Mac Book Pro 17" battery life?

[Andrew Tarpinian]

On Sep 1, 2012, at 4:00 PM, K9 Kai Niggemann <kai at kainiggemann.com> wrote:

> are ther more people using a current 17" than Jay and me? 
> 
> What's your battery lifetime?
> 
> mine is down from something that seemed long to something that feels very short. I'd say it used to be over 4 hours, now realistically it's at about 3. It used to be much longer and I wonder what's causing this. Sometimes my book feels very sluggish to a point where I started reinstalling the OS, but didn't do it after downloding the installer twice, only went through some of Onyx' options instead -- that seems to have helped a bit, but the computer is much slower than Snow Leopard (I get many spinning pizzas...!)
> 
> Does anyone have any ideas what I should try?

I actually have not used mine on battery power in a while so I'm not sure what it is now. Originally it was at least 5 even when working - I'm sure it's less now, the battery eventually gets tired :) I would say it's normal if it's older -  mine is an Early 2009.

Do you have an SSD? Seriously consider it, my 3 year old machine feels faster than brand new now. I got a OWC 240gb 3g (if your machine is a 2009 make sure you get the 3g, the 6g will slow you down to 1.5g,) in the optical bay and a regular ol' 750gb in the main for data, cost me around $300. I did a fresh install of mountain lion and it's so fast, everything is pretty much instant. Probably will affect battery life, having two drives, but whatever :)