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ms.sarcastic

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 26, 2011
16
0
USA
A few months ago, my 15" MBP Retina battery stopped charging sporadically.. I'd hook it up to the charger,it would receive charge and keep the battery at whatever % it was at, but not charge at all. If I clicked the battery, it would say "Battery Not Charging" but the LED light would be orange.

Other times, it would charge, but it would tell me the battery need to charge "14 hours until full"..?!

Then I started noticing that the battery wasn't lasting as long. I'm a heavy user, so I would usually get 4-5 hours at most (never got close to the 7 hours), but suddenly it (sometimes) only lasted 1 hour; other times it was fine.

Reset SMC and PRAM - nothing changed. Went to the genius bar, they did a diagnostics and told me battery was healthy and I wasn't using any CPU intensive stuff and it must be a software thing.

Now, more than half the time it doesn't charge when I connect it - sometimes the LED light won't work at all, but if I put my spare charger in, it will work. It won't charge, but will run off the power cord. Other times, it's fine and charges right away (with orange LED light).

BUT I am not getting more than an hour out of my battery, if that, even if I am only running one application (Office or Safari, etc.) at low light.

Reset SMC and PRAM again - nothing.

What software thing could possibly be causing this???

And FYI, the chargers are fine - other computer users have no problem with any of the chargers, it's just my computer that is acting weird.

Any ideas???
 
A few months ago, my 15" MBP Retina battery stopped charging sporadically.. I'd hook it up to the charger,it would receive charge and keep the battery at whatever % it was at, but not charge at all. If I clicked the battery, it would say "Battery Not Charging" but the LED light would be orange.

Other times, it would charge, but it would tell me the battery need to charge "14 hours until full"..?!

Then I started noticing that the battery wasn't lasting as long. I'm a heavy user, so I would usually get 4-5 hours at most (never got close to the 7 hours), but suddenly it (sometimes) only lasted 1 hour; other times it was fine.

Reset SMC and PRAM - nothing changed. Went to the genius bar, they did a diagnostics and told me battery was healthy and I wasn't using any CPU intensive stuff and it must be a software thing.

Now, more than half the time it doesn't charge when I connect it - sometimes the LED light won't work at all, but if I put my spare charger in, it will work. It won't charge, but will run off the power cord. Other times, it's fine and charges right away (with orange LED light).

BUT I am not getting more than an hour out of my battery, if that, even if I am only running one application (Office or Safari, etc.) at low light.

Reset SMC and PRAM again - nothing.

What software thing could possibly be causing this???

And FYI, the chargers are fine - other computer users have no problem with any of the chargers, it's just my computer that is acting weird.

Any ideas???

Did you check with an alternate charger suitable to handle the 15 rMBP? Perhaps yours is malfunctioning and the other one you tested does not have the required amps for proper charging
 
Yes - three different chargers, same results (one is the original that came with the MBP, other 2 are older MBP chargers with Magsafe 2 converters).

Also, other users in household use all the same chargers (including another MBP retina), but no one is having problems except me
 
Yes - three different chargers, same results (one is the original that came with the MBP, other 2 are older MBP chargers with Magsafe 2 converters).

Also, other users in household use all the same chargers (including another MBP retina), but no one is having problems except me

Havent seen that issue before, I would go to the Genuis with your charger and leave the machine for a couple of hours so that they can see what is happening.
 
Just my luck.. I was hoping someone would have come across something like this, although I didn't find anything in the forums. Oh well, I guess I'll try to make it to the genius bar next week.

You think a few hours would do it? Last time, he said if it got worse, I'd have to leave it for a few days, which I can't afford to do - I've got way too many deadlines coming up. A few hours I can do, though!
 
Just my luck.. I was hoping someone would have come across something like this, although I didn't find anything in the forums. Oh well, I guess I'll try to make it to the genius bar next week.

You think a few hours would do it? Last time, he said if it got worse, I'd have to leave it for a few days, which I can't afford to do - I've got way too many deadlines coming up. A few hours I can do, though!

My point is convincing the Genius folk to leave the machine charging for a while, so that he can see the problem you are having, perhaps the problem will show and he will give you warranty service for it.
 
Oh I see.. well, I had screenshots last time so he saw what was happening.

But I could easily reproduce this time because it happens almost every time I try to charge it. Thanks, though!
 
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