MacBook Air 13” mid-2013 battery not detected (PPT001)

[BigRedUser]

Hello,

I have a MacBook Air 13’’, Mid 2013.

In December a bottle spilled near it and got the Mac wet (for prob 1-2 hours).

To “fix this” I took it apart, used 93% alcohol and cleaned it thoroughly 2 times.

Reassembled it, tried to turn it on after a couple days with or without battery but no success.



Yesterday I decided to try to turn on the laptop once again. Plugged it in the charger and nothing. I left it there and in 4 hours it turned on by itself.



Since then It has been running perfectly (display, keyboard, sound, wifi, ssd, ram etc). Turning it off and on again multiple times. Everything is super fast and zippy.



Except for the battery. Mac diagnostics give out PPT001 error message. In system settings under Hardware/Power it also says that battery is not found.

I tried SMC, PRAM etc resetting multiple times, to no effect. I took the battery out - looks good, no apparent water damage (water indicators are not activated).

If I unplug the power cord whilethe Mac is running the Mac turns off immediately. If I do this during boot up it continues to work with the battery until I log in the system.

Any ideas what’s the problem and how it can be fixed?

 

[Audit13]

Often, with a liquid spill, the battery will need replacement. I've spent many days putting together Airs from various units that had suffered liquid damage and it's rare that the battery still worked.

 

[BigRedUser]

Thanks that’s a bit reassuring. Reading online I got the impression it could be a problem in the SMC.

I wanna do as much diagnostics as possible before I spent $100-150 on a battery that I might not need

 

[Audit13]

If the fans are not spinning at max speed all the time, it's unlikely the SMC chip is a problem.

 

[BigRedUser]

That’s great to hear! Fans are super quiet.

Generally, the laptop is working as good as a brand new one.

 

[Audit13]

The 13" Airs from the mid-2013 to 2017 all use the same battery.

If you want to save yourself some money, you can use a third party battery. It's easy to replace because the battery is not held in place with strong adhesive like retina Pros.

 

[BigRedUser]

Yeah, maybe I’ll do that. Thanks!

 

[BoJoTo]

Try to remove the charger when the system is booting. If it continues to work without a battery until the time you login, then you need you change logic board

 

[BigRedUser]

I have done this and it works exactly as you said - but I read som ewhere that this is a sign that the problem is not in the SMC

 

[r6mile]

I replaced the battery in my 2013 MBA a couple of months ago; I didn't want to spend £100 on a new battery for a 7-year old machine, but I've had mixed results with third-party batteries, so decided to get a second-hand Apple battery from a reputable seller;
in my case the Bookyard in the UK https://www.thebookyard.com/product.php?manufacturers_id=6&products_id=11877

For £40 I got a battery with 92% of life still in there (my original one had failed and was below 50%). I was opening the MBA anyway as I needed to replace the topcase (had some very mild liquid damage and though the internals were fine a couple of the keys were 'sticky'). Very happy with the results

 

[Kimyen]

Hi,

It's been a while and how is your computer now? What happened with it? And how do you fixed it?

The same problem happening with my MacBook, I tried to reset SCM and PRAM but it have no effect.

Help me please!