Weird battery issue on white MB. Shows X on battery icon but it works fine???

I don't get this. My mom's white MacBook (Intel IGP model) showed an X across the battery like it doesn't work, so I bought her a new battery for it. However, I installed the new battery and it still shows an X but it actually does work. I figured it out by accident. I thought maybe I bought a bad battery. I tripped over the magsafe and the MB stayed on... confused, I am now here. Not finding much about this.

What causes OS X to display an X across the battery icon? Doesn't this usually mean the battery is ruined? When pushing the button on the bottom of the battery, it shows five LEDs as it's fully charged and working. I unplugged it several times, and the MB stays on.

It also reduces the screen brightness and seems to go into battery power saving settings when unplugged. So how do I get OS X to see the battery? It must be charging properly as it's not hot or bulging or anything at all.

The problem is simply that it's not showing the battery information at all as though there were no battery plugged into the MacBook. But it works as though it's plugged in and all is normal???


Confused. Thanks in advance for any assistance you can give.

GGJstudios said:

Did you try resetting the SMC? This should answer most, if not all, of your battery questions: Apple Notebook Battery FAQ

Click to expand...

Thanks for your reply.

Tried the SMC reset a few times, and the PRAM reset too. Unfortunately no go.

I did figure out something else. The battery doesn't seem to be charging, but the MacBook will use it for power. So it came fully charged, and it's draining from there.

Anyone else have any ideas?

So White MacBook with Intel graphics and removable battery.

OS X shows an X on the battery icon.

When AC adaptor is removed, MacBook will use the battery for power.

Battery is not being charged.

System Profiler shows 0 for all battery information meaning it doesn't see it either.

However, the MacBook is recognizing the battery in terms of energy settings in System Preferences. For example, I set display to turnoff after one minute of battery or ten minutes of AC power, and when only the battery is being used it turns the display off after one minute. When AC adaptor is plugged in, it waits the ten minutes, and etc.

I would love to figure this out, as this is the only problem this Mac has. Everything else works perfect. Nothing happened to it. Wasn't dropped, no water damage, and nothing else we know of at all. Just the battery indicator showed X one day and that's it. It shows X with two of our batteries, but it could be the batteries I suppose??? Although only the new one works but the old one could have just lost its charge as apparently the system isn't charging it.

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance.