Friday, October 31, 2008

MBP battery weirdness


After a week with my new MBP, I'm pretty happy. Its solid, well built and no major issues. The only weird thing is with the battery charging times and apparent discharge while sleeping.

First - charging. As you can see here, the battery indicator on the side of the machine shows a full charge, yet the charging indicator in the menu bar says it will take over an hour to fully charge.?! What gives? The percent charge is 92% - so it will take an hour and 18 minutes to charge the remaining 8 percent??This doesn't make sense at all.

When have a full charge - I can unplug the MBP, use it for 5 minutes, and then plug it back in and it will claim over an hour to charge the battery after only 5 minutes of usage?!

When I screen shot the image above, the MBP had been in sleep mode (cover shut) and plugged in while I ran to lunch and did some errands. When I shut the cover, the battery indicator claimed 1 hour and 45 minutes to charge. I was gone for an hour and a half, and that's when I got the above image which says I have 1:18 left after sitting charging for 1:30.

And if I take my fully charged MBP and stick it in my bag, jump on an airplane, say from LA to Green Bay and then pull it out to use it and plug it in, it will claim 2 hours or so to charge. Hmmm, I didn't use it at all since putting it in my bag. Sure, the battery will draw a teeny tiny amount to keep the static RAM juiced, but nothing like what the battery management is claiming.

Is there something wrong here? Yes. Is the battery working at 100%? Yes, I think it is. I think the battery management software is the culprit here.

Anyone else having these issues?

3 comments:

egon said...

Did you calibrate the battery? I've seen recent articles about that possibly being necessary.

David said...

twice i fully discharged and charged before I had the issues.

Weird, eh?

Mike said...

I had seen simular behavior in my new MBP. I frequenly just shut the lid and stuff it in my bag if I know I am going to open it up in the next few hours. I went into my bag for something, not the book, and noticed the heat there. Later when i pulled it out it was in that coma state when the battery is done but it leaves enough to keep from losing open docs and keep apps open. I was dumbfounded why it was "working" away with the lid down. I have just had the book a week but I haven't seen it happen again.