MacBook Pro Power issues

Specs:
Mid-2007 15" MacBook Pro "Santa Rosa" 2.2Ghtz


I'm experiencing a major issue which leads me to believe my computer has bit the dust.

Last night, I was using my computer on battery power; it had about an 80% charge on it. Suddenly it just shut off with no warning. Pressing the power button did nothing; no response whatsoever. So I plugged it in and it got caught in a boot loop. After removing the battery, it was able to boot. I put the battery back in to see what the computer said about it; "Not Charging".

So I ordered a new battery. Though this morning, it won't run on just AC power and no battery installed. The battery has to be in, but even then it can't get 5 seconds into the boot process without rebooting.

I've reset SMC, PMU, and PRAM. Booting into Safe Mode or Boot Camp doesn't work, just reboots after about five seconds.

List of lifetime repairs:
- Logic Board replacement, 2009
- Battery replaced now five times
- Webcam replacement
- (not fixed) Optical drive failure
- Harddrive

Any thoughts? Has it finally had it?

I'd like to give an update on the situation (while also bumping this thread). Please help me if you know of anything.

Scenario 1: Powering on with NO battery installed, just AC adapter.
Result 1: No sign of life from the computer.

Scenario 2: Powering on WITH battery installed, NO AC adapter.
Result 2: No sign of life from the computer.

Scenario 3: Powering on WITH battery installed, AND AC adapter.
Result 3: Computer boots, powers off 3-10 seconds into boot cycle and retries continuously.

Scenario 4: Powering on WITH battery installed, AND AC adapter, removing battery immediately after chime.
Result 4: Computer boots fine.

dusk007 said:

The battery has some electronic stuff in it and can be damaged. Maybe it cannot hold a stable V or reports other problems and the BIOS shuts down.
Problem is usually the System should start without the battery, but I think some Apple computers don't because they don't have strong enough power bricks to deal with peak power consumption without battery help.

Click to expand...

My first assumption was the battery, hence I am rush-delivering a battery that I ordered Sunday night (should be here before my Genius Bar appointment). But like you, I'm seriously puzzled by it's inability to power on without the battery, as well as having the battery installed causes it to abruptly shut down. My brick is 85W, which should be ample to start the computer without the battery.