Most of the users of MacBook Pro are facing the problem of the poor battery life. As we all know the battery life falls far short from what the manufacturers claim. But, the users have reported that the battery life is half than indicated. Certain tests have been performed under normal usage conditions but then too the battery life was for 3- 4 hours only.

Potential causes &fixes for poor battery life:

Constant engagement of the discrete NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics card can be the cause. As the graphics card is used even if you run a less intense graphics application. MacBook Pro is loaded with the feature to automatically switch between the Intel and NVIDIA graphics, from which Intel is lower power and NVIDIA is the higher power graphics. But, MacBook Pro doesn't has the option to keep it off all the times, you have to keep the NIVIDIA card on all the time. This is considered as the biggest reason for low battery life in MacBook Pro.

• If in case you want to know which card currently your MacBook is using.
• Go t o Apple menu >> open System Profiler >> Graphics/Displays.
• At the bottom you will find NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M.
• If it indicates yes, that means the NVIDIA card is on else vice versa.

If the NIVIDIA card is on and you want to turn it off the only option you are left with is to quit the application you are running currently. Few of the non graphic application which turn the NIVIDIA card on are Skype, HyperSpaces, NetNewsWire, Tweetie and 1Password

Check the Login/startup items It may also cause the higher-power graphics card to turn on

To check Login Items:

• Go To Apple menu >> System Preferences >> Accounts
• Chose the current account from the left pane.
• Now click on to the Login Items tab which is there in the right pane
• Now need to deselect all the items except the application installed by Apple.
• It won't allow to make changes right away, click lock box in lower left to enable changes.
• Save the changes made, restart the system
• Calibration: New MacBook batteries should be calibrated before the batteries are charged fully.

Re-installing you Mac: Tests have proven the fact that the use of external hard drive on another Mac or cloned hard drive on the MacBook pro can also be the reason improper power management and battery outage. In such a case Re-installing you Mac can help.

These untimely battery outages can be really harmful for the data on your Mac, the data can get corrupt and inaccessible if in case you face any data loss Mac data recovery software can help