2012 MBP 13 playing dead

[jacksonianc]

My son was on my 2012 MBP 13 and let the battery drain too low and the computer went into hibernate mode. It's never been a problem—plugging in the magsafe and hitting the power button brings things back up after a bit.

Today it was different. Plugged in the magsafe, hit the power button, and there was no response. The LED on the magsafe was glowing orange, like it should have been, the battery indicator LED's were working, and after a while the battery was charged.

That was all though—power button, hard restart with the power button, SMC reset, all yielded the same results. It acted as if there was no battery at all, completely dead.

I was able to circumvent this by opening the cover and disconnecting the battery harness, and then plugging in the magsafe chord—as soon as I did this the machine fired right up. When that happened I was able to connect the battery harness and close the computer back up. It's running now, charging normally, and I'm able to unplug the magsafe and it holds it's charge, but shutting it down and restarting forces me to go through the whole battery disconnect thing again.

I'm new to the forums—I've looked around for something similar to post this in, but haven't found one, so I apologize if this is redundant. I'd appreciate any help though, thanks!

 

[asriznet]

My son was on my 2012 MBP 13 and let the battery drain too low and the computer went into hibernate mode. It's never been a problem—plugging in the magsafe and hitting the power button brings things back up after a bit.

Today it was different. Plugged in the magsafe, hit the power button, and there was no response. The LED on the magsafe was glowing orange, like it should have been, the battery indicator LED's were working, and after a while the battery was charged.

That was all though—power button, hard restart with the power button, SMC reset, all yielded the same results. It acted as if there was no battery at all, completely dead.

I was able to circumvent this by opening the cover and disconnecting the battery harness, and then plugging in the magsafe chord—as soon as I did this the machine fired right up. When that happened I was able to connect the battery harness and close the computer back up. It's running now, charging normally, and I'm able to unplug the magsafe and it holds it's charge, but shutting it down and restarting forces me to go through the whole battery disconnect thing again.

I'm new to the forums—I've looked around for something similar to post this in, but haven't found one, so I apologize if this is redundant. I'd appreciate any help though, thanks!

Did you tried the SMC reset again after reconnecting the battery to the MBP? It sounds like a battery problem, you can run the Apple Hardware Test to confirm this.

http://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT1446

 

[jacksonianc]

Did you tried the SMC reset again after reconnecting the battery to the MBP? It sounds like a battery problem, you can run the Apple Hardware Test to confirm this.

http://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT1446

I tried the SMC reset again with no luck. I can restart the machine, but if I shut down I have to unplug the battery harness to get it to do anything. Interestingly, as soon as I plug in the magsafe without the battery, the machine powers on by itself—no power button.

Hardware test came up with nothing—however it did say this under the Power tab:

Power Details
Voltage: 0v
Capacity: 0%

It's odd, because the battery is holding a full charge, but seems to be reading at 0% to the hardware diagnosis.

 

[asriznet]

I tried the SMC reset again with no luck. I can restart the machine, but if I shut down I have to unplug the battery harness to get it to do anything. Interestingly, as soon as I plug in the magsafe without the battery, the machine powers on by itself—no power button.

Hardware test came up with nothing—however it did say this under the Power tab:

Power Details
Voltage: 0v
Capacity: 0%

It's odd, because the battery is holding a full charge, but seems to be reading at 0% to the hardware diagnosis.

Did you also check the battery status? Hold down the option key and click on the battery icon on the menu bar.

Coconut Battery provides detailed information about your battery like Cycle Count, Full Charge Capacity and also if it needs to be serviced.

 

[jacksonianc]

Did you also check the battery status? Hold down the option key and click on the battery icon on the menu bar.

Coconut Battery provides detailed information about your battery like Cycle Count, Full Charge Capacity and also if it needs to be serviced.

Battery status in the menu bar is "Normal."

Coconut battery gave the all clear as well.

 

[jacksonianc]

Any other ideas?

 

[snorkelman]

Any other ideas?

when the machine is powered on, does holding the power button function as it should? i.e. bring up the shutdown restart dialog box in middle of the screen

Just in case you're shutting down at moment using the menu option, rather than pressing and holding the power button till the dialog comes up on screen.

With battery looking fine and restart being OK it might just be a faulty key

 

[jacksonianc]

when the machine is powered on, does holding the power button function as it should? i.e. bring up the shutdown restart dialog box in middle of the screen

Just in case you're shutting down at moment using the menu option, rather than pressing and holding the power button till the dialog comes up on screen.

With battery looking fine and restart being OK it might just be a faulty key

Nailed it. That seems to be the issue—I would have never thought of that.

From what I'm seeing, this fix involves replacing the entire keyboard, is that correct? Any idea what the cost of this repair runs? I'm not sure if I'm up to that by myself.

 

[snorkelman]

Thing is it might just need an SMC reset trouble is that usually involves pressing the power button along with the other SMC reset keys

I've seen some folks suggest disconnect battery and magsafe then holding the power button for extended period (e.g 10 or 20 seconds or so?) in that sort of situation

Not a situation I've got into myself (I just had a stab at power button related issue based on what you'ld already tried) so Im not well placed to offer a solution, but might be worth googling along the lines of 'SMC reset when power button not responding'?

Failing that could be worth making an out of warranty appointment at nearest apple store see if they cant get the SMC to reset properly in this sort of situation?

 

[jacksonianc]

I'll look into that. Thanks!

 

[snorkelman]

I'll look into that. Thanks!

Aye let us know how you get on