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Macbook Pro battery won't charge

post #1 of 48
1/7/08 at 12:30pm
Thread Starter 
My original battery started loosing capacity until it reached 0% and stayed there. I thought it was a dud battery so i ordered a new one. I have just put it in and it is not charging either.
It has 55% charge at the moment and its sitting there. I can run the laptop on the battery but when i put the charger back in it doesn't charge.

Does anyone know whats wrong and how much it will cost to fix because my macbook is out of warranty.

Thanks, Giles.
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post #2 of 48
1/7/08 at 12:53pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GilesH View Post

My original battery started loosing capacity until it reached 0% and stayed there. I thought it was a dud battery so i ordered a new one. I have just put it in and it is not charging either.
It has 55% charge at the moment and its sitting there. I can run the laptop on the battery but when i put the charger back in it doesn't charge.

Does anyone know whats wrong and how much it will cost to fix because my macbook is out of warranty.

Thanks, Giles.

Can you borrow a charger from someone to see if your charger is bad?
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post #3 of 48
1/7/08 at 2:36pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by backtomac View Post

Can you borrow a charger from someone to see if your charger is bad?

I had to buy a charger recently because my old one fell apart. I don't think its the charger because I can run it off the charger, and it recognizes that the charger is connected.
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post #4 of 48
1/10/08 at 12:00pm
could still be a charger tho, murphy's law but could be the combo of things. A spkie in power could have messed up the whole thing. On that system, think it's the logic board in which case you are pretty hosed.

Check out ifixit.com for guides and parts.
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post #5 of 48
1/10/08 at 3:45pm
Thread Starter 
Ok thanks, il give my friends charger a go when i next see him.
I don't think changing the logic board will be worth it, ive got a 2ghz core duo and a replacement logic baord from ifixit is $600.
Any other possibilites of the failure other than the logic board?
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post #6 of 48
1/10/08 at 5:14pm
Doubt it. The charging controller is built right into the LB nowdays.

You have a really nice desktop now :-P
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post #7 of 48
1/10/08 at 9:40pm
A mail-in repair to Apple directly is $300, making the iFixIt route pointless.

It could also be the MagSafe DC-in port. Those are separate from the main logic board, and can fail alone. Odd that it would sustain but not charge, but I've seen crazier.
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post #8 of 48
1/11/08 at 7:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karelia View Post

A mail-in repair to Apple directly is $300, making the iFixIt route pointless.

It could also be the MagSafe DC-in port. Those are separate from the main logic board, and can fail alone. Odd that it would sustain but not charge, but I've seen crazier.

Really, only $300? Nice. Well,looks like you know more about this than I do. Stinks it will cost to fix it tho. There's been intermittent issues with the magsafe setup.
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post #9 of 48
1/11/08 at 10:25am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Karelia View Post

A mail-in repair to Apple directly is $300, making the iFixIt route pointless.

It could also be the MagSafe DC-in port. Those are separate from the main logic board, and can fail alone. Odd that it would sustain but not charge, but I've seen crazier.

Ok, thanks for the help guys, i'l give apple a ring on monday.
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post #10 of 48
1/19/08 at 9:33am
I currently wet my macbook. Let it dry and works. Everything works, all except it won't charge anymore... so now my macbook is dieing its at 65 percent and time is running out. Ethernet, audio, usb works. I think its the DC board inside, maybe it shorted from the water since most of the water spilled on the top left corner on my macbook. Any comments?
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post #11 of 48
5/1/08 at 2:45pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by guest View Post

I currently wet my macbook. Let it dry and works. Everything works, all except it won't charge anymore... so now my macbook is dieing its at 65 percent and time is running out. Ethernet, audio, usb works. I think its the DC board inside, maybe it shorted from the water since most of the water spilled on the top left corner on my macbook. Any comments?

I spilt water on mine last january too but I had to send it into Apple because I fried it, now neither of my two batteries will charge, my mag safe adapter kept it running however. this happened for both batteries so i went and got my adapter switched out and I'm having the same problem still, the genius I talked to said its an internal issue if the adapter didnt work so I'm trying to look into it more. Did you ever find out anything?
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post #12 of 48
5/1/08 at 3:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by skittr View Post

I spilt water on mine last january too but I had to send it into Apple because I fried it, now neither of my two batteries will charge, my mag safe adapter kept it running however. this happened for both batteries so i went and got my adapter switched out and I'm having the same problem still, the genius I talked to said its an internal issue if the adapter didnt work so I'm trying to look into it more. Did you ever find out anything?

O.K. so I did some research, and I found that reseting the System Management Controller (SMC) fixed my issue on my MBP. This cleared my NVRAM and PRAM ( I believe ) and also reset my Power Management. Anyway my battery is charging now. I'm not sure if anyone will check this thread but thought I would post the answer to my problem since I didn't need it answered anymore. Feel kinda dumb for not trying it sooner.
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post #13 of 48
5/9/08 at 12:17pm
I also browsed through this after having the same issue with my MBP and after coming across this link it fixed it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319
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post #14 of 48
9/30/09 at 9:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jimgleeson View Post

I also browsed through this after having the same issue with my MBP and after coming across this link it fixed it.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319

I have encountered the similar problem the first day I received a MacBook Pro 17 (earlier 2008 model), purchased at ebay. The battery won't take the charge at all. The mega light is OK. But it remains 0% at battery display and no LED blink on the battery brick. I did the following to have the problem solved.

1. Repair the permission using Disk Utility.
2. Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). (See how to reset at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411)
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post #15 of 48
10/3/09 at 10:55am
my laptop battery life has gone from about 8hrs to like half. any ideas how i can sort it out.
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post #16 of 48
11/16/09 at 7:18pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dxp8888 View Post

I have encountered the similar problem the first day I received a MacBook Pro 17 (earlier 2008 model), purchased at ebay. The battery won't take the charge at all. The mega light is OK. But it remains 0% at battery display and no LED blink on the battery brick. I did the following to have the problem solved.

1. Repair the permission using Disk Utility.
2. Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC). (See how to reset at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1411)

I had what seems to be the same problem; the battery would not recharge when connected to AC, but worked fine otherwise. I just reset the System Managemnet Controller (SMC). It worked like a charm, and my battery is now charging as if nothing had ever been wrong.

Another symptom of the same problem is when you check the battery charge, all the indicator lights flash for two or three seconds, regardless of the amount of charge left, and give no useful information other than something is not right.
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post #17 of 48
1/23/10 at 3:22am
Hi

I have a MBP 2.16 Intel Core Duo running 10.6.

When I purchased it, the battery was not charging. I assumed it was a dead battery and so purchased a new battery. But that one is not charging either

I have tried resetting the SMC in accordance with Apple's instructions (with both batteries) - but it hasn't worked.

I have also tried resetting disk permissions.

Is there anything else I can try before I get the logic board replaced?

Thanks for your help!

Gerbs
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post #18 of 48
1/25/10 at 10:57am
I had just updated my Mac Pro and suddenly noticed that my power cord wasn't charging my battery......then the keyboard back lighting went Kaput. I was freaking since it's only a year old. Took out the battery reinstalled..nothing changed. Tried powering it with just power cord and it would start up and immediately shut down. Was just about to run out and order a power cord when I found and read this forum and saw the SMC solution. Tried that and it worked like a charm. Thank you so much for those of you who post solutions to their problems...what a relief! **Doing a lil dance**

*Edit*
Drats....too good to be true...problem of not charging is back, hopefully it's just a new cord that's needed. However there is no wear and tear at all showing on it and has never been dropped . I can't find any info on a replacement MagSafe DC-in port on Apple site. Anyone know if these are costly?
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post #19 of 48
2/22/10 at 11:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by guest View Post

I currently wet my macbook. Let it dry and works. Everything works, all except it won't charge anymore... so now my macbook is dieing its at 65 percent and time is running out. Ethernet, audio, usb works. I think its the DC board inside, maybe it shorted from the water since most of the water spilled on the top left corner on my macbook. Any comments?

I'm having the exact same problem except that my battery just went dead and there's no way for me to charge it back up yet. I tried the SMC reset but no luck. Just wondering if you ever found a fix.

EDIT: After taking apart the unibody i cleaned some of the corrosion off the DC-in board and plugged it back in. It's a miracle but it's now working again and I just saved myself some major bucks. Thank goodness it wasn't the logic board.
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post #20 of 48
5/23/10 at 10:00am
I had the same problem as everyone else here. I installed a brand new battery (on my MacBook Pro 2.6 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo) because my old one was just plain worn out and would only hold a charge for about 30 mins. When I installed the new battery, it stopped charging at 45% and stayed there. I tried all of the "pre-SMC reset" options suggested by Apple with no luck, so I repaired Disk Permissions and reset the SMC. The first time around it didn't work. When I plugged the battery and charger back in, the battery was still at 45% and not charging.

So I reset the SMC again, but this time paying attention to the order things were done, and it worked. The battery is now charging. Here's what I did:

I unplugged the power supply, removed the battery, and then held the power button down for five seconds. Then I plugged the power cord back in FIRST, so that the LED lit bright green (it was a dim green when the battery was installed first). Next I installed the battery. After a few seconds, the LED on the power plug turned dim green again, but when I rebooted the computer, the battery immediately began charging.

I have no idea if doing things in this particular order really worked or if it was just a fluke, but I thought I'd share it here in case it's useful for anyone else.
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post #21 of 48
6/22/10 at 6:53pm
I'll try to make this short. Probably won't happen.

left my laptop closed but on in the bag. i go to use it today... it's been about 5 days or so. Push power button. nothing. Ask around, reading around... (discover how bad it is to let the battery die -- WHO KNEW?!) try the SMC (?) reset... remove power, remove battery, hold Control, Command and power, put battery back and power back and try to start. Nothing. I've tried everything. Nothing. Check the power of the battery - one green flickering light. Leave it plugged in for hours... still one green flickering light. Remove the battery, keep the AC power... Nothing. I've tried blowing out any debris with compressed air, in the battery compartment and the magport. Nothing seems to work.

I have a computer that will not start and will not charge. I guess I'm hosed?

Should I be looking for a new computer? And hellfire if I've lost all my data!!!

Help!

laura
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post #22 of 48
8/5/10 at 6:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by ladycheshire5 View Post

I'll try to make this short. Probably won't happen.

left my laptop closed but on in the bag. i go to use it today... it's been about 5 days or so. Push power button. nothing. Ask around, reading around... (discover how bad it is to let the battery die -- WHO KNEW?!) try the SMC (?) reset... remove power, remove battery, hold Control, Command and power, put battery back and power back and try to start. Nothing. I've tried everything. Nothing. Check the power of the battery - one green flickering light. Leave it plugged in for hours... still one green flickering light. Remove the battery, keep the AC power... Nothing. I've tried blowing out any debris with compressed air, in the battery compartment and the magport. Nothing seems to work.

I have a computer that will not start and will not charge. I guess I'm hosed?

Should I be looking for a new computer? And hellfire if I've lost all my data!!!

Help!

laura

Did you ever get your MacBook Pro to work? I am having the same problem and so far could not find a solution. please let me know
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post #23 of 48
8/14/10 at 11:53am
Have same (?) problem with my black MacBook.

Battery is not charging when connected. Charger is ok, battery is ok (see System Profiler info), battery even charges in my partner's MacBook. Found that out after swapping battery with her white MacBook. But in my MB neither one is charging. So I can work mobile till the battery is empty, then I have to charge my battery in her MB. Resetting SMC didn't solve the issue. System Profiler says AC Charger not connected, well it is. So is my logic board broken?

Battery Information:

Model Information:
ManufacturertDP
Device nametASMB016
Pack Lot Codet0002
PCB Lot Codet0000
Firmware Versiont0110
Hardware Revisiont0500
Cell Revisiont0102
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh)t1599
Fully chargedtNo
ChargingtNo
Full charge capacity (mAh)t4906
Health Information:
Cycle countt320
ConditiontNormal
Battery InstalledtYes
Amperage (mA)t-1268
Voltage (mV)t11107

AC Charger Information:

ConnectedtNo
ChargingtNo
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post #24 of 48
8/29/10 at 4:33pm
My mb won't charge. Or actually it charges sometimes as then randomly stops taking a charge. It's a late 2008 unibody aluminum. Now after the last two months of charging it has stopped and the led on the MagSafe is blinking green intermittently with the green airport lights. Argghh!!
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post #25 of 48
8/30/10 at 1:39am
I'm also having similar problems from time to time. I've noticed that it sometimes happen if i unplug and replug the magsafe connector too quickly. If i wait a while after unpluging (about 1 minute, until the battery tells the remaining charge instead of "calculating...") and then re-plug the cable it usually works fine again. After re-pluging the cable i usually still get "not charging" for a minute or two though, but after a while the battery usually starts charging as it should.
restarting the computer or even resetting the SMC never seems to solve the problem for me though...
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post #26 of 48
9/12/10 at 5:20pm
So I have a rather interesting problem with my A1226 MBP.
I bought it used about a year ago. First few months everything was working like a charm, but then something happened. One day the device wouldn't charge the battery any more. The device wouldn't even turn on if it was on direct AC-power. But instead the battery gave it sufficient power to stay on.

My local dealer suggested that I should buy a new battery, which I did. That didn't fix the problem. Next I was told the left side I/O board was probably fried and had to be replaced, so I ordered a new one. After installing it in my MBP still doesn't work. I've also tried a three different AC-units, which all work fine on my 2010 MBP.

I recently also installed a new power cord between the battery and the mag-safe port but the device remains silent.
How ever, a charged battery (conducting the electricity directly via the old power cords pins to the battery) does magically revive it.

So wtf..?
Have I missed something crucial, since I thought I had changed every link in this chain.
Obviously I have.
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post #27 of 48
9/23/10 at 6:00am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GilesH View Post

My original battery started loosing capacity until it reached 0% and stayed there. I thought it was a dud battery so i ordered a new one. I have just put it in and it is not charging either.
It has 55% charge at the moment and its sitting there. I can run the laptop on the battery but when i put the charger back in it doesn't charge.

Does anyone know whats wrong and how much it will cost to fix because my macbook is out of warranty.

Thanks, Giles.

This happened to me after only 1 month and I found out the logic board and power supply were defective and apple replaced them for free.If is is the logic board it cost way over $500.00.Start saving up for a new mac book.A power failure would cause this also. I have a AVR to prevent voltage spikes.
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post #28 of 48
9/30/10 at 4:20am
i have the same problem with my mac book pro

the first time this happened my mac pro was still (only just) under warranty - first apple support sent me a new battery but that did not change anything so then i took the mac pro into the apple store and left it with them - after a fair bit of investigation they eventually returned the mac pro with a new logic board

a few months later with mac pro out of warranty the SAME thing has happened again, ok so maybe it is something else this time but same effect which is really annoying

I have tried all the suggestions above numerous times unfortunately to no avail and have become accustomed to using the mac pro connected to charger which works fine but does not make the lap top portable or any good for travel

maybe I'll take it into the apple shop and see if they can have a quick look - i wonder if it is the socket where the mag safe connecter goes in? this non-charging battery issue is so annoying and sounds like such a widespread problem seems apple not such good quality after all - well it certainly will make me think twice about forking out all that money for another mac pro
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post #29 of 48
11/12/10 at 4:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumi View Post

The battery is now charging. Here's what I did:

I unplugged the power supply, removed the battery, and then held the power button down for five seconds. Then I plugged the power cord back in FIRST, so that the LED lit bright green (it was a dim green when the battery was installed first). Next I installed the battery. After a few seconds, the LED on the power plug turned dim green again, but when I rebooted the computer, the battery immediately began charging.

Thanks gumi, your method saved the day. After trawling the www for days and forking out to buy a new charger only to have that stop charging after 1 day I came across your method and it worked. Good one, I'm super grateful.

Here's what was/is happening to me. Sometimes I plug my charger in and everything's great but pull out the magsafe and you're screwed. It's a few hours unplugged before you can plug the charger in and see the lights come on. It's got worse lately, it used to be a few minutes, which was ok because the battery life was sufficient to get me through. But lately it's become hours, the first time with a long delay I was at a client and I was stuck up the creek without a paddle. I eventually bailed to the computer shop to buy a new charger only to find my old charger worked when I got home, so I took the new one back to the store. Then it happened again and again and again, so I figured my charger must be on the way out. Off to get another new charger. Worked a charm... for 1 day, then the new charger never worked again, but the original worked (with the long delays between uses). UNTIL I found gumi's post. Followed the steps and now the lights come on on both chargers and I can start earning money again. Is it time to get my money back from the store again? (60W magsafe costs R1200 [>USD170] in South Africa)
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post #30 of 48
12/19/10 at 10:48am
Quote:
Originally Posted by gumi View Post

I unplugged the power supply, removed the battery, and then held the power button down for five seconds. Then I plugged the power cord back in FIRST, so that the LED lit bright green (it was a dim green when the battery was installed first). Next I installed the battery. After a few seconds, the LED on the power plug turned dim green again, but when I rebooted the computer, the battery immediately began charging.

Gumi, thank you for providing these steps as it has helped me to resolve a similar issue I was experiencing with my MacBook Pro!

My exact issue started happening with a brand new replacement battery that Apple shipped to me a few days ago. Early yesterday morning I installed the new battery and gave it a full charge and proceded to use the system normally. Later that evening it was time to perform it's initial calibration by running it on battery power until it was in sleep mode for 5+ hours, I went to bed and let the MacBook Pro continue it's drain of the battery with the screen saver running and woke up to the system being totally dead, no sleep light on indicating the system was in standby which I found unusual but thought nothing of it. I proceeded to plugin the AC Adapter with a green status light which should have been amber to show the battery is in charge status. I waited for about 10 minutes before attempting to power the unit up without success, completely dead and was begining to get concerned.

After resetting the SMC I was experiencing the same issue and called Apple and was walked through the same SMC reset procedure without success and they deemed my MacBook to be faulty but before we ended the call I mentioned that I still have the original defective battery on hand and we proceded to swap the battery and everything was working fine. Apple demed the new battery to be defective and is shipping out another replacement for the replacement lol.

As a side note the charge indicator light on the new battery was blinking extremely fast.

As stuborn as I am, I continued my troubleshooting and came across this thread and tried your steps of first removing the battery and ac adapter, perform the SMC reset by holding the power bbutton down for 5 seconds, attach the AC Adapter FIRST then installed the battery. When I first plugged in the AC Adapter the status indicator was green, after installing the new battery the indicator turned amber as it normally should (it stayed green when attempting standard Apple SMC procedure), I then waited for 10-15 minutes before attempting to power up and it was a success!

After the successfull reset and ability to charge I signed up to become a member here and post my findings

Thanks again!
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post #31 of 48
12/26/10 at 9:00pm
Hi. Thought I would share my experience as it's slightly different from those posted above. I hope it someone will find it useful.

I'm a bit fuzzy as to the origin of my problems. I've been through two power cords and just got my third battery (unnecessarily it turns out: gumi's post just got my second one working again!).

I can't for the life of me remember what happened most recently to get me where I was before trying out gumi's method. I know at some point I left my macbook on and unplugged for a weekend. I know at some point I couldn't charge my battery and that replacing the power cord fixed that. I think both those events may have been at the same time. There's another thing that happened, I think, to get me to where I was just now, but I can't remember.

Most recently, I've only been able to run off of the power adapter. The battery status read 'not charging'. Unplugging the computer meant turning it off, which was incredibly frustrating.

I got a new battery for Christmas. When I first put it in it was as if nothing changed. But when I restarted it worked. I was charging, and I could run off its power. When I tried the next day it still worked. I started it up and shut it down with no problem. But the next time I tried, it wasn't working. I was back to status: 'not charging.'

I tried reseting the SMC using Apple's method with no success. gumi's method, on the other hand, seems to have fixed it! I keep pulling the power cord out, expecting the computer to forget it has a battery one of these minutes, but so far so good! Apple really needs to update the 'reset SMC' support article!


Quote:
Originally Posted by gumi View Post

So I reset the SMC again, but this time paying attention to the order things were done, and it worked. The battery is now charging. Here's what I did:

I unplugged the power supply, removed the battery, and then held the power button down for five seconds. Then I plugged the power cord back in FIRST, so that the LED lit bright green (it was a dim green when the battery was installed first). Next I installed the battery. After a few seconds, the LED on the power plug turned dim green again, but when I rebooted the computer, the battery immediately began charging.
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post #32 of 48
12/26/10 at 9:23pm
I've posted to Apple's support forums in the hope that they'll updated their kb article.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread....readID=2696776
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post #33 of 48
1/7/11 at 7:01pm
i also had the problem with the battery! It didn't charge anymore! and my garanty alrady ran out! so i started to cut the battery in two halfs trough the plastic parts. after that i found 3. lion batterys. The problem with most of the broken batterys is that they are exhaustive discharged. the trick to solve this is to give them a high voltage electircity source like a laptop charger (20V). i did that to alle the 3. lion batterys i found inside the macbook battery but just for a few seconds to reactivate them and now they are working fine and i didnt use the macbook for over a year! I just had one problem: The Battery didn't look nice after i cut it into two halfes :-) But it works!
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post #34 of 48
1/12/11 at 7:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by stokuewe View Post

i also had the problem with the battery! It didn't charge anymore! and my garanty alrady ran out! so i started to cut the battery in two halfs trough the plastic parts. after that i found 3. lion batterys. The problem with most of the broken batterys is that they are exhaustive discharged. the trick to solve this is to give them a high voltage electircity source like a laptop charger (20V). i did that to alle the 3. lion batterys i found inside the macbook battery but just for a few seconds to reactivate them and now they are working fine and i didnt use the macbook for over a year! I just had one problem: The Battery didn't look nice after i cut it into two halfes :-) But it works!

When you did this with the laptop adapter did you disconnect each battery and do it individually or while connected to the circuit? I have 2 MacBook (non pro) batteries I would like to try this with.
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post #35 of 48
4/13/11 at 11:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by GilesH View Post

My original battery started loosing capacity until it reached 0% and stayed there. I thought it was a dud battery so i ordered a new one. I have just put it in and it is not charging either.
It has 55% charge at the moment and its sitting there. I can run the laptop on the battery but when i put the charger back in it doesn't charge.

Does anyone know whats wrong and how much it will cost to fix because my macbook is out of warranty.

Thanks, Giles.

hey sorry i didn"t had a chance to tell you that before you ordered the battery i would save you time and money , luckly i have 2 same macbook pro"s about a week ago , my battery wouldn't charge so i tried diffrent charger , but nothing still not charging , i took the other macbook pro took the battery out slide it in , and still not charging , the battery that i had in my macbook pro first put it in the second mac and the mac charged it so i gave up went to best buy , its still on warrenty , i am waiting for geek squad to give me call what the deal is
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post #36 of 48
7/12/11 at 4:01am
Read all, tried all, (i.e. reseted pram), very much afraid the problem is in the logic board. Battery new and full, cord good and adequate. But let me describe what happened, in hope some of the techies here will recognize the problem.
Sunday afternoon I opened my Mac (always on sleep when not traveling) and after a short while, less then a minute, it went dead with a kind of click. I thought the battery was empty, although I have taken out the magsafe cord just prior to opening the comp, because it was green. Tried the button on the batt. - it was full. Tried to turn it on, got the sound, the light, but very soon it went dead again, with the same "click". Unfortunately I insisted - and got even less light before it went dead again.
I really needed my Mac at the time so I took out the battery, put in the cord and turned it on - it booted without a problem. So I concluded it must have been the heat, an extremely hot afternoon plus recently charged battery, so, maybe, I thought, a safety mechanizm turned it off. Taking out the battery lessened considerably the heat of the unit.
Finished the job, turned the Mac off and put it back together. But tomorrow, it wouldn't budge on the (still full) battery. It refused to boot unless on AC power and promptly went dead as soon as the cord was out.
The power indicator shows AC, with a note: (Not Charging) and I have all the symptoms of comp. not recognizing the battery - only, unfortunately it does since in hardware overview it correctly reads all the batt. parameters.
I REALLY hope it is not the logic board. Afraid it is. Anyone familiar with the problem? Did I burn my lovely Pro (2.4 GHz, 17'') by insisting on turning it on before air conditioning had any effects? Can I fix it without changing a part which is so expensive it is probably better to buy a new Mac?
Thanks for any answer
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post #37 of 48
7/12/11 at 4:02am
Addendum: Mu Mac just went dead on me again and managed to come to life on its own only when I removed the battery. Before that he tried to boot unsuccesfully (twice before I managed to take the batt. out). Definitely a heat issue, but why did it ruin the relationship with the battery? Where? Help, anybody?
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post #38 of 48
8/16/11 at 1:12pm
I have a late-2008 15" Macbook Pro, model A1286. I had many of the symptoms people are describing in this thread...battery wouldn't charge, the power cable had no issues, the charge light on the power adapter would intermittently show Green but not charge, or not light up at all.

I replaced the battery (it was time anyway, wasn't holding much of a charge) and that didn't resolve the issue. I borrowed a power adapter from someone, that wasn't the problem. It turns out to be the MagSafe DC-in board, a small circuit board inside that contains the Magsafe plug. I don't know which other MBP models have a separate DC-in board, but I do know some newer models have it contained on the Logic Board, which is a much more expensive fix ($600 for the LB, vs. $30 for the DC-in board).

The MagSafe plug fails because the entirety of the force from plugging and unplugging your power chord is being absorbed by two small weld points on the circuit board. You might thing that all that force from the magnet when you're plugging & unplugging is being absorbed by the aluminum body, but it's not. The end of the power cord forcefully connects to the grey area surrounding the actual power connection on the side of the computer, and that grey area is only held on by the two small welds inside. It's not hard to imagine how this would eventually wear out, begin to put strain on the actual power connections, and before long you have a failing power port.

I bought the replacement DC-in board from ifixit.com for $30, but be very careful if you're going to do the repair yourself. You have to disassemble the entire computer to replace this one component, and if you don't have any experience in this area I suggest you find help. There are many small, fragile connections in the computer that would be very easy to permanently break if you're not careful. I believe ifixit.com has a thorough walkthrough for this issue.

Apologies if anyone has mentioned the MagSafe DC-in board already, I scanned through the thread and just saw a lot of people who couldn't figure it out. I hope this helps someone.
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post #39 of 48
8/21/11 at 3:36pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by magnusalpha View Post

I have a late-2008 15" Macbook Pro, model A1286. I had many of the symptoms people are describing in this thread...battery wouldn't charge, the power cable had no issues, the charge light on the power adapter would intermittently show Green but not charge, or not light up at all.

I replaced the battery (it was time anyway, wasn't holding much of a charge) and that didn't resolve the issue. I borrowed a power adapter from someone, that wasn't the problem. It turns out to be the MagSafe DC-in board, a small circuit board inside that contains the Magsafe plug. I don't know which other MBP models have a separate DC-in board, but I do know some newer models have it contained on the Logic Board, which is a much more expensive fix ($600 for the LB, vs. $30 for the DC-in board).

The MagSafe plug fails because the entirety of the force from plugging and unplugging your power chord is being absorbed by two small weld points on the circuit board. You might thing that all that force from the magnet when you're plugging & unplugging is being absorbed by the aluminum body, but it's not. The end of the power cord forcefully connects to the grey area surrounding the actual power connection on the side of the computer, and that grey area is only held on by the two small welds inside. It's not hard to imagine how this would eventually wear out, begin to put strain on the actual power connections, and before long you have a failing power port.

I bought the replacement DC-in board from ifixit.com for $30, but be very careful if you're going to do the repair yourself. You have to disassemble the entire computer to replace this one component, and if you don't have any experience in this area I suggest you find help. There are many small, fragile connections in the computer that would be very easy to permanently break if you're not careful. I believe ifixit.com has a thorough walkthrough for this issue.

Apologies if anyone has mentioned the MagSafe DC-in board already, I scanned through the thread and just saw a lot of people who couldn't figure it out. I hope this helps someone.


I have a 2008 MBP which developed the graphics board failure. Apple replaced it under their flat fee repair system. For a flat four or five hundred they handed me back a working MBP with, IIRC, only a short warrant on the graphics card, nothing else once I inspected it. Unfortunately, I gave it the AOK since I was thrilled to be back to work for less than my nightmare told me, and everything seemed fine, but alas the replacement logic board has this failure to charge a battery 90% of the time it is on.

Thanks for this tip. Think I'll try it.

Word of caution to others: don't give the OK on a MBP without watching it fully charge a battery.
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post #40 of 48
8/23/11 at 6:48pm
My battery was not charging; when the power adapter is plugged in, it runs fine off of AC power, and when the power adapter is not plulgged in, it runs off of battery power (which decreases over time, since it can't recharge).

I did an SMC reset, and now the Macbook Pro does not turn on at all. (This is much worse; it was working before, both with and without power adapter, and now does not work at all.) The indicator lights for the battery stay on constantly.
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