Question / Help 2018 MBP i9 draws down battery to 1% when plugged in to AC, Streaming to Twitch

kaiservongrauer

kaiservongrauer

New Member
In a nutshell, when I stream to twitch, no matter if I'm streaming at 1080p 60fps 6000bps or 720p 30fps 4000bps, while plugged in to AC, at some point the battery begins to draw down and eventually goes to 1%, but no further than 1%. I don't get any system warnings about the battery or anything. When I shut down OBS or unplug my capture card, the MBP will begin charging the battery again. Here's what I'm running:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018)
2.9 GHz Intel Core i9
32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4
Radeon Pro 560X 4096 MB
Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB
MacOS Mojave 10.14.1

Avermedia Live Gamer Ultra GC553 v1.3.4.2 connected via Apple USB-C cable
Logitech C922 connected via Apple USB to USB-C dongle
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 connected via Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter

Here's my setup:
Video: Xbox One X > Avermedia GC553 > MacBookPro
Audio: Xbox One X > Astro MixAmpPro TR > Scarlett 2i2 > MacBookPro
Cam: Logitech C922 > MacBookPro

I've run:
1080p 60fps 6000bps x264 Fast on the high end down to 720p 30fps 4000bps x264 Faster and I still see the problem.

I've reset the SMC on the MBP a few times now but it's still happening. In Activity Monitor I can see that OBS is having a high energy impact which doesn't surprise me. I'm just trying to figure out if it's a problem with OBS, the Avermedia GC553 using too much power, or the SMC on the MBP is having issues. I've got three different log files attached. Let me know if you need to see more log files or if there's any other info I can provide.
 

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kaiservongrauer

kaiservongrauer

New Member
michaelmistaken said:
Have a look at the "Confirming Power Usage In System Information" section of the document below. Looks like there's a "Extra Operating Current" field under Hardware->USB->your device that macOS should report.

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT204377
Click to expand...

I took some screenshots with everything plugged in and here's what I saw:

Screen Shot 2018-11-24 at 1.00.28 PM.png


Screen Shot 2018-11-24 at 1.00.35 PM.png
 
M

michaelmistaken

New Member
Found a thread on MacRumors from someone experiencing something similar. It might be "working as intended". Hmm.

Given the power loss is slow (about 1.5 watts?), a powered hub (or external monitor?) to take some load off the internal power system might do the trick.
 
Last edited:
kaiservongrauer

kaiservongrauer

New Member
michaelmistaken said:
It might be "working as intended". Hmm.
Click to expand...

I spoke with Apple support last week about the issue and they didn't really have any idea. I got to talk to tier two support and he didn't really know what was up either. I'd think that if it was working as intended, they'd know, but you never know these days. I'm going to give them a call again right now and ask if this is by design but I'm not sure it's worth my time. I have a gut feeling that they won't know, I'll have to bring my entire setup down to the apple store, waste a day there reproducing it, and wind up in the same exact spot that I'm in right now, looking for a good quality powered hub.

It's funny, I just don't want to fry my damned laptop, lol.
 
kaiservongrauer

kaiservongrauer

New Member
Ok, I spoke to Apple again. My issue is owned by tier 2 support now so they put my calls right through to a senior rep, which is kind of cool. It turns out that their engineers are looking into issues where an application is using 25% or more of processor power AND there's an external device plugged into the computer that is simultaneously drawing significant power causing the battery to draw down. At the moment, their engineers are only looking at external apple devices and apple software that causes this to happen, so they're glad to see an example of non-apple external hardware and software that's doing this. So, yay, I guess.

The rep recommended trying a powered external hub, only thing is both of us aren't exactly sure that it'll take care of the issue. I've ordered the CalDigit Thunderbolt Station 3 Plus (https://www.caldigit.com/thunderbolt-3-dock/thunderbolt-station-3-plus/) and will test and report back. From what I understand from the documentation, it'll shoot 85W toward the laptop and 15W toward powering whatever is plugged into the hub.
 
kaiservongrauer

kaiservongrauer

New Member
michaelmistaken said:
Did the CalDigit hub help your issue Kaiser?
Click to expand...

It did. I plugged my entire streaming rig into it and there was no drawdown on the battery while I streamed!

I ran it like this for about a week of streaming and even ran it through a 24 hour straight marathon of streaming Battlefield V for Extra Life charity and everything was good. Two days ago I noticed a buzzing during my stream. Here's what it sounds like:

Quick example of buzzing/sizzle during stream

I know it's a separate issue but I don't think it's an OBS problem. I did a ton of troubleshooting, disconnecting and eliminating devices, rebooting, uninstalled OBS and deleted all the preference files several times and so on. I found that when the CalDigit was plugged in at all, I'd get the buzzing. It happens when I stream, when I record, and even happens when I just monitor. If I unplug the CalDigit, no buzzing.

Like I said, this new problem isn't an OBS problem, it's a CalDigit problem. I'll be sending them a message about it tomorrow.
 
M

michaelmistaken

New Member
kaiservongrauer said:
It did. I plugged my entire streaming rig into it and there was no drawdown on the battery while I streamed!

I ran it like this for about a week of streaming and even ran it through a 24 hour straight marathon of streaming Battlefield V for Extra Life charity and everything was good. Two days ago I noticed a buzzing during my stream.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the update. Hope you get the buzz figured out!

Does anything connected to the Caldigit in the new arrangement have its own external power supply? (Ground loop interference, etc, just thought I'd ask...)
 
Djjoshuacarl

Djjoshuacarl

Member
Add me (and a few others to this list)
I have a gigabit thunderbolt adapter.
a powered USB hub (with devices I’ve taken out and put back in the chain to rule out, including a HD60s, usb mixer & a 920) and that’s it. I actually have an open thunderbolt port.
I’ve lowered the screen brightness which sucks to do, but helps a tad.
but as of right now, I’m cooking about %20 of my battery an hour
(I have a 2015 i7 running mojave)

I do remember Mojave had some power issues with overconsumption while sleeping that require you going into terminals and putting in custom hibernate mode because it was draining the battery during sleep as well I wonder if that somehow tied to it
 
D

DJmacman

New Member
I am having a very similar issue with a very similar MBP. Mine only started doing this when I am Keying out my background and sending vid thru NDI as a webcam for virtual meetings.
 
M

Megamatz

New Member
I have the same problem. OBS is completly draining my battery even if the power is plugged in. I have the same MBP and I also have a Scarlet 2i2 connected(?)
 
B

Breadcrumbs85

New Member
Strangely Ive been OK until a recent OSX update and now my battery is draining while plugged in directly to the apple charger. I thought maybe the passthrough power of my USB hub was the issue hence I now have the apple charger plugged into a port all to itself. I use iStat also and the stat icon for the batter says "not charging".

Just finnished a 6 hour stream and after closing OBS the "not charging" text has gone and its calculated a time to full charge as per usual.

So I agree it seems unlikely OBS would interfere with the laptops own power delivery behaviour. After closing OBS it stopped doing what it was doing so I dont think we can right OBS off as the cause?
 
B

Breadcrumbs85

New Member
Potential solution pending tomorrows stream :P

(TLDR : OBS and Device power consumption = more than laptop charger provide. So power USB hubs and devices separately with device linked bellow.)

OK so after a bit of troubleshooting, I realised the devices plugged in (Brio Webcam, Mic and Elgato HD60s+) where drawing enough watts in combination with OBS's power consumption (which seems to be higher for me since 28. released) to stray over the 94 watts the laptop charger can supply. Hence it starts scavenging power from the battery.

To combat this I have plugged the USB hub with my mic and webcam in with a 20 watt apple charger to provide power for those two devices and the hub itself which is doing the ethernet also, the hubs pass-through power port will power the hub and devices and Apples website confirmed that the laptop will look for the port providing the most power and ignore other powered connections. This should be sufficient based on my guestimate that each USB device is drawing 900ma at 5v and the hub itself handling data and ethernet would draw something similar. This resulted in the power draw on the battery being less whilst streaming, which seems to confirm my theory.

However there was still draw on the battery due to the capture device, which means I couldn't do special event streams lasting longer than 8-9 hours, and I still feel that using battery power in conjunction with the power from the wall is cycling the battery and not good for it's lifespan or performance. So for the capture device which is the other side of the room I have purchased and active USB extension :


and a USB to barrel jack cable for its power :


This setup seems to provide three advantages ;

The capture card is powered even when its not plugged into the laptop, so on non-stream days the passthrough of the capture card works fine. So I can game normally without needing a spare USB power source for the capture card.​
​
This also powers the device when its plugged into the laptop which should stop power draw. This means I should only need to power the laptop itself to run OBS and encode and upload my stream. I cant see any way that OBS could be using more than the 94 watts the laptop charger provides.​
​
The extender comes with a VERY long cable which can be handy for setups like mine where the console and TV and capture device are the other side of the room. This active extension both powers the device and provides a cable long enough to reach where my laptop is when I stream. Which is great as a decent length USB C to C had its own cost which can be avoided with this device.​
​
So as mentioned I will be streaming tomorrow to test this setup and will aim to update if there are any issues.
 
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Breadcrumbs85

New Member
I have been experimenting with using a different encoder (in OBS 28.0.2) for recording the stream and uploading it. I use x264 for the stream as it supports constant bitrate which is required by Twitch. But i'm using the "Apple VT H264 Hardware Encoder" to record with a bitrate of 10,000 so as to not pressure the encoder and cause too much work for it which might draw too much power in an off itself.

Doing so allowed me to get my battery consumption down to 1% per 16 minutes of streaming and recording at the same time. Which is improved from 7 minutes per 1% of battery whilst playing the withcher 3 which has alot of camera movement because its 3rd person.

However it does mean the recordings of my stream are a few GB larger due to the larger bitrate on the encoder making the recording. But storage is a variable I can control easier than the battery usage of OBS currently on Macbook Pro/OSX
 
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