  Otherwise, I  haven't noticed any battery life issues so far. 

Most of us employ the Internet not to seek the best information, but rather to select information that confirms our prejudices. - Nicholas D. Kristof
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Most of us employ the Internet not to seek the best information, but rather to select information that confirms our prejudices. - Nicholas D. Kristof
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post #49 of 71
8/3/12 at 10:03pm

Makes me glad I'm still running 10.5.

Always remember..wherever you go, there you are.
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Always remember..wherever you go, there you are.
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post #50 of 71
8/3/12 at 10:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JCE10 View Post

Except when you need to develop and test against the latest iOS SDK, then you need the latest XCode, which Apple doesn't let you run on perfectly capable 10.6 machines. Sigh...

 

iOS 4.3 SDK is also running fine.

"And just like that, everyone here realizes you're just another sweaty little Google licker with an axe to grind and no idea what he's talking about." --addabox
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"And just like that, everyone here realizes you're just another sweaty little Google licker with an axe to grind and no idea what he's talking about." --addabox
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post #51 of 71
8/4/12 at 1:36am

I did notice that a Java applet launched from within Safari continued to run after Safari was closed using large chunks of processor time and setting the fan spinning. I wonder whether that may be responsible in some cases?

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post #52 of 71
8/4/12 at 7:28am

I had a dramatic drop in battery life, but I found that this is all tied into what ML does to permissions as well as re-indexing Spotlight.  Here's what I did to get near normal batter life back:
(1) In Preferences/Spotlight deselected all file types in Spotlight (2) Ran Disk Utility and did a Verify Disk, then Verify Permissions, which turned up countless errors or irregularities in permissions (3) Ran Repair Disk Permissions, which took care of all but two of the permissions errors (4) Verify Disk again, then shut down and restart (5) Verify Disk Permissions again  (all good) (6) Went back to Preferences/Spotlight and re-checked the file types (7) Left the MBP for four hours while it indexed.  (8) Unplugged the machine and got about 85% of my battery life back. 

This is a late 2011 MackBook Pro, by the way.   Hope this helps some with similar issues.  

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post #53 of 71
8/4/12 at 8:05am
Originally Posted by MuncyWeb View Post
Makes me glad I'm still running 10.5.

 

Using a five year old, hopelessly out of date operating system shouldn't make anyone glad.

PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #54 of 71
8/4/12 at 8:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by mimsw View Post

I had a dramatic drop in battery life, but I found that this is all tied into what ML does to permissions as well as re-indexing Spotlight.  Here's what I did to get near normal batter life back:

(1) In Preferences/Spotlight deselected all file types in Spotlight (2) Ran Disk Utility and did a Verify Disk, then Verify Permissions, which turned up countless errors or irregularities in permissions (3) Ran Repair Disk Permissions, which took care of all but two of the permissions errors (4) Verify Disk again, then shut down and restart (5) Verify Disk Permissions again  (all good) (6) Went back to Preferences/Spotlight and re-checked the file types (7) Left the MBP for four hours while it indexed.  (8) Unplugged the machine and got about 85% of my battery life back. 



This is a late 2011 MackBook Pro, by the way.   Hope this helps some with similar issues.  



That's pretty much what I said earlier (your battery life issue was almost certainly caused by the indexing, not the permissions).

This happens every time Apple releases a new OS. Lots of complaints about battery life that start on the very day that the OS is released. Then, after a few weeks, the complaints go away. You'd think that people would learn that Spotlight indexes the hard drive when a new OS is installed. Or, at least, that the bloggers would remember.
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post #55 of 71
8/4/12 at 8:56am

When I upgraded my early 2008 MBP from Snow Leopard to Lion, I received an error message that my battery was faulty and needed replaced, and it would not hold a charge.  My MPB gets light-medium use and us used about 70/30 power cord/battery.  Always thought the battery worked well, but never quantitatively measured it.  When I "downgraded" to Snow Leopard, my battery magically fixed itself.  Wow!

 

Might try Mountain Lion just for the hell of it, but will make sure my Snow Leopard disc is close by this time.

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post #56 of 71
8/4/12 at 8:58am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


This happens every time Apple releases a new OS. Lots of complaints about battery life that start on the very day that the OS is released. Then, after a few weeks, the complaints go away.

Because people do one of three things:

 

1) buy a new battery (what Apple wants)

 

2) buy a new laptop (what Apple REALLY wants)

 

3) reinstall the old OS (traitorous non-Apple approved activity warranting sanctions)

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post #57 of 71
8/4/12 at 9:08am
Originally Posted by Conrail View Post
Because people do one of three things:

 

1) buy a new battery (what Apple wants)

 

2) buy a new laptop (what Apple REALLY wants)

 

3) reinstall the old OS (traitorous non-Apple approved activity warranting sanctions)

 

And none of those are what they SHOULD be doing. lol.gif

PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #58 of 71
8/4/12 at 9:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jragosta View Post

Keep in mind that after installing the OS, Spotlight will be indexing the drive. That's going to be hard on the battery for the first day or so. Since the complaints started on the very first day, that needs to be considered..


Many thanks for solving the mystery of my Macs mysteriously busy like hell immediately after the install....
www.umrk.fr "I, umrk, hereby testifies that this is the true, complete and unaltered record of what the WiFi Base Station of the Orbe of Time transmitted to my iPad, while I was staying on the...
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www.umrk.fr "I, umrk, hereby testifies that this is the true, complete and unaltered record of what the WiFi Base Station of the Orbe of Time transmitted to my iPad, while I was staying on the...
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post #59 of 71
8/4/12 at 10:36am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Conrail View Post

Because people do one of three things:

1) buy a new battery (what Apple wants)

2) buy a new laptop (what Apple REALLY wants)

3) reinstall the old OS (traitorous non-Apple approved activity warranting sanctions)

That may be true in some cases - but doesn't justify all the bloggers who aren't bright enough to remember that it happens every time Apple releases a new OS.
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post #60 of 71
8/4/12 at 11:12am
Late 2011 13" MacBook pro (with SSD) running fine with ML. Still getting around 6 - 7 hours of battery when running standard stuff, runs silent even when playing world of Warcraft.
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post #61 of 71
8/4/12 at 10:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil View Post

 

Using a five year old, hopelessly out of date operating system shouldn't make anyone glad.

 

 

At least it's not Windows XP.

Ariel
GreenLeaf Imaging
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Ariel
GreenLeaf Imaging
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post #62 of 71
8/5/12 at 7:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlituna View Post

You raise an interesting notion. Are we certain there were zero changes between GM and release
And given the comments about 'with use' how do we know the issue isn't really from some third party app or plug in and not ML alone

The GM and the MAS images have the same checksum, so they are identical. The concern is if MAS would start requiring users to log in, so MAS can check that you've actually purchased ML, before letting you update. This was not the case with the dev previews, it doesn't appear to be the case right now and I doubt I will be in the near future either.
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post #63 of 71
8/5/12 at 1:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlituna View Post


You raise an interesting notion. Are we certain there were zero changes between GM and release
And given the comments about 'with use' how do we know the issue isn't really from some third party app or plug in and not ML alone

 

The standard assumption is that if there were any changes we would have seen another dev preview. As long as there were no major showstoppers in the GM, it's general practice to further iron things out in an update after the release. 

 

At least that's what I'm accustomed to seeing. 

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post #64 of 71
8/5/12 at 1:24pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by macosxp View Post

 

At least it's not Windows XP.

 

Now that you mention Windows . . .

 

 

 

Quote:

http://www.neowin.net/news/report-microsoft-to-change-windows-8-oem-activation

 

 

Report: Microsoft to change Windows 8 OEM activation
 
While Microsoft's largely left its Windows activation the same since Windows XP, it appears the company may now be changing its activation requirements with the upcoming October 26 release of Windows 8.
 
A new report from Justin Kerr of Maximum PC claims Microsoft is looking to close "loopholes" in the current activation requirements in an effort to reduce piracy rates for its signature operating system. One of the ways Microsoft hopes to achieve this is by modifying the OEM versions of the operating system, making it more difficult for pirates to avoid paying Microsoft for the operating system. Instead of providing OEMs with a single activation key, Kerr states, OEMs "will be required to write a unique Windows product key into the BIOS of each new machine shipped."
 
Additionally, OEMs will now have to contact Microsoft directly to obtain product keys. OEM machines will now feature a "Genuine Microsoft" sticker to alert consumers of the machine's authenticity. Certificates of authenticity were previously the only requirement Microsoft imposed on OEMs to ensure authenticity.
 
Kerr states the new OEM activation requirements will only be used in Windows 8 products (and presumably Windows RT products as well), although the program could potentially be expanded to Microsoft's previous operating systems.

 

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post #65 of 71
8/5/12 at 2:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post

The standard assumption is that if there were any changes we would have seen another dev preview. As long as there were no major showstoppers in the GM, it's general practice to further iron things out in an update after the release. 

At least that's what I'm accustomed to seeing. 

There have been times that Apple has had a release version which was different than the GM, but only for trivial changes. And I don't think it's happened any time recently.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Quadra 610 View Post

Now that you mention Windows . . .
{discussion of activation in Windows 8}

They're talking about 'closing loopholes'. So it's going to get even more intrusive and demanding? It's bad enough already. It's bad enough that Windows bit rot means that you have to reinstall the OS regularly, but when you have to go through the entire activation process every time (not to mention the 25 characters of serial numbers), it's ridiculous.
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post #66 of 71
8/5/12 at 5:10pm

Correct.

 

Leopard was no shining OS when it was released. A complete dog until a few revisions passed by.

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post #67 of 71
8/6/12 at 4:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by R3negade View Post


The GM and the MAS images have the same checksum, so they are identical. The concern is if MAS would start requiring users to log in, so MAS can check that you've actually purchased ML, before letting you update. This was not the case with the dev previews, it doesn't appear to be the case right now and I doubt I will be in the near future either.

You need to login if you are doing recovery from the internet but thats about it.

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post #68 of 71
8/6/12 at 9:00am

Works fine for me

I updated on two of my MBP's... mid 2009 and mid 2010....  both running fine. No issue so far. No battery issues, nothing that I can tell.

 

I like some of the features, the dictation is very nice, the messages is nice...

 

Now I just want to know how to clear off and do a clean install to see if that makes any better than it is!?!?

 

Anyone have links or the steps on how to do that?

thanks!

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post #69 of 71
8/6/12 at 10:13am

Thanks for continuing to publicly beta test Mountain Lion for me.  I'm still waiting for all the launch bugs to be solved and workarounds for Apple-omitted/changed features to be posted online.

 

Strangely, my MacBook seems to be running just fine without those 200+ features installed just yet. :P

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post #70 of 71
8/6/12 at 3:45pm
Originally Posted by vandil View Post
Thanks for continuing to publicly beta test Mountain Lion for me.  I'm still waiting for all the launch bugs to be solved and workarounds for Apple-omitted/changed features to be posted online.

 

Strangely, my MacBook seems to be running just fine without those 200+ features installed just yet. :P

 

So you post to claim you're better than everyone else who has Mountain Lion and are experiencing absolutely no problems and then marginalize your own argument by accepting that you don't even need it and therefore have no reason to be commenting on future releases nor reason to be taken seriously about your previous comment?

PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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PhilBoogie
That's Google alright. For a stupid company they sure do dumb things.
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post #71 of 71
8/7/12 at 8:25am

It turns out that the problem is not battery life at all, but that the RAM gets full and miscalculates the time remaining.  So, battery life is there, but the indicator says otherwise.  A shutdown followed by a startup holding Command/Option/R and P clears out the ram and battery indicator goes back to normal.  

 

If course, indexing will always use battery life, it didn't account for readings of "100%, 55 minutes"

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