Can reinstalling OSX improve battery?

[Pooky]

My Macbook Air battery life has never lived up to the advertised figures. Would reinstalling OSX and starting from scratch possibly improve it?

 

[Ice2Cool]

Nope. Only a new battery will solve that

 

[Pooky]

Nope. Only a new battery will solve that

Sad days

 

[d0b33]

Try and calibrate it first? also hold down alt/option and click the battery icon on the menubar it will state the condition of your battery.

 

[Pooky]

Try and calibrate it first? also hold down alt/option and click the battery icon on the menubar it will state the condition of your battery.

Condition: Normal

Calibrating involves running it completely down then recharging it fully? I have done that before, maybe I should do t again. I remember reading that the batteries do not need to be calibrated.

 

[Space_Chief]

Reinstalling OS should not do anything. Your battery is still charging/not charging when your Mac is OFF yet plugged into mains supply. Try to recalibrate it. If that fails, you have to keep your backlight on dim and do other things to reduce power draw. Replacing batteries in Macs sucks because they're built in. Maybe iFixit has a way to replace your battery without giving your computer to Apple / Core.

 

[d0b33]

Condition: Normal

Calibrating involves running it completely down then recharging it fully? I have done that before, maybe I should do t again. I remember reading that the batteries do not need to be calibrated.

Yep, you could try though won't do any harm..

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

 

[Space_Chief]

Try this:
http://download.cnet.com/coconutBattery/3000-2094_4-75049.html

 

[SauRoNZA]

Condition: Normal

Calibrating involves running it completely down then recharging it fully? I have done that before, maybe I should do t again. I remember reading that the batteries do not need to be calibrated.

You do realise that the "advertised" figures of 7 hours aren't exactly for Normal usage but involve running low brightness etc.

If you are going to pump the brightness all the way and then watch 1080p movies while doing so the odds of you getting 4 hours is probably about right.

What figures do you currently get with what kind of usage? It should be pretty easy to get 4 hours on average if you don't go out of your way to change the automatic settings.


It might be that your expectation is skewed and that a new battery will give you exactly the same results.

 

[Priapus]

My MacBook does around 6 yo 7 hours. Lower the brightness a little and little to no video. Mostly Internet browsing and programming.

Try this with the MacBook:

Run the battery completely flat and leave it overnight to continue discharging itself (It goes into hibernate before turning off - so even if it is flat, there is still some juice left in it)

Then, in the morning, charge it until its full.

Also: If the brightness is high and you've got a lot going on, battery will only last 4 hours or so?

 

[bwana]

My Macbook Air battery life has never lived up to the advertised figures. Would reinstalling OSX and starting from scratch possibly improve it?

Depending on what software you have installed then it's possible.

 

[Pooky]

You do realise that the "advertised" figures of 7 hours aren't exactly for Normal usage but involve running low brightness etc.

If you are going to pump the brightness all the way and then watch 1080p movies while doing so the odds of you getting 4 hours is probably about right.

What figures do you currently get with what kind of usage? It should be pretty easy to get 4 hours on average if you don't go out of your way to change the automatic settings.


It might be that your expectation is skewed and that a new battery will give you exactly the same results.

I get around 4 hours and that's at around half brightness with click2flash installed doing browsing, occasional youtube.