Computer slows when battery is low
My Macbook Pro running Mountain Lion slows down dramatically when the battery is below 4-5%. All the applications running are very slow to respond, and several have the "Application not responding" message when I right-click on them in the dock. Now everything works fine when the battery is above 5%, so I'm wondering what goes on when the battery is low that causes the performance drag. Basically, I have two questions:
- What is causing this lag (for the sake of curiosity)?
- How can I fix it (for the sake of practicality)?
System Info:
- Device: Macbook Pro (Spring 2012) 13-Inch running Mountain Lion (10.8)
- Memory: 8GB
- Processor: 2.8 GHz Intel Core i7
- Storage: 500GB SSD Drive with more than half free
Solution 1:
See if this link provides you with some useful knowledge. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/change-processor-speed-macbook-pro-43635.html
It's likely that the MBP is automatically scaling the processing power back to conserve battery power, but that isn't necessarily the only cause.
Solution 2:
This is normal, the same thing happens on my MacBook Air (11 inch, 2014) when the battery gets around 5%, performance drops significantly, it does this because your battery level is so low, just plug it in a charger and it will start working normally again. If this doesn't solve it, try resetting the SMC.