MB sleeps and drains battery

I am only a 6 month MAC user. Lately when I close my lid (macbook goes to sleep) then I open my lid, the next morning usually and my battery is LOW sometimes so low it won't turn on w/o a cord.

I checked my power settings and they are pretty standard.
Any suggestions?

THX

Sleep still uses some power, usually only enough to keep the contents of memory intact. Although that shouldn't drain a fully charged battery to the point that it is depleted, it might if the battery didn't start fully charged. Also note that as batteries age, their capacity is diminished, so behaviors that might not have completely drained the battery before, might do so now.

You might also try to reset the SMC and PRAM.

Yeah, you must be either putting it to sleep with low battery, or your batteries charge isn't good...if its only 6 months you could probably get it replaced...I can put my MBP to sleep for a loongggg time...weeks...without it dying

While this is certainly not normal, why are you leaving it overnight without plugging it in?

If you have made a habit of using it on battery power constantly, you could certainly have killed your battery in six months.

now i am a little more concerned.
Upon leaving with a 100% fully charged battery, 4 hours later, with MB sleeping and wifi OFF, I am down to 90%. That is with it sitting in my bag.

I do use it throughout the day w/o being plugged in (I am a teacher who travels from room to room) but usually it is plugged in. Also overnight, it often sits in my bag overnight not being used.

Another thing is my fans, they have come on and stayed on for an abnormal amount of time. The one instance I am thinking of I was at a desk (flat with no blockages of ventilation)

According to istat pro, I am at 100% health wise and 126 cycles. I am not sure if this is reliable but I don't know of anything else.

Thank you for your input!

iStat says I have 176 cycles and 100% health. And I can sleep my laptop for probably two weeks without it being totally drained. I think I kept it in my bag once for school, from the beginning of the day, to the end and it took about 3% of the battery to do.

As for the fans, MacBook fans are always on. Always always. Its best just to not worry about them. They speed up/slow down as needed. Your MacBook may get hot, but it will shut itself down if it gets too hot. It wont commit suicide on you. I think the idling speed of the MB fans are around 1800 rpm. (according to iStat)

Is blue tooth off too? Like Wi-Fi it too consumes power while is sleep mode so that you can wake your Mac via a wireless keyboard.

mjarema said:

now i am a little more concerned.
Upon leaving with a 100% fully charged battery, 4 hours later, with MB sleeping and wifi OFF, I am down to 90%. That is with it sitting in my bag.

Click to expand...

[bold emphasis mine]


there goes my theory...

i just yesterday for the first time noticed that my macbook drained it's battery after sitting off a/c power while sleeping with an external usb-powered hard drive attached after only about a day or so. normally without it attached, it will last for days on sleep.

xstep said:

Is blue tooth off too? Like Wi-Fi it too consumes power while is sleep mode so that you can wake your Mac via a wireless keyboard.

Click to expand...

GREAT IDEA!!!!
Mine was ONNNNNN (not sure why, i remember turning it off)
I just turned it off!
That would make sense b/c my Blackbery, my husbands phone etc all around my laptop (on top of other computers)


I can't wait to report what happens!!!!!!!

thank u!

Mine did this when I first got it. Put it to "sleep", then placed it by my bed sans power cord expecting minimal power drain as advertised so I could wake up, wake it up and go to work immediately.

Except it wouldn't wake up after 8 hours. Plugged it in and it woke up reporting 7% battery left. Not normal.

Having Apple Care I called in to tech support, and they walked me through a PMI reset. Since then it sleeps with the appropriate battery drain, which is now minimal.

Also I make sure I turn off all bluetooth wireless devices. Specifically, the mouse; as long as I don't touch the keyboard it won't wake it, but moving the mouse even to turn it off will wake it with the lid closed. I've developed a little checklist of things to do before putting it to sleep for transport: Eject all external drives, disconnect USB/Firewire, disconnect external monitor, stow remote, de-couple power, shut off mouse, close lid. Sounds like an ordeal, but it is quite fast considering how many things I have connected to it when it's at my desk. When I'm out and about nothing is connected to it other than power if I can get it so in that case it's a 'close lid and stow' affair to be on my way, such as in a doctor's office waiting room or some such.

WalkerJ, would you recommend me doing a PMI reset?
(I have not researched it yet, but I will be, I just want your opinion.)

you can't hurt anything by doing it, but it doesn't seem likely to help.

if this is not resolved in the way xstep says, it's likley to be a battery or power module issue that may require you to replace the hardware in question.

I just let it sleep all night just to test what the power drain should be. (At least what Im getting)

After a whole night of sleep, it went from 99% to 97%. Hope that helps in some way.

Also, I thought that when you close the lid, it shuts off the bluetooth and wifi? I know the wifi for sure.