Problems with charging my macbook, but it's not the charger!

So the past week, my charger when connected, hasn't been charging my laptop all of the time, which i suspected was a lose connection with the wiring within the charger.

However, I have plugged my friends charger into my laptop and it has the same problems. So I think it's a problem with the connecting hardware(i don't know the correct name for it) on the actual laptop.

None of my friends have had problems with this so I don't really know what to do, if i can do anything, before having to send it off for repair. Or whether i should take it in store for their expensive diagnosis.

Any suggestions?

Shivvi said:

Any suggestions?

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My first 2 thoughts are (since it a charging problem):

1. Are you 100% sure it's not the battery?
2. Could be a bad "mag-safe" board.

- Nick

p.s. Also…you didn't tell us if the computer works fine or not while plugged in. Meaning…does the computer work fine while plugged in (just doesn't charge properly)? Or does the computer not work while plugged in either??

oh sorry.

The computer works fine when plugged in(when it does decide to charge) and also when unplugged.

Well, that's why i decided to try a different charger, to make sure it wasn't the charger. However, i'm reluctant to disassemble the, (again i apologise for my lack of knowledge with the names), white box in the middle of the charging contraption. I've also plugged my charger into my friends laptop and it charges hers fine.

There are a couple possibilities that come to mind:

- The battery hasn't been recalibrated recently, so it is fully charged but showing something less than 100% in menu bar software because the computer is remembering the old capacity of the battery. (see: Apple Portables: Calibrating your computer's battery for best performance ) If that's the case it's "not charging" because it's done charging.

- The PMU (older machines) or SMC (newer ones) needs to be reset. This component controls things like battery charging, backlighting, etc and it's setting can get confused. (see: Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC) )