MacBook Pro A1278 charger goes off in a couple of seconds

[shadowfax2283]

Hello All,

My wife's MacBook Pro's charger - 60W MagSafe goes off in a couple of seconds when plugged. Initially green light comes on followed by amber and then it just goes off. The battery is completely drained hence can't do any diagnosis. Can anyone help?

 

[Schranke]

Hello All,

My wife's MacBook Pro's charger - 60W MagSafe goes off in a couple of seconds when plugged. Initially green light comes on followed by amber and then it just goes off. The battery is completely drained hence can't do any diagnosis. Can anyone help?

Have you tried with another charger?
This will help diagnose if it is the charger which is failing or if it is a problem with power delivery within the Mac

Edit: and try your wife's charger in another Mac, that way you are sure where the defect are

 

[Frieg]

Well as I revived a dead late 2011 by myself not long ago some tips from my experience:

try the smc reset with the battery connector unplugged from the logic board. for whatever reason the smc reset didn't work for me until I did that. if you do that you can completely remove the battery anyway because you will have to insert a new one. but you need a specific screwdriver which often comes with the replacement battery. that way you can also check if a battery defect causes the smc to panic and stop the charging altogether. so you have to try to make the smc "forget" the battery. another option is to do the smc reset with removed battery but charger plugged in.

after a smc reset without battery sometimes the cpu fan runs 100% the moment you switch the macbook on. if it boots anyway don't be alarmed by that, it will go away with a new battery and new smc reset.

if a fault in the battery was the problem then the macbook should boot with the battery unplugged and charger in. but then you will immediately notice that booting takes ages and that the system is awfully slow. thats because OS X uses kernel_task throttling to make the cpu as slow as possible when there is no juice from the battery coming in. to make the macbook usable temporarily until the new battery arrived use this guide:
https://www.davidschlachter.com/misc/kernel_task

if all of this didn't help then the magsafe board may be defective. after that comes the feared logic board failure. but my guess is that a new battery and a proper smc reset will cure your problem.

 

[shadowfax2283]

Thank you for your suggestions. I took the laptop to an Apple service centre. They plugged in their charger which worked fine. Didn't give the machine for diagnosis but managed to charge for 25%. I then did an SMC reset to see if the problem would go away but it didn't. So seems like the charger has gone kaput. But still unable to understand why does it work for a few seconds before shutting off. I should mention that this charger's wire was repaired by a local technician as it had become frayed. He had done some taping, don't think he ever opened the main unit. This was sometime last year but it has been working fine since then. I plan to show the charger to the same technician before deciding to buy a new one.

Also, is there a way to find out if the SMC reset happened properly or not? I could notice that the light on the charger turned from green to amber and then back to green when I did the reset. Is that it?

 

[Schranke]

I should mention that this charger's wire was repaired by a local technician as it had become frayed. He had done some taping, don't think he ever opened the main unit. This was sometime last year but it has been working fine since then. I plan to show the charger to the same technician before deciding to buy a new one.

You should just get a new one. risking the Mac to safe a few bucks on a charger is really stupid, especially when the cable starts fraying.

I could notice that the light on the charger turned from green to amber and then back to green when I did the reset. Is that it?

yes, that is it