3

At some point in the past 2 weeks, my MacBook Pro (13", early 2011) began running hot and getting poor battery life. The battery life used to last 4-5 hours even when I was using it regularly. Now, it will die within 2 hours of idling.

When I say 'running hot' - I have noticed it on my lap and the fan comes on more often.

I have been checking Activity Monitor, but I cannot find a particular culprit. Here is the battery info from running Coconutbattery.

Current Charge: 1068
Maximum Charge: 5292
Current Capacity: 5292
Design Capacity: 5770
Percent: 91%

Mac Model: MacBookPro8,1
Age of Your Mac: 15 Months
Battery Load Cycles: 320
Battery Temperature: 31.2 C

I uninstalled Chrome & Dropbox, which I thought might be the problem, but it still exists. I've also calibrated my battery according to these instructions

How do I begin to troubleshoot this problem?

UPDATE:

Found a culprit. I haven't tested yet, so I'm not sure if this is THE culprit, or even if I've completely kicked it...

With some extensive googling, I found a bunch of users have issues with Adobe Version Cue CS3 or CS4. I had CS3. I made the HUGE mistake of uninstalling it manually (dragging system prefs to the trash). This caused CrashReporter to run at > 100% CPU constantly and caused Console to light up with Bus Errors.

However, by right clicking the prefs pane and disabling it, I was able to get "launchd" down from 7-8% to 1-2%.

I'll update as I learn more.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    My first guess would have been the battery itself, but at leasts the load cycles should be ok according to support.apple.com/kb/HT1519. OTOH if the problem persists after recalibration I would probably visit an Apple Store or Dealer nearby.
    – nohillside ♦
    Jun 24, 2012 at 21:50
  • Is there any way to diagnose / troubleshoot the issue without taking it in? The closest apple store is 3 hours away and I'd like to do what I can before taking it in..
    – timshutes
    Jun 24, 2012 at 23:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

I found the problem, so I thought I'd update here in case anyone else has this issue.

I'm running a 13", MBP with OS X 10.6.8. This problem will not present itself for previous versions of OS X but will likely appear in later versions.

A few weeks ago I installed some Adobe CS3 software - particularly the Design Suite, although I had later versions of photoshop and dreamweaver already installed. As part of the CS3 suite, I installed Adobe Version Cue CS3. This software does NOT play nice with OS X.

At first, I tried manually removing it (easier for most uninstalls in my opinion). This was a big mistake. When I deleted the preference files, my CPU began running at over 100% for "CrashReport". This didn't stop until I restored via Time Machine (thank God for Time Machine!)

Secondly, I disabled it, which did lower launchd and others by 5% or so, but did not ultimately result in my machine running cooler, or my battery lasting longer.

Note: my fans would come on full speed even while the computer was idling!

Finally, I ran the complete Adobe uninstaller for CS3 suite which cleaned up my problem completely. Turns out Adobe CS3 is Unsupported for Snow Leopard although quietly. You can barely find any mention of this on adobe.com and the software still seems to install quite fine.

Bottom line - if you have a Snow Leopard Macbook Pro - do NOT install Adobe CS3 software - in particular Version Cue.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .