refurb MBA1.86 question?

[dkenz]

I received 3 days ago my refurb MBA 1.86/2GB DDR3/120GB Hard drive.

It have loaded SL and is now running 10.6.1

I have watched a movie with VLC player and noticed that the battery last for 2.5 hours. (twice already)

Also, I had my daughter played a (wireless) online facebook game and it too lasted 2.5 hours on battery....

are these battery usage normal for an MBA?

thank you for your reply...

newbie,,,,

 

[GoCubsGo]

Nope, not in my opinion. You can download coconut battery or istat nano (both free) to check the health of your battery. I recommend coconut battery to track usage (something I just learned it will do myself).

Best I can say is I can get through a 2+ hour movie streaming over wifi on netflix after surfing the net using safari (with ichat, safari, mail open), and have at least 20-30% battery left in the end.

 

[still in school]

I think the game your daughter was playing is flash based which probably caused it to eat up the battery.

As jessica suggested, download coconut battery and see if they replaced the battery or you were stuck with the old original one.

 

[jdechko]

Another thing that can really diminish battery life is the screen brightness. Usually 50% or slightly below will yield good results. If you've got it on full brightness then it could cause the battery to run out after the times you've seen.

 

[dkenz]

i'll try....

thank you for the reply....

i'm going to try all of the suggestions:

install coconut, istat, 50% brightness...

and i'll try to surf the net wirelessly with battery and
see how long the battery last.....

by the way, it might be a flash game, its farmville (facebook game)


i got the info below using the battery while surfing wirelessly now.....

coconut battery 2.6.5 info
-----------------------------


current battery capacity

-current battery capacity : 5422 mAh
-Original Battery capacity: 5560 mAh
-bar graph: 97%

additional info

Battery-loadcycles:8
Age of your MAc : 6 weeks



*****hope anybody can tell me if this battery is good or not....

thanks...

 

[Scottsdale]

I think you need to NOT worry about it for a month or so. It takes time for a battery to get to normal. Use it for a month, then use Apple's battery conditioning method to straighten it out.

For longer battery, after battery is worn in/conditioned, turn off BlueTooth if not using it. If inside, turn down the display brightness to what you really need it at. Don't turn off wireless if you need to network it for Internet and etc, that makes NO sense.

 

[ayeying]

thank you for the reply....

i'm going to try all of the suggestions:

install coconut, istat, 50% brightness...

and i'll try to surf the net wirelessly with battery and
see how long the battery last.....

by the way, it might be a flash game, its farmville (facebook game)


i got the info below using the battery while surfing wirelessly now.....

coconut battery 2.6.5 info
-----------------------------


current battery capacity

-current battery capacity : 5422 mAh
-Original Battery capacity: 5560 mAh
-bar graph: 97%

additional info

Battery-loadcycles:8
Age of your MAc : 6 weeks



*****hope anybody can tell me if this battery is good or not....

thanks...

Farmville is a flash game and very intensive too.

Here's my battery info:

Current: 5248 mAh
Designed: 5560 mAh
Percentage: 94%

Cycles: 231
Age of Mac: 4 Month

I get average of about 4.5 hours normal use (50% brightness, no flash sights, iTunes). 2.5 Hours in Vista without games, 2 Hours in Vista with games continuously.

If I watch youtube on loop, I'll probably get 3 hours max.

 

[still in school]

LOL I knew it was farmville, my g/f is addicted to that game.

 

[sanPietro98]

When doing low-end tasks like e-mail, Safari (no flash-based games), coding with XCode, with iTunes playing music, I can get 3.5 hours at 60% brightness. Once I start watching videos or doing processor-intensive tasks, that number goes way down. So I think you're ok.

But yes, do the battery conditioning as was mentioned earlier.