Fix Your Stuff Community Store

Model A1286. Released February 2011 / 2.0, 2.2, or 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor

586 Questions View all

Options

Battery Drain after changing old HDD with SSD

I've changed my HDD with a Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB and from day 1 I've experienced that the battery lasts incredibly less than it used to do. Battery duration has decreased by a good 30%. I know that for the first couple of days you might experience a sensible battery duration drop but now it has been installed for more than 2 weeks.

More infos about my Mac:

I've replaced the optical drive with the old HDD and combined it with the new SSD into a Fusion Drive.

  • RAM: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
  • Battery capacity: 5849 mAh (original 6900 mAh)
  • Battery cycles: 1251

I've already reset the SMC and checked (using activity monitor) that there was an application hogging the power.

Any idea of what might have happened and how to turn my battery duration back to normal?

Answer this question I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 0
2 Comments

Hi Denis,

wow thanks a lot for your response!

Following what you say:

1- I understand that swapping the HDD and the SSD positions will safe me for future possible problems but when you say "go into Startup Disk Prefs to set the boot up to the correct drive", how exactly do I do that?

2- how do I revert my Fusion Dive set up and move to a dual drive consfiguration? And most importantly, how do I set the OS and the Applications on the SSD and the rest on the HDD? Once that is done, when I use a program (for istance Photoshop) will I rather move (temporally) the working files on the SSD for higher or faster performances or will it work smoothly keeping them on the HDD?

I've got another question for you: since the new setup with the SSD, the computer is always very hot and the vents are almost constantly running like crazy.. Is that linked to the Fusion Configuration? Will everything go back to normal with the dual drive config?

Thanks a lot for your help!

by

Ever had any anomalies with this machine, especially any video issues, artifacts? It is know, on some, to have GPU issues.

by

Add a comment

1 Answer

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Most Helpful Answer

Options

OK lets back up here a bit you didn't swap your HD for a SSD, you added the SSD into your system. You merely moved the HD over to the optical bay and placed the new SSD into the HD bay. So... You added load to your system! The battery life will be less!

But! Before we go any deeper here you should rethink things here a bit. The optical bay does not offer HD crash guard protection so if you bang your system while the drive is active you could kill it! Best to leave the original drive in the HD bay and then put the SSD in the optical bay.

But wait! Won't my system still boot up from the HD not the SSD I just put in? No, if you go into Startup Disk Prefs to set the boot up to the correct drive.

But wait! You are talking about a dual drive setup not a Fusion Drive which is what I want. Well... You'll need to think though whats important here battery life or having a fused drive set. The rub here is a Fusion Drive requires still more power! As the two drives need to keep in sync and adjust which files need to be copied to the SSD that are more needed and retire other files.

While SSD's are great they are still a tad on the expensive side when you get to the larger sizes. I still think for most a hybrid drive (SSHD) makes better sense. I like using the Seagate ST1000LX001 laptop SSHD. Otherwise go with a bigger SSD! As an example we use 1 TB Samsung EVO SSD's in our laptops. If you do go with a dual drive config use the HD just to hold your data having your OS & Apps on the SSD.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 2

1 Comment:

Wow great response! This actually has a lot of info for a future project idea of mine so thank you for giving an exceptionally detailed answer, instead of saying something like "More power = Less battery".

by

Add a comment

Add your answer

Riccardo Valsesia will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 0

Past 30 Days: 8

All Time: 2,592