A1466 (2014/15???) MBA13", not used for several years, will not turn on...

[gbmud]

Any suggestions?

After she damaged her MBP with red wine while at university I loaned my daughter my MBA in order to complete her degree. She finished uni and ended up buying a new MBP but never gave me the MBA back. At some point during my daughter's stewardship the MBA has had a new (cheap) non-genuine battery fitted by me. It worked fine initially but capacity soon reduced - as once would probably expect... It has been unused in a drawer for (we think) three years, until last week when she finally gave it me back.

I put it on charge, the (genuine) charger behaved normally going from green to orange LED and then charging for some hours before going back to green LED at some time during the night.

As soon as I plugged in the charger I tried to power the machine on, but nothing. I tried again after some minutes of charging and again the following day once charged - both with and without the charger connected. I have seen no sign of life other than the charger LED.

I have tried all the suggestions on Apple's help pages and on a couple of websites - holding the power button down for 10 seconds, plugging and unplugging the charger while holding buttons, resetting SMC/PRAM etc., dancing in a circle while holding a piece of raw bacon under my arm and so on. None has produced any results other than a greasy armpit. I have checked it is not just the backlight not lighting.

Any helpful suggestions before seeking a professional repair - which will probably exceed the value of the machine? Should I assume that the charger behaviour means the battery is at least minimally functional and the machine should turn on while on charge?

Many thanks in advance

Cheers, and Happy Christmas

Chris

 

[cmaier]

It sounds to me like the battery may achieve the right charged voltage but can’t provide enough current to actually power anything. One would think it would still work if plugged in, but past experience tells me that Macs sometimes act like bricks on wall current if the battery is malfunctioning.

 

[lambertjohn]

Go buy a genuine Apple battery and I think your problem will be solved. Knock-off batteries are never a good thing to install in an Apple laptop.

 

[wordsworth]

I agree with the previous poster – an original Apple battery would be your advisable first course of action (on the basis that it is indeed the battery that is causing the problem). If Apple do not now provide batteries for your MacBook Air model then I would suggest Duracell Direct (in the UK) or NewerTech's NuPower batteries (in the US) as possible reliable options for you. However, I'm not sure whether either will currently offer the battery for the MacBook Air model that you have but, as I say, these are possible options perhaps if Apple cannot supply what you want.

I have a MacBook (white, early 2009) and I recently attempted to upgrade the OS from Snow Leopard to El Capitan, It failed repeatedly to do so. Seemingly my laptop's dead battery is the likely cause of this, even though the MacBook was plugged into the mains at the time. I plan to get a replacement 2-Power-brand battery from Duracell Direct (I'm in the UK) when I eventually decide to upgrade the memory, and hard drive to SSD, as well as the battery.

Good luck with your troubleshooting.

 

[Eliott69]

I had the same case with an MBP 17 inch mid/late 2011. It took four or five days until the battery came back from "deep discharge" and booting was working. After that I had no problem with using the computer for years. Of course battery life had suffered severely – from then on I had it plugged in constantly.

 

[gbmud]

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

A few days ago I replaced the battery with the original Apple battery - it was still sitting in my battery recycling box even after several years!

I now get the fan running when doing the NVRAM/PRAM reset, and the charger LED changes colour with the SMC reset. This does (in my mind) lend support to the suggestion that a new battery may be the solution, so maybe I will try that route. I am reluctant to spend money on a machine that may be a brick...

Cheers and beers, happy new year

Chris