Battery Not Charging... no signs of life

[tsice19]

I recently (about a week and a half ago i believe) posted here with screenshots of coconut battery and asked how my battery was doing. everyone said it was great. All looked well from system profiler as well.

Now, my battery won't charge, and if unplug the magsafe the computer shuts off.

I tried reseting the SMC... didn't work. Any ideas? Also I'm out of warranty. Please help!

 

[KielderWolf]

I had a similar problem with a Starbook from Iridium Computers. The battery was fine for a year and a half then one day boom it would not hold a charge.

Or rather, the computer thought it wouldn't.

As it turned out, the battery itself was fine and fully charged; the power regulator in the laptop itself was damaged - heat damage from an nVidia graphics chip... sound familiar anyone?

Anyway, I had to take the machine to bits and replace the power management board (small chip about one inch by one third of an inch) which was simple enough, though I'm not entirely sure if Apple keeps the power management chip separate to the motherboard.

Sadly, the Starbook caught fire several weeks later. The graphics card had overheated and burnt out the RAM modules.

 

[tsice19]

I had a similar problem with a Starbook from Iridium Computers. The battery was fine for a year and a half then one day boom it would not hold a charge.

Or rather, the computer thought it wouldn't.

As it turned out, the battery itself was fine and fully charged; the power regulator in the laptop itself was damaged - heat damage from an nVidia graphics chip... sound familiar anyone?

Anyway, I had to take the machine to bits and replace the power management board (small chip about one inch by one third of an inch) which was simple enough, though I'm not entirely sure if Apple keeps the power management chip separate to the motherboard.

Sadly, the Starbook caught fire several weeks later. The graphics card had overheated and burnt out the RAM modules.

This doesn't exactly make me feel good... I don't have warranty on my macbook and i don't have the funds to replace the computer.

If I buy a new battery and it doesn't work, then I'm screwed. Because I doubt I'll be able to afford Apple's ridiculous charge at the genius bar and I won't risk having my computer set fire by fixing it myself.

This computer needs to last me 3 more years...

 

[KielderWolf]

Oh don't worry, yours won't catch fire. It was a faulty generation of chips back in 2003 that caused my Starbook to burn out.

You could try this:

If your MacBook has a removable battery, then remove it, without the MB being plugged in. Press and hold the power button for ten seconds. Replace the battery, and see if the computer will boot. This is an old old method from the early days of the PowerBook where the power management system could sometimes crash and would require resetting.

I don't know if it has carried along through the years to the MacBook but there's no harm in trying.

Good luck! Wolf ∑:•p

 

[bac0n]

Sorry for bumping a new thread, rather than creating a new one, I thought I should post here.

I have a Black Macbook, bought in April 2008.

So its been going fantastic until now.

My macbook wont charge. I plug the charger in and the light turns red indicating that it is charging, however the battery itself isnt getting the juice.

I have tried a friends battery, and it seems like my battery is dead.

I've used coconut battery to check out the condition of my battery and it displays the following readings:

Is there anything I can do? I have bought Applecare Extended warranty. I remember reading something about the battery should be 80% of maximum charge once it has reached 300 battery cycles?

Thank you in advance.

 

[bac0n]

anyone?

 

[andyhargreaves]

Sorry for bumping a new thread, rather than creating a new one, I thought I should post here.

I have a Black Macbook, bought in April 2008.

So its been going fantastic until now.

My macbook wont charge. I plug the charger in and the light turns red indicating that it is charging, however the battery itself isnt getting the juice.

I have tried a friends battery, and it seems like my battery is dead.

I've used coconut battery to check out the condition of my battery and it displays the following readings:
...

Is there anything I can do? I have bought Applecare Extended warranty. I remember reading something about the battery should be 80% of maximum charge once it has reached 300 battery cycles?

Thank you in advance.

Have you tried resetting the PMU/SMC?


I would take that to an Apple Store - 117 cycles is low, and if you have Apple Care I'm sure they would check this out for you.

Andy