Macbook Air repair question

[thekaratehero]

My mother-in-law got a Macbook air (retina, 13-inch, 2019) last year for Christmas. She never used it because she said it was 'crap'. I just assumed she was a switcher, and just preferred Windoze. She recently gave it to me, and asked me to get it clean to sell it.

This thing was 'crap' because it's broken.
- The battery always says 1% and will only run on wall power
- The fan is always at 100%
- Its like super duper slow - like 10 second delay clicking things.
- It won't boot into recovery so I can reformat it

For reference, she really never used this. SHe added her Apple ID, tried to open message and safari and put it back in the box. No dust on it.

I tried to update it to the latest OS (its on 10.15.1) but it just hangs on that.

I booted (hold down D at boot) into diagnostics and it comes back with:
The battery requires service. Error code PPT006
There may be an issue with the System Managment Controller (SMC). Error code PFM006

I called Apple, they want almost $500 to fix it. I'm not saying its not a bad price, but I can buy a new one on sale (with an M1) for $900 (maybe).

I looked it up, some folks say reseating the battery fixes the problem. I can do that - but I figured if I 'cracked the seal' it killed any chance of having Apple fix it.

I also thought of replacing the SMC, but wasn't sure if that was on the logic board? I didn't think replacing the battery would work, just my gut.

Any ideas? I'm not quite sure what to do next. Any help is much appreciated!!!

 

[LeeW]

but I figured if I 'cracked the seal' it killed any chance of having Apple fix it.

If it was under warranty then yes but it's not so if you are comfortable trying it then you may be lucky and save yourself $500. The other option is to find a reliable 3rd party repair shop in your area and get them to look at it. If it is relatively simple they will not charge you anywhere near $500.

I would go with either/both of those options before letting Apple near it on an out of warranty basis until you have to.

 

[thekaratehero]

So, the laptop in question is now mine. They didn't want to deal with it - and they didn't want to dump $500 in a laptop thats a year old and has never been used.

Now that its mine, I reset the NVRAM and SMC. That didn't work. I unplugged and reseated the battery. That didn't work either.

At this point, the problem is either with the SMC or the battery. I'd hate to just start replacing parts when both are huge time sink-holes, and neither is cheap.

I found a local place that can look at it - but I'm sure they will charge me $200 just to look at it.

Is there anything else I can do? If not, I might have to just sell this for parts....

 

[Phil77354]

It sounds to me as if you were given a computer that is not even 2 years old and is likely just fine except for something that is easily repairable, and you don't want to spend perhaps $200 to fix it, with the likelihood that at that point you'd have a great computer that is fully usable.

I don't know what you expect to be advised here, other than what @LeeW already suggested. You haven't said whether or not you actually need the computer, what you've been using prior to getting this one, etc. Fix it. Or not. Your choice.

 

[chabig]

Send it to Apple for warranty repair.