07-25-2006, 06:17 PM

After normal use, ie. browsing, email, some music etc... the battery life drops to around 2.5 hours, and also the battery life gauge never reads anything above 2:00 hours even after a fresh charge.... sound and backlight levels are at about medium...

anyone have any tips i can try to see if somethings wrong or a tip to squeeze some more juice out of this thing? its only 10 days old and i love it, but the only complaints are the heat this thing generates along with its subpar battery life... please help.

07-25-2006, 06:35 PM

Battery life on any portable will be around 2-3 hours.

In your system prefs, in energy options you can choose an economical setting.

Decrease the brightness of your screen to just what you need.

Don't render that pixar movie on battery. hook up whenever possible.

07-26-2006, 05:10 AM

2 hours after a fresh charge sounds quite low. I can get between 4 and 5 hours out of my macbook with light use, or 3 to 4 hours with some heavy use. Certainly query it with applecare.

07-26-2006, 05:16 AM

Battery life on any portable will be around 2-3 hours.

Not really true, when the macbook (NOT the pro) gets at least 3,5 and normally 4-5 hours on average...

Don't trust the guage, it's normally a bit off anyway - just because it reads 2 hours doesn't mean the notebook will shut down in exactly 2 hours...

I would recalibrate (completely drain & then fully recharge) the battery and see how long you can actually work with the mbp.

If it is still only 2 hours, I'd contact applecare and explain the measures you've already taken. There were quite a few faulty macbook pro batterys apparently, maybe you've got a bad one...

07-26-2006, 01:31 PM

I was only getting around 2 hours, but then I calibrated my battery like Aptmunich mentioned and now I get around 3. Little more if i turn the screen brightness down and turn off the keyboard backlight. I doubt it will ever get much above 3 hours like the MacBook mostly cause of the bigger screen. It's just one of the tradeoffs for having a higher performance laptop.

07-26-2006, 03:50 PM

I do run my macbook with the screen brightest at the lowest I can while still having it visible. This means literally as low as it goes for the most part. Having it set to the middle or top end will sap your battery, as will the backlit keyboard if you use it all the time.

07-26-2006, 06:13 PM

thanks for the replies.. i'm draining the battery as i speak... and will see how it goes afterwards

09-02-2009, 11:07 AM

Originally Posted by akim711

After normal use, ie. browsing, email, some music etc... the battery life drops to around 2.5 hours, and also the battery life gauge never reads anything above 2:00 hours even after a fresh charge.... sound and backlight levels are at about medium...

anyone have any tips i can try to see if somethings wrong or a tip to squeeze some more juice out of this thing? its only 10 days old and i love it, but the only complaints are the heat this thing generates along with its subpar battery life... please help.

I have the same problem.... it's been only a few days that I got it and the battery life (used to be 7 hours fully charged) dropped down to 2 hours today...