charger plugged in, but macbook 'not charging'--help! *gulp*

HELP guys, I'm freaking out I just noticed that my when I got my macbook plugged in, it's not charging. The icon is the one you got when it's plugged in (with the little fork-shaped thing in the middle), but instead of it saying 'charging' like when the battery isn't full, or 'charged', when it is, it just says 'Not Charging'. It's like it can see the magsafe connectore inside, but the juice isn't coming through to the battery, even though the computer itself is powered by the charger since when I click on the power symbol I get 'Power source: Power adapter'.

Also, the magsafe connector itself isn't lit. It used to be green for a bit, but a much weaker green than normal, and before that it wasn't even lit--I've tried with three different wall outlets, one of which was outside my house where I usually use it (it was in a starbucks). Also, when I disconnected the magsafe to get a reading for the battery, it was only 1:35, even though the magsafe light was green (albeit a weak green).

If it matters, I'm running 10.5.3. The macbook is still fairly new, bought mid-december, all updates current as I got it set to checking daily and install the minute I get the notice. Any ideas what could be the matter?

flopticalcube said:

Take it to an Apple store. Could just be the Magsafe is faulty.

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you mean just the connector or the whole charger? Just asking to have more info, 'cause I live in a back-end sort of plae that doesn't have proper applestores, only a importer guy who covers service, and they are real cowboys*, so I wanna know a bit more about it

italiano40 said:

it maybe your battery is a dead battery, take it to an apple store

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already? I've only had it since christmas, and the use has by no means been heavy.



*not just my experience, people, it's widely known around here

lamina said:

Hello friend.

Shut the computer down. Press and hold the power button until you hear a terrifying BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOP sound. Wait till the front LED flashes. Release.

See if that fixes it.

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Hey, thanks for the advice

Just to make sure I understood it right before i do it, could you please (if it's not too much hassle) confirm the steps as set out below are ok?

1) Go to >Shut Down, and wait 'til it's done shutting down as normal.
2) Press and hold power button until crazy loud BOOOOOOP, and continue pressing until little white led (sleep light, in front of computer next to IR dot) starts flashing (would it flash fast, blinking, or like it does when it's asleep?)
3) Restart by pressing down the power button briefly to start up, and check whether it sorted itself out.

Also, if I got that right, could you tell me if there's a name to this procedure/why we do that? I like to know so I can also learn something
And sorry to be picking nits like that, I'm not so secure with computer innards, so I always want to know exactly what is supposed to happen at each stage so I can tell whether everything is going ok

lamina said:

This is called resetting the PRAM. I think that's what it's called with the newer machines.

Step 3 isn't necessary. The machine will reboot itself. You can't mess anything up by doing this.

Let us know if it works.

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ok got it *deep breath* off to do it

okay lamina, tried it but no luck. Shall I try what's in your other link floptical? What do y'all think?

flopticalcube said:

I doubt it will work but it doesn't hurt to try. You may need to ring up AppleCare on this one and be prepared to send it to Apple for repair.

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eeek, that's bad news since where I am there isn't even decent apple representation, much less AppleCare (this is kind of a backwater place computing-wise, lol). Last time I had a problem it was a Dellian experience dealing with the Apple Representatives, nothing like what I read of Apple-quality service on these forums and elsewhere

So I guess I'll try the procedure, even if it's a long shot. Just to clarify then, the one I already tried was the first, resetting the SMC. Now i try the second, resetting the PRAM--did I get it right?

Gawd, I hope it works I've come to dread these guys from last time *



* https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/480295/

flopticalcube said:

Yeah. Power on and then press CMD-option-P-R at the same time.

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option is the same as alt, right?

Ok I just did it, no difference *re-gulp* I think I'm gonna have to take it in, wish my luck everyone, 'cause I'll need it. I hope the woman from customer service I ended up talking to is still there, because the other one at the counter where you handed in the stuff was pretty uncooperative

Robbieklow said:

Don't panic. I'm assuming that although you can't go to an apple store easily, you can still call Apple and ask for help. Your macbook is still under warranty, most likely, Apple will make it right.

My battery started doing exactly the same thing a few months ago. My macbookpro was out of warranty, but Apple had extended the warranty on the battery in my particular model to cover 24 months due to some earlier battery problems. In fact, this battery had been one they had replaced.

You, my friend, are in better shape, as you are still in the one year warranty.

It sounds like your problem is either the battery, as it was in my case, or your charger is bad.

The easiest way to narrow it down is to try someone else's charger. Or if that is not possible, just buy a second charger and try it. It's not a waste to get a second charger even if the battery ends up being bad, it's good to have an extra. You could keep one in your laptop bag and one plugged into the surge suppressor under your desk so you don't have to keep unplugging it when you want to take the laptop out of the house. (I have always had at least one extra charger for each of my three Mac laptops. Chargers do eventually go bad.)

If it's not the charger, as I verified in my own case, call Apple. Have the serial number of your battery ready. IN fact, while I'm thinking about it, check the Apple website and see if there are issues with your battery model.
Do all those PRAM things suggested above. Then you can tell Apple what you have already done.

In my case, they sent a new battery, I think it took two days to arrive. I packed up the old battery and sent it back using the DHL prepaid label they supplied. You even get to call DHL and tell them to come to your house and get the battery.

They might ask for a credit card and say they'll charge it if you don't send the old battery back. They accidently charged mine, because of the 24 month replacement, it confused their system, but I called them and they gave me a credit very quickly.

Good luck, and I hope this helped.

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That's a lot of interesting information, thanks

I have a few questions on it though:

First, do i need a surge protector after all? I asked them when I bought this machine, and they said I didn't really need it with just one notebook, especially since after all, I would be taking it outside the house where presumably the surge protector would sit, so what would I do, take the big surge protector along? So I never got one, was that bad? We did have computers in this house before (two laptops, one old desktop, all PCs), and nothing untoward went down, and since they told me I didn't need it, I didn't get it.

I'll try to go to the apple showroom place and try one of their chargers (yep, no apple stores in this country...just apple showrooms ), because at 150 bucks a pop plus weeks of waiting for the special order to come in when buying locally, or cheaper but still a long wait for buying online, it's not very practical.

I know this is gonna sound really ignorant, but where do I find the serial number and model for the battery, and how do I check if there were problems with it like you said?

If I get the treatment you got, I'll deffo be happy with that, lol. The worse thing is I was a bit hesitant about buying the laptop when I did (even though my previous Acer one had died), because I knew how cr@ppy the situation is in this country when it comes to macs especially, but really all apple products (okay, didn't know quite how bad, but I knew it was subpar compared to Apple). I just thought since I intend to move abroad before the first year is up anyway, I'd lie low during that then go crazy afterwards, but the MB didn't think so as it turns out To give you a clue how bad things are around here, it seems that at least on the anecdotal level, this has gotta be the only european country where the majority of music players you see walking around are NOT ipods, which just tells you really--everybody's rocking to an ipod, except here! It's pretty lame. but what do you expect? This country has the lowest broadband penetration in all of Europe, compared to oversaturation of the cell phone market, atjust over 4% of all households (and that's not even looking at how often they're actually using it--many use it only a couple of times a week for a few hours). In other words, yak yak yak amongst one another on your cell (or both of them, since more and more seem to have more than one ), but no opening up to the big wide world what. so. ever.
/rant

Thanks again for all your help!! you guys RAWK! hehe

Well, it turned out to have been one of those spectacular-looking-but-not-really-serious sorts of things: apparently some tiny debris had gone inside the magsafe port (probably via the connector; they told me it hapens even if you're really careful to always keep the connectore covered with the little plastic lid thing when it's not connected to the macbook, as I am). The debris prevented the thing from charging, though for some reason it could stil get power. Anyway they cleaned it and charged it, and it's been working fine. the best thing is it took them less than a day to take care of it, and the woman at the counter was a lot nicer, possibly because I'd caused kind of a stink last time, guess they remembered me lol ;-) You still can't talk to a real live tech, but at least she willingly called them and asked when I had a wuestion (still, you guys better check your 'puters before you take a trip to Greece, you wanna skip this lot if possible lol)

It took me a while to get back and let you know what went down, 'cause I wanted to check it was alright a few days, but I wanna thank you all for helping with this; offline, I don't know anybody else with a mac, so having access to such a lovely bunch of mac-knowledgeable people to ask online is all the more invaluable!





Robbieklow, I know about those forums, and use them too. I just like macrumors better for most things because it's got more of a community feel, so I hang out here more than the other place, and end up posting more of my help questions here than over there. Like the macrumors forum format better too, easier to use <shrug>

Superdelphinus: Naw, it wasn't actually charging even though the battery was at 33%. Besides, I think in those cases like you mentioned, I get one of the other messages: 'Charged', or 'Finishing charging'