Adapter wattage and testing?

[nyrblue35]

As a little background my stock mid 2009 unibody macbook pro battery passed 310 cycles and was whining about servicing. The battery wasn't lasting very long either so I replaced it with a new one from eBay. The battery is new according to a few battery apps (manufactured Aug 14) but after calibrating it (thought i was supposed to) i charged it to max capacity. Took a really really long time, more than 24 hours. Well it came time to charge it again and I assume it shouldn't take so long but it is.

Also the charging time left shows "0:00 until full". I tried an SMC reset and after a reboot it was now showing how much time to charge was left but after it wakes up from sleep its the same thing.

Could it be the charger? Battery Health app says it is charging with 2.5 watts so I was wondering if that was normal. Any ideas would be helpful.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[dyt1983]

edit: To remove personally identifying info not relevant to the conversation.

 

[nyrblue35]

I don't know if it is normal or not and forgive me if this is just too obvious, but wouldn't it give you some perspective if you could just hook your machine to a known good charger? I don't know how far an Apple Store is from your location, but they have them at the Genius Bar.

Yeah I thought about that and the genius bar is definitely not convenient but however i AM going to see if my friend can bring his charger in to work tomorrow to see.

 

[Brian Y]

It could be the charger, although if your old battery wasn't slow to charge, are you sure you got a genuine battery? There are lots of clones out there.

It could also be a dodgy magsafe/DCIN board.

 

[nyrblue35]

It could be the charger, although if your old battery wasn't slow to charge, are you sure you got a genuine battery? There are lots of clones out there.

It could also be a dodgy magsafe/DCIN board.

Ruling out the DCIN board for now I was curious how many watts is being used while charging. According to Battery Health it is charging with 2.4 watts. I thought I read somewhere it is supposed to use 6 watts but I could be wrong. Of course my coworker took a personal day so no charger for me. I might end up making a trip to the apple store I just didnt want to have to. Crazy around the holidays. Tonight I will put my old battery back in and see how long it takes to charge as a reference. I also contacted the eBay store and questioned them about the battery as well.

 

[cjmillsnun]

eBay batteries are notorious for being dodgy.

 

[nyrblue35]

eBay batteries are notorious for being dodgy.

Agreed. Just to follow up do you have any idea what they would charge at the apple store for a battery replacement? I know they wont sell me one but would replace and repair it themselves but I didnt want to spend alot of money. Like anyone I would rather buy a legit apple battery this time around off the web but other than eBay I am not sure who sells them.

 

[nebo1ss]

Agreed. Just to follow up do you have any idea what they would charge at the apple store for a battery replacement? I know they wont sell me one but would replace and repair it themselves but I didnt want to spend alot of money. Like anyone I would rather buy a legit apple battery this time around off the web but other than eBay I am not sure who sells them.

What do you mean Apple will not sell you a battery of course they will. I have a 15 inch unibody Macbook pro 2009 and I bought a new battery for it at the Apple store three months ago. The only problem I had was I asked for an A1281 and it was not until i got home that I realized he had given me the wrong one think it might have been an A1280. Took it back and replaced it and yes the first charge took a long time but subsequent charges not so long.

My battery is full at the moment so cannot measure the charging rate but will check next time and let you know charging rate.

Edit: I unplugged for ten minutes and when I plugged back in it was charging with 8.5 watts.

 

[nyrblue35]

What do you mean Apple will not sell you a battery of course they will. I have a 15 inch unibody Macbook pro 2009 and I bought a new battery for it at the Apple store three months ago. The only problem I had was I asked for an A1281 and it was not until i got home that I realized he had given me the wrong one think it might have been an A1280. Took it back and replaced it and yes the first charge took a long time but subsequent charges not so long.

My battery is full at the moment so cannot measure the charging rate but will check next time and let you know charging rate.

Edit: I unplugged for ten minutes and when I plugged back in it was charging with 8.5 watts.

Thought I read around these parts that Apple will not sell you the battery but would install it for me(and charge me more) which I dont need. If I could buy one A1321 from then I would consider that thanks. My adapter is all good after testing so the battery is the issue, no need to check thanks.

 

[nyrblue35]

I bought an Apple battery just to follow this thread up. I now get 4-6 hrs of use. However even at 50% charge i throw it on charge and it says its going to take 12 hours to fully charge. Could it be the DCIN board? I will try my friends charger on this new battery as well but I have a strange feeling I will get the same results. I am getting to the point where I might go to the apple store but considering we are getting buried in snow currently it wont happen too fast.

 

[nyrblue35]

Well I have now replaced the dc-in board and I have the same issue with ridiculously long charging times. Good times, good times folks. I could be crazy but the charging color on the connector appears to be more orange than the normal amber color while charging as well.