Macbook Pro battery won't charge

gilesh · January 7, 2008 2:30PM

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.

backtomac · January 7, 2008 2:53PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GilesH

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?

gilesh · January 7, 2008 4:36PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by backtomac

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.

kmac1036 · January 10, 2008 2:00PM

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.

gilesh · January 10, 2008 5:45PM

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?

kmac1036 · January 10, 2008 7:14PM

Doubt it. The charging controller is built right into the LB nowdays.

You have a really nice desktop now :-P

karelia · January 10, 2008 11:40PM

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.

kmac1036 · January 11, 2008 9:53AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karelia

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.

gilesh · January 11, 2008 12:25PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Karelia

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.

guest · January 19, 2008 11:33AM

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?

skittr · May 1, 2008 4:45PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guest

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?

skittr · May 1, 2008 5:34PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skittr

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.

jimgleeson · May 9, 2008 2:17PM

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

dxp8888 · September 30, 2009 11:08AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimgleeson

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)

yoniyangi · October 3, 2009 12:55PM

my laptop battery life has gone from about 8hrs to like half. any ideas how i can sort it out.

luqavi · November 16, 2009 9:18PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dxp8888

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.

gerbras · January 23, 2010 5:22AM

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

macattak · January 25, 2010 12:57PM

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?

sean99 · February 23, 2010 1:14AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by guest

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.

gumi · May 23, 2010 12:00PM

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.

ladycheshire5 · June 22, 2010 8:53PM

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

Macbook Pro battery won't charge

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