late '08 Unibody Macbook - won't take a charge

[DunnInLA]

My wife brought this computer down to me and said: "It's not charging".

I looked at it to find the receptor in the computer for the power cord was dislodged and partly out of its hole/slot, shoved back into the computer.

I pulled the receptor back into place with the power cord end itself (it magnetically pulled it back in its slot), but still no charging.

The batter would only last about 20 minutes, and did say "Service Battery" before this happened, so I thought maybe it's just that the battery is too old.

I visited the Genius Bar, found out a new battery is $130 plus tax, and declined to think about it.

So, bought a knockoff battery on Amazon by Anker ($50). Amazon.com: [Upgraded Version] Anker® New Laptop Battery for Apple A1278 A1280 Macbook 13-Inch Series, Aluminum Unibody (2008 Version) - 18 Months Warranty [Li-ion 6-cell 4200mAh]: Computers & Accessories

While waiting for the battery, I opened the back of the computer, removed the eight screws, and found tha receptor for the charger was loose. It has two screws that were loose, so I tightened them back down and put the back of the computer back on.

The battery arrived yesterday with about a third of a charge, and upon installing it, the computer worked fine. But it wasn't charging.

So... when the charger receptor was loose, did it sever some type of connector to the battery?

Has anyone replace that little black receptor (about the size of a nickel, but not round)?

Or do I just need to go revisit the Genius bar?

Thanks.

 

[techiesteve]

The magsafe board to which the power adapter magsafe plug attaches, connects to the underside of the logic board by 4 or 5 wires and a plug. If there was a problem with this the MacBook would not run from the power adapter. Normally a 'service battery' message is fairly accurate, though on rare occasions I've seen this caused by a faulty logic board. My first suspicion would be the new non Apple battery, did this too generate a service battery message? Did the genius bar diagnose on the basis of the error message, or did they run MRI or check with a known good test battery?