2011 13" Air average cycles on battery after 1 year?

Just bought a used 2011 "13 for a super deal and the battery cycles say 495. Does this sound a bit high? Health is 89%. I haven't done a recalibration after doing a fresh install and pram and SMC reset. What are yours saying after a year of use?

Yea seems like it from my research on average cycles. Nothing bad though it is showing 6:30 hours after a 100% charge and lasts about that long. I got it for $700 and it is in perfect cosmetic and mechanical condition. So even with battery replacement factored in its not that much. How long does yours last after a years worth of use with light duty use?

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Service battery after 2 years of 659 cycles???

Hi! My laptop is a 13 inch macbook Air 2011 model and it right now says I need to service battery (after 659 cycles). Why is that? and Should i change my battery? my original battery max was 6700 mAh and now its 4780 mAh.
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Serial Number:          D8614170526DKRNAA
Manufacturer:          SMP
Device Name:          bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:          0
PCB Lot Code:          0
Firmware Version:          406
Hardware Revision:          000a
Cell Revision:          162
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh):          313
Fully Charged:          No
Charging:          Yes
Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          4780
Health Information:
Cycle Count:          659
Condition:          Service Battery
Battery Installed:          Yes
Amperage (mA):          3287
Voltage (mV):          7815
System Power Settings:
AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):          25
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          5
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Wake on LAN:          Yes
Current Power Source:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
PrioritizeNetworkReachabilityOverSleep:          0
RestartAfterKernelPanic:          15
Standby Delay:          4200
Standby Enabled:          1
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes):          60
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes):          10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes):          3
Wake on AC Change:          No
Wake on Clamshell Open:          Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim:          Yes
Reduce Brightness:          Yes
RestartAfterKernelPanic:          15
Standby Delay:          4200
Standby Enabled:          1
Hardware Configuration:
UPS Installed:          No
AC Charger Information:
Connected:          Yes
ID:          0x0100
Wattage (W):          45
Revision:          0x0000
Family:          0x00ba
Serial Number:          0x00718639
Charging:          Yes

When you get the service battery message the battery needs to be replaced - it is like the service engine warning lamp on a car or the robot waving its arms and yelling "Danger Will Robinson."
If you have Apple's 3 year AppleCare you may be able to get the battery replaced under warranty - Apple says the battery should retain 80% of its charge after 1000 cycles and you didn't even get 1000 cycles out of it. Even if it isn't still under warranty you can at least ask for free replacement or a price break since it failed before reaching 1000 cycles. I know people who have been successful with such an appeal.

"Service Battery" after two years?

I have a 09' Pro and the battery is already saying "Service Battery" and i am getting a max 4 hours out of the battery. I have calibrated and also taken good care of the battery by draining and charging it every week or so. I almost never let it sit on the charger for more than an hour or so after fully charged and have done several calibration methods to reverse this. I have read forums saying that Apple treats batteries as a "consumable item" so after a year they are not under warranty. I have 3 year applecare and am wondering if they would replace it since they brag and boast about having advanced batteries that last up to 5 years and hold their charge for up to 1000 charges.

Manufacturer:          SMP
Device Name:          bq20z451
Pack Lot Code:          0
PCB Lot Code:          0
Firmware Version:          3
Hardware Revision:          2
Cell Revision:          100
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh):          1480
Fully Charged:          No
Charging:          No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          4266
Health Information:
Cycle Count:          853
Condition:          Normal
Battery Installed:          Yes
Amperage (mA):          -1956
Voltage (mV):          11057

Terrible battery after 2 years

I've had my macbook pro for about 2 years, and for the past few months the battery has been completely useless. It gives me approximately 10 minutes of life before shutting down when not plugged in. Even when it is plugged in, it often will go into sleep mode when I'm in the middle of using it.
The info about the battery is:
Model Information:
Serial Number: Sony-ASMB012-38d0-762b
Manufacturer: Sony
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 0000
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0303
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 628
Fully charged: Yes
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 648
Health Information:
Cycle count: 187
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12416
I'm unsure about what these numbers mean, but I'm assuming they're not good. Is my next step to buy a new battery? Will they replace it for free? Also, I'm wondering what steps I can take on a new battery in order to ensure it lasts.
Thank you

It's bad for the battery to have it plugged in ALL the time. 90-95% of the time is fine, as long as it gets regular light exercise. Leaving it plugged in for three months and then using it on battery power for several days with overnight recharges is not regular light exercise. Using it on battery power for an hour or two every day or two is ideal. If you average a cycle or two per week, that's enough to keep the juices flowing. Seven or more cycles per week is very heavy battery use and will shorten the lifespan of the battery, but not as rapidly as cycling it less than once a month.
Your 187 cycles in about two years should have been pretty easy on your battery, unless it wasn't used on battery power for weeks or months at a time and then was cycled very often for a while. Regular use is the key.
The other thing that can drastically shorten the life of a lithium-based battery is heat. Leaving your computer to bake all day in a parked car in the summer sun just once can seriously damage the battery, and anything else that raises the battery's temperature above a normal operating range can have the same effect.
Message was edited by: eww

Mac Book Pro Battery after 1 year...

Bought my Mac last year in march - used it sparingly then, and the long haul the battery would last for five hours.
Now, I use it for almost every class I'm in, sometimes with the charger, sometimes without - and it only lasts for maybe a half hour before completely shutting off at about 50% battery. I can't get it to restart until I put it on the charger.
I've had to download AdobeCS3, SecondLife, and one MMORPG. Are any of these effecting it? I've tried all I can think of to conserve battery power (minimal tasks running at the same time, lower display settings, etc) but it still blitzes out like crazy.
What can I do to fix this battery, or should I start setting aside money for a new battery now?

The Battery needs replacing. It is under warranty for one year. If you didn't purchase Apple Care to extend your warranty for another 2 years (including free battery upgrades) then you will need to pay for a new one.
You can check your battery statistics to see how many recharge cycles it has counted -- more than likely you are at 300 or more...time for a new battery.
One other thing you can do is to do a complete power reset, and see if that restores your battery functioning properly. See the MBP support page for instructions on how to do a complete reset (which is different from just powering down and powering up)
How to do an SMC: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411

My mid-2011 MacBook Air bricks itself after 10.7.2 update

I have a new MacBook Air (11") that was working just great, until today. Today, I used Software Update to install the updates, which included 10.7.2 as well as the recue partition update.
I did everything you're supposed to do, and when it rebooted, the gray screen comes up, and it shows the spinny doohickey on the bottom showing that it's working. Then, suddenly, up pops a big "no" icon (the circle with the slash through it) after about 60 seconds.
It simply doesn't do anything after that.
Hard-power-off, wait, power-on, repeat, same thing.
So I reboot with cmd-R to get the rescue partition. It works fine; I ask it to re-install Mac OS X, which then takes about 45 minutes (argh). Finally, Mac OS X is back, the machine is nicely booted up, all my files are there, everything is good.. But of course, the reinstall took me back to 10.7.1.
All I want to do is upgrade my fricking iPhone to IOS 5.0, but I can't do that without knowing I can sync which requires iCloud which of course requires 10.7.2. So I *have* to re-do the upgrade.
Back to Software Update, back to installing 10.7.2. And .. 20 minutes later .. back to bricked MacBook Air.
What a waste of my time. What a failure, Apple. I'm very very very very very unhappy that I've wasted so much time just to update my damned iPhone to IOS 5. I'm still without an update. Now I'm trying to figure out how to move my iTunes to another machine -- not nearly as obvious as it should be. ARGH. I'm going to throw this MacBook Air off the balcony in about 10 minutes. :-(
Thanks for listening.
Steve

Wow, you're right -- I can't believe it. I just really can't believe they would screw up so badly, yet when I search for "10.7.2 filevault" I don't find more than a couple of articles about it on the web (including this thread). Why on earth wouldn't Apple have put up some kind of warning about this? I can't believe it, really. It's insane.
On my newly-functional 10.7.2 MBA, I wanted to test your theory and so I turned on filevault 2 and encrypted the main disk again. It of course wanted me to reboot. So I rebooted. And *blammy* -- same error / boot failure. Wow. Also, interestingly, even on a working 10.7.2 system, you can't mount a USB drive that was encrypted using Filevault 2 encryption (in Disk Utility, e.g., as a "Mac OS X, journalled, encrypted" volume that was encrypted with DiskUtility on Lion 10.7.1). I still have a 10.7.1 machine that I will not upgrade until I can at least decrypt the disk -- but right now, Disk Utility tells me it fails decrypting the external USB disk so I'm hosed!!! ARGH.
Now, going back to the booting problem after upgrade -- for anyone's reference who's still keeping score -- you can easily recover from the booting problem with upgrading a Filevault 2 root drive: Power-cycle the machine and then hold down cmd-r to bring up the Lion Recovery application. Within Lion Recovery, choose "Disk Utility", and then click on the (as yet unmounted, still encrypted) root hard drive to select it. Then go to the File menu, and choose "Turn off encryption" for this disk. It then prompts you for the password, and if you enter it, *blammy* you're back up and running again.
In my case, the disk had only just begun encrypting so the action was instant, and then once it confirmed the disk was now decrypted, I simply chose "Restart" from the Apple menu, and I was back in business (no hairy re-installs to deal with). If this is an already-encrypted volume, presumably it'll take you a bit longer (the normal 45-minutes to 2 hours) to decrypt it. But at least no more installing software -- it'll "just work".
Maybe I'll go post a simpler version of these instructinos on the other threads, but this is the simplest fix -- just turn off filevault 2 from within Lion Recovery, basically, and that fixes the boot problems.
Apple, if you're listening, you really really really need to say something to your users so they know. Many many many MBA users are likely to have still not upgraded. You can prevent them from hating you and your products by making sure they don't screw the pooch here. Short version: Mid-2011 MacBook Airs running Filevault 2 WILL NOT BOOT after 10.7.2 update; so users should turn off Filevault2 before upgrading.
Steve

What's the average cycle count and lifespan of a PB G4 battery?

I've had my computer 15" Powerbook for about 22 months. Cycle count =367. My AppleCare warranty ends in about 14 more months. What's the average cycle count before the battery dies?
By the way, I use my computer everyday. This thing better than any other macbook pro out there. Thanks.

First, you should know that Applecare doesn't cover the battery, it is specifically excluded unless it's defective. That's because Apple considers the battery a consumable item. You can read it under limitations at http://images.apple.com/legal/applecare/docs/AppleCareProtect_Plan_NAen.pdf
Regarding the life, how you maintain the battery has an impact on how many cycles you get out of it. For example, if it's plugged in all the time, your cycle count will be low by the time the battery fails. Apple says that a properly maintained battery should be at 80% capacity after 300 cycles. This is the Apple note on battery maintenance: http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

How long is normal battery life for late 2011 macbook air?

How long is normal battery life for late 2011 macbook air?

I would also note that the 11" and 13" have different lives. While the 11" has a smaller screen to drive (and thus, in theory, less power) it also has less space for a battery. So it turns out the 13" has a longer battery life, all other things being equal (same usage and the like).
Clearly what's "average" will vary by user. Depending on what I'm doing, I can get Apple's rated life (or darned close) or I could end up well short of that life. The "rated" life is 5 hours for the 11" and 7 hours for the 13" but that is, at best, a very rough approximation. As the picture in captfred's response makes clear, the actual usage of the machine has a huge influence.

MacBook Air 2011 cannot connect to Wi-Fi properly after repair

Hi,
Recently I took my 2011 MacBook Air into an Apple Store where they replaced the SSD with a fresh one loaded with Mavericks. When I started it up in the Apple Store it found their local Wi-Fi properly. However, when I try to connect it to my Wi-Fi at home (with WPA2E security), it does not work properly.
The symptoms are rather strange: it appears to connect to DHCP on the router and receive an IP address. I've tried changing the IP address on the DHCP server and the IP on the MacBook Air changes appropriately so it is getting a proper DHCP connection and the data recieved is correct. However after this it is unable to actually do anything on the network. It can't even ping the router at 192.168.1.1, and everything else fails for lack of DNS.
When I try to use Network Diagnostics it acts rather strangely - it asks me several times for my Wi-Fi password, then the lights turn green up until "ISP" which remains red. Then, all three lower lights turn green for a moment and Diagnostics gives the message "your internet connection is working properly" even though the lights from ISP down all turn red again straight away. Because of the odd password behaviour I tried enabling the "allow all applications to access this" option in Keychain Access, but this didn't change anything.
Does anyone know how to fix this?

Hi hyperphase,
Thanks for visiting Apple Support Communities.
If you're not able to connect to the internet or your router at home, you may want to use the steps quoted below, and check the settings against those mentioned in this article:
iOS and OS X: Recommended settings for Wi-Fi routers and access points
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4199
Before configuring or adjusting specific settings, perform the following steps:
Ensure that your Wi–Fi router's firmware is up to date.
If you are using a Wi–Fi base station, refer to this article for information on how to update it.
Verify that all Wi–Fi devices you intend to use support the settings recommended in this article.
If possible, back up your current Wi–Fi router's settings.
If necessary, refer to the product documentation or manufacturer's website.
Forget or remove the Wi-Fi settings for your network from any devices that connect to your Wi-Fi router. (This will prevent the devices from attempting to connect to your network with the old configuration.) You will need to reconnect these devices to your network once you've finished applying the new settings.
Configure all Wi–Fi base stations on the same network with the same settings. Not doing so will cause connectivity and reliability issues. On dual-band Wi–Fi base stations, configure both bands to have the same settings unless otherwise noted below.
All the best,
Jeremy

How to charge mid 2011 macbook air battery using Thunderbolt display

While trying to organize all my computer miscellaneous (cords, adapters & so on), I came across an adapter on a little card with the comment, "For use with your Thunderbolt Display and Mac with MagSafe 2 port." Appears to be for charging my mid 2011 MacBook Air via the Thunderbolt Display -- what might be the advantages/disadvantages in doing so? I found the info. in the product manuals to be pretty skimpy about this.
Thanks,
Linda

So, I guess the adapter came with the display just in case I had a compatible Mac. I should have noted that on the card. Now, about the rest of the stuff in my Apple mystery box...that's for another day.
Thanks, seb101, for your quick reply!

Mid-2013 Macbook Air: question about the battery life

First of all, I'm sorry if these questions have been already asked, I've looked around and I've seen some answers, but none that fit my specific case.
I have had this computer since December (Macbook Air, 13'', Mid-2013), I've been using it for a month now. At the beginning, I used to use it until my battery was low (between 10 and 20%) and then charge it. Then I learnt that it's better to keep it plugged as much as possible (I have read this in other discussions and on the Apple page). The problem is that my battery is no longer a 100% of its capacity according to Cococnut Battery. It started with 99%, then back to 100%, then 98, 97... and now it varies from 97 to 98 (right now it says that my computer's current capacity is 6948 mAH). I don't know if this is normal, or if this is caused by the use I used to give to my macbook air at the beginning or by any other thing. I also have 19 loadcycles already. Besides, I have noticed that sometimes it jumps form 100% to 99% of battery pretty fast when I don't have it plugged, and I'm not sure if that happened before.
This is my first time dealing with a macbook and I don't know how these things are supposed to work, and I'm worried my battery might have any kind of problem and that's why itdoesn't have full capacity anymore, since I've been using it for only a month.
Also, sometimes it takes a little while to shut down. It usually takes 2 seconds, but sometimes it takes longer, maybe 20 seconds (first the screen turn white, then the loading icon appears and then it finally shuts down). Is this normal too for macbook airs?
Thanks for the help!

Those are only averages, for purposes of the battery 97 98 99 and 100 are the 'same thing'........theyre all estimates.
Normal on shut down, sometimes you can see a few seconds, sometimes 10, 15 seconds shut down.....depends on what and HOW much its shutting down before poweroff.   Normal.
ON BATTERY USE:
Keep it plugged in when near a socket so you keep the charging cycles down on your LiPo (lithium polymer) cells / battery, but not plugged in all the time. When not being used for several hours, turn it off.
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html
"Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time."
General rule to remember of Lithium batteries is:
Never drain them LOW & dont always/often store them HIGH
While cycle count is commonly seen to be the “miles” on your Lithium Ion pack cell in your Macbook, which they are, this distinction is not a fine line at all, and it is a big misconception to “count charge cycles”
*A person who has, for example, 300 charge cycles on their battery and is recharging at say 50-60% remaining of a 100% charge has better battery usage and care than another person who has 300 charge cycles at say 15% remaining on a 100% charge.
DoD (depth of discharge) is far more important on the wear and tear on your Macbook battery than any mere charge cycle count. *There is no set “mile” or wear from a charge cycle in general OR in specific.    As such, contrary to popular conception, counting cycles is not conclusive whatsoever, rather the amount of deep DoD on an averaged scale of its use and charging conditions.
                          (as a very rough analogy would be 20,000 hard miles put on a car vs. 80,000 good miles being something similar)
*Contrary to some myths out there, there is protection circuitry in your Macbook and therefore you cannot overcharge it when plugged in and already fully charged
*However if you don’t plan on using it for a few hours, turn it OFF (plugged in or otherwise) ..*You don’t want your Macbook both always plugged in AND in sleep mode       (When portable devices are charging and in the on or sleep position, the current that is drawn through the device is called the parasitic load and will alter the dynamics of charge cycle. Battery manufacturers advise against parasitic loading because it induces mini-cycles.)
Keeping batteries connected to a charger ensures that periodic "top-ups" do very minor but continuous damage to individual cells, hence Apples recommendation above:   “Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time”, …this is because “Li-ion degrades fastest at high state-of-charge”.
                    This is also the same reason new Apple notebooks are packaged with 50% charges and not 100%.
LiPo (lithium polymer, same as in your Macbook) batteries do not need conditioning. However...
A lot of battery experts call the use of Lithium cells the "80% Rule" ...meaning use 80% of the charge or so, then recharge them for longer overall life.
Never let your Macbook go into shutdown and safe mode from loss of power, you can corrupt files that way, and the batteries do not like it.
The only quantified abuse seen to Lithium cells are instances when often the cells are repeatedly drained very low…. key word being "often"
Contrary to what some might say, Lithium batteries have an "ideal" break in period. First ten cycles or so, don't discharge down past 40% of the battery's capacity. Same way you don’t take a new car out and speed and rev the engine hard first 100 or so miles.
Proper treatment is still important. Just because LiPo batteries don’t need conditioning in general, does NOT mean they dont have an ideal use / recharge environment. Anything can be abused even if it doesn’t need conditioning.
From Apple on batteries:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446
http://www.apple.com/batteries/
Storing your MacBook
If you are going to store your MacBook away for an extended period of time, keep it in a cool location (room temperature roughly 22° C or about 72° F). Make certain you have at least a 50% charge on the internal battery of your Macbook if you plan on storing it away for a few months; recharge your battery to 50% or so every six months roughly if being stored away. If you live in a humid environment, keep your Macbook stored in its zippered case to prevent infiltration of humidity on the internals of your Macbook which could lead to corrosion.
Considerations:
Your battery is subject to chemical aging even if not in use. A Lithium battery is aging as soon as its made, regardless.
In a perfect (although impractical) situation, your lithium battery is best idealized swinging back and forth between 20 and 85% SOC (state of charge) roughly.
Further still how you discharge the battery is far more important than how it is either charged or stored short term, and more important long term that cycle counts.
Ultimately counting charge cycles is of little importance. Abuse in discharging (foremost), charging, and storing the battery and how it affects battery chemistry is important and not the ‘odometer’ reading, or cycle counts on the battery.
Everything boils down to battery chemistry long term, and not an arbitrary number, or cycle count.
Keep your macbook plugged in when near a socket since in the near end of long-term life, this is beneficial to the battery.
Peace

2011 Macbook Air - Multiple logic board failures - possible causes?

I have a 2011 i7 macbook air - 7 months old. About a month ago I went to use the computer after allowing it to sleep and it was totally dead. Apple authorized repair center said the logic board failed and needed to be replaced. Fast forward a month and I finally get the machine back. It works fine for 6 hours, I put it to sleep, and soon as the screen went out, I hear a pop, fizzle, then the machine is dead again. The authorized repair center wants to replace the logic board again, which should get me up and running, but its not likley that that is the root CAUSE of the problem here, since it happened twice now. I suggested to them that perhaps the power adaptor, battery, or some other component is the issue and they don't think so. I'm located overseas, and every repair attempt takes 1 month b/c of parts (total joke if you're listening apple!!). My biggest concern is that they replace the logic board again, I'm out of commission for 2 months now, and it just fails again. Does anyone have any suggestions on the possible causes of this problem?
As FYI - I'm using the same power outlet and power strip with another laptop and haven't had any similar issues. Thanks for the help!

I have logic board problems too. I have had a late 2010 mac book air for 2 and half years. Its been a great machine in general - although it did go back within the warranty period for the track pad
Now it has logic board failure - symptons are the sound going and the battery is dead and it is unable to charge which means every time you put the power lead on the computer thinks it is starting from scratche.
I have been quoted over £400 for the repair! Like the above post I do not believe that this part should fail - and if it does then it is a major design problem and Apple should be doing something for us. I just dont know where to start.
I have used macs for 14 years and owned eight along the way. Most have them have lasted many years with full functionality the record was my G3 imac which was still working after 13 years.
I really cant believe the situation I am in and rather think I have bought my last mac!
alistair

IMac Display failing after 1 year of average use.

I have a mid 2011 27" iMac (the one with thunderbolt) and the display is starting to fail after 1 year of average use (an hour of use every day on average). The display is now much dimmer on the left half of the display (the GPU sits underneath that portion) and also flickers the whole display now and then to a lower brightness.
I am about 45 days out of warranty and basically will have to cough up $500 to have it fixed by Apple. My questions are... Has anyone else ever had this happen to them? The genius bar employee thought that it was something he has seen happen to displays when exposed to heat over long periods of time. So basically playing starcraft 2 and doing video encoding killed my display if you believe that to be the cause.
Are there any conditions in which apple would recognize this as a manufacturing defect and fix it free of charge? Otherwise it looks like im writing a check for $500 next week.

Today a dark streak showed up on my display right in the middle. It is shaped like a zebra stripe but is dark grey and wont go away.
I too have a mid 2011 27" 3.4GHz i7 iMac with a 2GB Graphics card . Im about 50 days out of warranty.
Seems like its perfect coincidence for apple that 50 days after my warranty runs out, the most expensive thing to repair breaks.
After doing some research it seems like there is a lot of people with this model experiencing this problem.
Pretty sad that my 2005 iMac is holding up better than my brand new iMac.
Been saving up for it for like 4 years and I dont have the money to repair it.
I tried everything, I knew none of the stuff i tried would work but i still tried resetting the PRAM repairing disk permissions all that good stuff. I even have an air purifer/dehumidifier in my room so i dont know what caused it.
I didnt think i needed applcare because ive had my other imac since 2005 without a hiccup.
Ive rendered out 3d animations using the cpu at 100% for days and it still runs fine.
Havent even used my new imac for anything that would put stress on it.
What i do notice is that it runs hot all the time. ever since I got it. Sometimes just doing basic stuff such as browsing safari it can get so hot where i cant touch it. my GPU normally stays at around 70C and the hottest its been was 80C which is still safe. The alluminum is supposed to transfer heat better but all it does is retain heat more and get super hot. the old plastic one i have is 10x cooler.
What i did notice today tho when my screen problem happened, is that the GPU temperatue is at 50C and wont go above it. I monitor the temperature with istat and never have seen it at 50C and below unless i am just doing a fresh boot.
What really concerns me tho is how the screen went out so close to when my warranty expired.

Mid 2011 Macbook Air Painfully slow.

Mid 2011 Macbook Air Painfully slow.
Hey everyone. I am writing about my 13 inch Mid 2011 Macbook Air.
Recently it has been extremely slow and on occasion has not started up.
I have reset the PRAM and SMC already, yet it is still very slow. I have a couple theories about what might have caused it, are they plausible?
Theory 1: It’s a software problem. I tried to upgrade to 10.8.2 but halfway through the upgrade the computer restarted and somehow I was still on 10.8.1. For fear of a big issue happening I didn’t try to upgrade again. Perhaps it is a flaw in Apple’s software update?
The important thing to note about this update is that I tried to install 10.8.2 around a month or two weeks BEFORE I started having problems. So if these issues were due to 10.8.2’s failed update then it certainly was a delayed reaction.
I would of course like to update to 10.8.2 BUT as my computer is acting EXTREMELY slow and having trouble turning on occasionally I am worried the software update will completely brick the machine. Is that possible? Should I actually finish through with the software update?
Theory 2: It was an electricity problem.
The computer died when I was sitting at a café plugged into their wall sockets. A few days later when I came back to the same spot with my old macbook which is now being used in lieu of the Air it suddenly turned black for a little while. Sensing it might be an electricity surge or something with their system I unplugged the cable. I am not sure if that was paranoia though.
Can an electricity surge or a bad outlet fry a computer? Can it fry the ram so the computer is extremely slow? Does that theory hold any water?
Thanks for your help diagnosing this problem.
All the best.

Please read this whole message before doing anything.
This procedure is a diagnostic test. It won’t solve your problem. Don’t be disappointed when you find that nothing has changed after you complete it.
Third-party system modifications are a common cause of usability problems. By a “system modification,” I mean software that affects the operation of other software — potentially for the worse. The following procedure will help identify which such modifications you've installed. Don’t be alarmed by the complexity of these instructions — they’re easy to carry out and won’t change anything on your Mac.
These steps are to be taken while booted in “normal” mode, not in safe mode. If you’re now running in safe mode, reboot as usual before continuing.
Below are instructions to enter some UNIX shell commands. The commands are harmless, but they must be entered exactly as given in order to work. If you have doubts about the safety of the procedure suggested here, search this site for other discussions in which it’s been followed without any report of ill effects.
Some of the commands will line-wrap or scroll in your browser, but each one is really just a single line, all of which must be selected. You can accomplish this easily by triple-clicking anywhere in the line. The whole line will highlight, and you can then either copy or drag it. The headings “Step 1” and so on are not part of the commands.
Note: If you have more than one user account, Step 2 must be taken as an administrator. Ordinarily that would be the user created automatically when you booted the system for the first time. The other steps should be taken as the user who has the problem, if different. Most personal Macs have only one user, and in that case this paragraph doesn’t apply.
Launch the Terminal application in any of the following ways:
☞ Enter the first few letters of its name into a Spotlight search. Select it in the results (it should be at the top.)
☞ In the Finder, select Go ▹ Utilities from the menu bar, or press the key combination shift-command-U. The application is in the folder that opens.
☞ Open LaunchPad. Click Utilities, then Terminal in the icon grid.
When you launch Terminal, a text window will open with a line already in it, ending either in a dollar sign (“$”) or a percent sign (“%”). If you get the percent sign, enter “sh” and press return. You should then get a new line ending in a dollar sign.
Step 1
Copy or drag — do not type — the line below into the Terminal window, then press return:
kextstat -kl | awk '!/com\.apple/{printf "%s %s\n", $6, $7}'
Post the lines of output (if any) that appear below what you just entered (the text, please, not a screenshot.) You can omit the final line ending in “$”.
Step 2
Repeat with this line:
sudo launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.(apple|openssh|vix)|edu\.mit|org\.(amavis|apache|cups|isc|ntp|postfix|x)/{print $3}'
This time, you'll be prompted for your login password, which won't be displayed when you type it. You may get a one-time warning not to screw up. You don't need to post the warning.
Note: If you don’t have a login password, you’ll need to set one before taking this step. If that’s not possible, skip to the next step.
Step 3
launchctl list | sed 1d | awk '!/0x|com\.apple|edu\.mit|org\.(x|openbsd)/{print $3}'
Step 4
ls -1A /e*/mach* {,/}L*/{Ad,Compon,Ex,Fram,In,Keyb,La,Mail/Bu,P*P,Priv,Qu,Scripti,Servi,Spo,Sta}* L*/Fonts 2> /dev/null
Important: If you formerly synchronized with a MobileMe account, your me.com email address may appear in the output of the above command. If so, anonymize it before posting.
Step 5
osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get name of every login item' 2> /dev/null
Remember, steps 1-5 are all drag-and-drop or copy-and-paste, whichever you prefer — no typing, except your password. Also remember to post the output.
You can then quit Terminal.

My 2011 MacBook Air suddenly takes a long time to shutdown!

My 13-inch Mid 2011 MacBook Air running OS X 10.7.2 used to take less than 2 seconds to shut down. Recently it's been taking a lot longer time to shut down. Usually it takes 15-20 seconds, but occassionally never shuts down even after waiting for over 10+ hours. I just see the loading wheel keep on spinning. I've checked the disk permissions, ran ONYX to clean up everything, reset PRAM, and read through the system logs. I couldn't find any reason why it's taking so long to shut down.. I'm trying to avoid the last resort of reinstalling OSX 10.7.2.
Does anyone have any ideas on what's slowing down the shut down process?
Thank you!!

I had a similar "problem". Before the issue, my MBA would literally take less than 2 seconds to completely shutdown. Then after installing some 3rd party software, shutdown time increased to 10-15 seconds (the screen would go white and then I'd get the whirling activity symbol). Really not a huge deal but it kind of bothered me and I thought it could be some inefficient process going on.
Short answer: There must be some software process that is taking longer to release the resources that it is using before the computer can shut down. (I'm no expert, so I don't know if I described that accurately)
It's likely some 3rd party software that you may have installed or some setting in a program. In my case, I installed 3rd party software that was a user-written driver for the Xbox 360 controller. I mounted the .dmg and intiated the Installer, then chose "Show Files" from the Files menu of Installer to see exactly where the files were being installed. Deleted all the files and was still getting longer shutdown times.
Went into Activity Monitor and chose "All Processes" from the drop-down menu in the upper right corner instead of just "My Processes" and I noticed one process that had a name that was related to the 3rd party driver I had installed, found its location and deleted it. Apparently, I missed a file location in the Startup Items folder of the current user's Library folder. After deleting that file, shutdown now takes literally less than 2 seconds as before.

2011 13" Air average cycles on battery after 1 year?

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