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spooned12000rpm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 4, 2009
149
19
York, UK
Hey, I read these forums regularly but today I felt the need to register to find out what I can do about my Girlfriend's MacBook.

It's a early C2D 1.83 GHz model and recently it's started having issues charging. The problem is that when you plug it in the magsafe light stays green and the computer doesn't charge for a period of time (5-40 mins!) the time and occurrence of the problem is very intermittent.

My GF has apple care.

I've tryed the latest battery update, SMC, Pram, different power outlets etc and last week we took the machine into our local apple authorised repair place where they had it for over a week and said the battery passed their checks and in that time could only get the fault to reproduce once.

Im sat on the machine now (not literally) and its the first time we've had chance to use it since it was in for inspection and run the battery down and its again refused to charge for 10 mins (then it started)

There's no obvious pattern, you can plug it in at any %charge and it can happen.

battery is at 290 cycles which is pretty god for 2 years compared to some figures you see.

Just want to know if its a common fault as much googling has not found any results that are the same as this?
 

ziggyonice

macrumors 68020
Mar 12, 2006
2,385
1
Rural America
Don't go to an Apple authorized service provider. They know nothing (sad, but true). Call AppleCare directly (1-800-275-2273). Tell them the situation and they may replace the battery if it is defective. Usually if the cycle count is under 300 when experiencing those problems, that's a sign that it'd may need replacement. 290 is pretty close though, so I couldn't say for sure what they'd do.

That's what I'm going to recommend though. I've gone through Apple directly a few times for replacement batteries on different occasions, and they've done it every time.
 

JCastro

macrumors 6502a
Feb 12, 2008
536
0
My first thought was that the power cord might not be working correctly.

Try taking it (MB and Cord) in to an Apple store or reseller and ask if you can plug them in in different ways. Try plugging your MB into a different cord and see if the problem still happens. Then try plugging your cord into a different MB (if they let you!) and see what happens.

Personally I would start with the cord though... Especially if you have taken it in and had the battery checked out.

-JC-
 

mogzieee

macrumors 6502a
Feb 8, 2008
668
1
London, UK
Two checks I would recommend;

1) Take the battery out, plug the MagSafe in, if the Mac works, the power cord is not the problem. If it doesn't work, try 2)

2) Borrow a different MagSafe from somewhere/someone and try charging the MacBook with the battery in.

That should determine whether it's the battery or the MagSafe. Either way, you're probably ok as I would imagine, if the worst comes to the worst, there is probably a whole bunch of spare MacBook batteries and MagSafe's online somewhere - eBay, Amazon, etc.

Hope this helps.
 

spooned12000rpm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 4, 2009
149
19
York, UK
The MacBook will run fine off it's own cord, that was the first thing I tried when it first started doing it, I haven't tried using my cord off my unibody tho.

Are the batteries the same in the blackbooks as the white? cos i still have my old black book (same age as her white book) cos that could be an option, only thin im worried though is if it is a software fault is whether the whitebook will apply firmware to the blackbook's battery and cause that to be problematic???
 

OneBlueFire

macrumors member
Oct 12, 2008
54
0
Manila, Philippines
The MacBook will run fine off it's own cord, that was the first thing I tried when it first started doing it, I haven't tried using my cord off my unibody tho.

Are the batteries the same in the blackbooks as the white? cos i still have my old black book (same age as her white book) cos that could be an option, only thin im worried though is if it is a software fault is whether the whitebook will apply firmware to the blackbook's battery and cause that to be problematic???

You can use your unibody charger on the Whitebook. It won't cause any problems.

The batteries are the same for both white and blackbooks.

Most likely, both the blackbook and whitebook have the same battery firmware, so you shouldn't worry about your battery getting zapped with "faulty" firmware when you move it to hers.

If all else fails, your best option is to call Apple. The previous poster was correct in saying that most (not all) Apple Retail Store employees and the employees of Authorized Service Providers have no idea what they're talking about. Let the Customer Service rep know that it's still covered by Apple Care and be really sweet and nice... A little kindness and a few jokes can take you a long way in terms of what the CSR would do for you. ;)

And don't forget to write down the case number. You'll need it to bitchslap the Apple Retail Store employees into giving you your replacement battery/charger. :D
 
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