My battery level is everyday less and less

Ask Fedora
1

A few days ago I changed the battery on my Macbook Pro Late 2011. After the first charge I unplugged the laptop and the level was 99% and slowly decreasing during the day. The day after, after a full charge, it was 95%, a day later 90%, today 85%. What I’m missing? Is there a way to calibrate the battery that I’m unaware of?

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2

There are two possibilities here. First, your battery is dying and needs replacement. Second, one of the components in the hardware module has changed its value slightly. If I were you, I’d take your computer in for service and find out. The battery can be replaced, but if it’s the monitoring hardware, you might need a new motherboard.

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3

The battery is new, recently replaced. It could be the monitoring hardware but the laptop is too old to consider something as expensive as a motherboard substitution.

4

Well, if it’s the hardware monitoring module, you’ll either just have to live with it or replace it, and if that’s all that’s wrong, it’s probably not a big enough problem to make you need to replace it.

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5
  1. Try unloading the battery using your laptop without external power supply until complete discharge.
  2. Shutdown the system (shutdown -h now).
  3. Reconnect the external power supply and wait until the battery is loaded to 100% without starting an operating system (leave laptop off).
  4. After that start the laptop (with fedora) and see if something changed.
6

I tried that multiple times but nothing changed. And everyday the battery level is a bit less than the day before. Today is 82 % after a full charge overnight (and I repeat, a new battery from ifixit)

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7

If the common calibration steps do not help, like those suggested by ifixit Battery Calibration - iFixit Support

Then I will find a spare USB storage device, install native macOS to it and see if the battery performance is the same under macOS or not.

8

… or use alternatively to Sampsons suggestion a life boot CD …
If the same behavior can be observed I guess, that the battery is defective.

9

I tried the ifixit calibration steps too, with no results. I would like to try the bootable macOS but if I remember correctly the battery is always displayed at 100% after a full charge, the only difference is in the speed at which it is discharged.

10

We want to establish if the battery level readings under Fedora is accurate or not.

Then we can shift the focus to how to make your MacBook more energy efficient under Fedora.