Macbook "not charging", battery replaced.

I have a 13" unibody that was having problems charging, and eventually died and would not run off of battery or the power cord. When I took off the bottom of the computer and disconnected the battery the computer would work fine as long as it was hooked up to the power cord. I bought a new battery and instaleld it and the computer worked flawlessly. I decided to recalibrate the battery per the instructions on the apples website and now when I plug the power cord into the computer for normal charging I get the "Not Charging" icon on the top. If I pull the plug it wont shut down it shows that it has a little battery left. The condition shows as normal and coconut battery shows the current charge @ 2%. Everything worked fine 6 hours ago.

Anyone have any ideas?



EDIT: Resetting PRAM did not change anything.

The Magsafe LED is green.

10.6.8

Try reset SMC
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

quin said:

Try reset SMC
Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)

Click to expand...

Tried that. Still no luck :-/

I have a new charger coming in the mail so I will see if using that solves the problem. Right now there are 2 macbooks in the family with only one charger as my puppy chewed through he cord on the other one. I tried swapping the magsafe but keeping the same cord (magsafe to computer), but still didn't have any luck.

I think it's weird that I originally could not even power the Macbook on unless I removed the bottom, disconnected the battery and plugged in the power supply. Then when I installed a new battery it worked perfectly with or without the power adapter until I tried to recalibrate the battery.

If I take the charger and put it in and out of the computer a few times sometimes it'll start to work. So hopefully this new charger will work.

Just an update. I received a new charger, but it didn't make a difference. I purchased another battery (3 total including the original battery) and it has been working..ok, so long as it's hooked up to power. If I run the Mac on just the battery it will run down like normal, but sometimes will not charge back up. If run the battery down to say..62%, plug it in at night, when I wake up in the morning it'll be fully charged, this will work if the computer is on or off and ONLY if it's not being used. I let it deplete completely the other day and I had the same problem as before, it will NOT charge or power on if it's completely dead no matter how long I leave it plugged in (In this case 2-weeks). I swapped one of the other batteries(which gave me problems) back in and now it's magically working again. Does this sound like a mag safe board issue?


EDIT:
I forgot to add that the orange/green light on the magsafe charger rarely lights up, or is VERY dim green.

Does this sound like a mag safe board issue?

Click to expand...

Unfortunately, those are usually the symptoms of a defective board. I believe, however, they're fairly easy to swap out yourself. Go to iFixit: The free repair manual and look up the step by step instructions for your model. They may also have the board you need in stock.

chscag said:

Unfortunately, those are usually the symptoms of a defective board. I believe, however, they're fairly easy to swap out yourself. Go to iFixit: The free repair manual and look up the step by step instructions for your model. They may also have the board you need in stock.

Click to expand...

Are you referring to a defective logic board or magsafe board?
I'm hoping Mag board, I have an extra laying around.
Thanks for the help

Not logic board, although if the new Mag Safe (DC input) board doesn't do it, the logic board is next suspect.

Thank you very much for the help!

Similar problem

Hello there,

Was hoping for some advice please if possible: essentially my questions are:
1. Should my next step be trying to replace the MagSafe board as per: Installing MacBook Core 2 Duo Magsafe Board - iFixit
2. Do I need to take my new battery out of the machine in the meantime to prevent it losing capacity.

The story so far:
I have a 15" MacBook Pro aluminium case from ~2006, 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, running MacOSX 10.6.8

The battery gradually lost capacity over the past 6-7 years, and finally got to the point where I had to leave the magsafe charger connected to run the computer for more than a few minutes.

A week ago, the battery completely died, showing an "X" in the status bar battery indicator. The computer then wouldn't start at all (you could hear it trying to boot over and over), so I removed the dead battery, leaving the magsafe connected, and the computer returned to normal function.

Hoping to be able to use the computer in a portable manner, I bought a replacement battery on eBay - not genuine Mac but a compatible Chinese-made equivalent. (Hoping that's not a problem...)

I installed the new battery when it arrived but noticed that the status bar now said "Not Charging". The system profiler told me the battery had about 50% charge at that point. Thinking maybe the battery needed to be run down to be able to be recognised, I ran it off battery only (with magsafe disconnected) for a while until it shut down when battery ran out, then plugged in magsafe again and the computer again ran normally but said "Not Charging" and the System Profiler now showed the battery to be empty.

I found this thread, and tried resetting the SCM as per Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
No luck, magsafe still green and battery still "Not Charging".

Tried updating the system battery firmware as per Battery Update 1.2
No luck, magsafe still green, battery now not even recognised by the system to exist. System Profiler said no battery installed.

Reset SCM again and battery recognised to exist again but still "Not Charging" and magsafe green. Have left it overnight and no gain in battery charge as evidenced by removing the magsafe and the system shuts down just as if battery wasn't there.

According to Coconut Battery's interpretation of the current state of affairs, the battery's capacity has decreased to 90% of it's original capacity according to this program. It was at 100% yesterday!

Here is System Profiler text grab of current state of affairs:
Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number:
Manufacturer: SMP
Device name: ASMB012
Pack Lot Code: 420a
PCB Lot Code: 0512
Firmware Version: 860f
Hardware Revision: 860f
Cell Revision: 860f
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 0
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5057
Health Information:
Cycle count: 2
Condition: Normal
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 9849

System Power Settings:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 180
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On LAN: No
Current Power Source: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 180
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 0
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Reduce Brightness: Yes

Hardware Configuration:

UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

Connected: Yes
ID: 0x0100
Wattage (W): 45
Revision: 0x0000
Family: 0x00ba
Serial Number: 0x00425230
Charging: No


So yeh - after all that - my questions for you beautiful experts out there who are cleverer than me at these things are:
1. Should my next step be trying to replace the MagSafe board as per: Installing MacBook Core 2 Duo Magsafe Board - iFixit
2. Do I need to take my new battery out of the machine in the meantime to prevent it losing capacity?

Thanks for everything you do.

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