MacBook pro

[ALOSTPANDA]

Okay so I have an early 2011 MacBook Pro and I need some help, I've had this MacBook for a while and have had somewhat similar issues that were fixed but I can't seem to find a fix for this. The problem is that my mac won't charge. I'll plug in the MagSafe charger and the light will stay green and on the Mac itself when I click the battery icon it says "battery is not charging" but the condition says normal (somewhat new battery). The light doesn't turn orange unless the Mac is completely shut down. If I leave it off it'll charge but when I turn it back on the light stays green and it'll start to loose charge. I've already tried resetting the SMC and the pram, I've cleaned the MagSafe port and it's nice and shiny, my charger is a real MagSafe charger bought at the Apple Store and it's still in great condition. I don't know what else it could be besides maybe a faulty batttery? I'm making this post to see if anyone maybe has a fix before I order the new battery. I can't post specs but it's basically a fully stock non upgraded early 2011 MacBook Pro running I believe Yosemite, only upgrade was going from 4 gigs of ram to 8

 

[DeltaMac]

You might find some other info about the battery:
Go to the Apple menu, then open About This Mac, then click the More Info button, if you see it.
Click System Report
Click Power (down the list on the left), and you will see some information about your battery, and its condition.
What is the Cycle Count?
What is the Full Charge Capacity?

Do you get reasonable life from a full charge of the battery? If it is the original battery, then you might not expect more than about 2 hours, if you are lucky.

 

[ALOSTPANDA]

You might find some other info about the battery:
Go to the Apple menu, then open About This Mac, then click the More Info button, if you see it.
Click System Report
Click Power (down the list on the left), and you will see some information about your battery, and its condition.
What is the Cycle Count?
What is the Full Charge Capacity?

Do you get reasonable life from a full charge of the battery? If it is the original battery, then you might not expect more than about 2 hours, if you are lucky.

I've already checked the cycle count and it was about 450. It's not the original battery but it was replaced by Apple. On a full charge depending what I'm doing I can get about 3-5 hours.

 

[DeltaMac]

If your battery is fully charged, the light will be green you have power on and the power adapter is plugged in. It won't begin to charge (change to orange) until the battery charge drops below about 95%.
So, if your battery is less than 95% of full charge, then the ONLY way that you can charge is when power is off.

Here's a test. Power off. The battery should be discharged a bit (at least under 95% charge)
Is the adapter light orange? Unplug the adapter. Let it sit for about 5 seconds.
Plug it in. The light should briefly go green, then after a few seconds, change to orange. Does that happen - or does it immediately go orange with NO green at all?
If it correctly goes from green to orange, press and release the power button.
Don't do anything else, don't move anything, except turning power on. Does the button stay orange, or does it change to green, and stay green, even though it should be charging?

 

[ALOSTPANDA]

It is not fully charged. When it's on (like now) the light is green but the mac is still losing power. If I plug it in and power it off the light will turn orange after it shuts down and if I unplug it and plug it back in the light just stays green

 

[DeltaMac]

Just so I am clear....
If your battery is less than fully charged (make sure about this, so go less than 50%)
Then, you plug in the charger while power is on. The light remains green, even though it should be charging. But, you say the battery continues to discharge.
The Power screen in System Information should tell you this, too.
Watch the power screen now. Unplug the adapter. Refresh the power screen from the File menu to update the screen.
Note the charging status, etc. Plug the charger back in, then refresh again. You should see a change in the charging information there (battery is charging, or not charging, etc)
Am I correct so far?
Now, when you shut off your laptop, the light turns orange, so the battery should be charging.
Then, unplug power, wait a second or two, then plug back in, and the light is green (never changes back to orange until you power on, then back off again.
Does that all sound accurate?

 

[ALOSTPANDA]

Just so I am clear....
If your battery is less than fully charged (make sure about this, so go less than 50%)
Then, you plug in the charger while power is on. The light remains green, even though it should be charging. But, you say the battery continues to discharge.
The Power screen in System Information should tell you this, too.
Watch the power screen now. Unplug the adapter. Refresh the power screen from the File menu to update the screen.
Note the charging status, etc. Plug the charger back in, then refresh again. You should see a change in the charging information there (battery is charging, or not charging, etc)
Am I correct so far?
Now, when you shut off your laptop, the light turns orange, so the battery should be charging.
Then, unplug power, wait a second or two, then plug back in, and the light is green (never changes back to orange until you power on, then back off again.
Does that all sound accurate?

Yes that's basically it.

 

[DeltaMac]

Did you try changing the charger connection while watching (and refreshing) your power screen?
I don't mean any offense, but that could really tell you a lot, and would be much more helpful than "Yes that's basically it"

But, I suspect that your battery is not being recognized by the charging circuit, unless you do a power reset (which is what off, then power back on accomplishes)
This could be the battery - or the charger, or - the magsafe board (the internal connection that you showed in your picture)
That board has a sensing circuit that may have partially failed.

 

[ALOSTPANDA]

Did you try changing the charger connection while watching (and refreshing) your power screen?
I don't mean any offense, but that could really tell you a lot, and would be much more helpful than "Yes that's basically it"

But, I suspect that your battery is not being recognized by the charging circuit, unless you do a power reset (which is what off, then power back on accomplishes)
This could be the battery - or the charger, or - the magsafe board (the internal connection that you showed in your picture)
That board has a sensing circuit that may have partially failed.

Sorry yeah here I took pictures. The first two Were taken when it was unplugged the last two were taken when it was plugged in

 

[DeltaMac]

Yes, you should see that plugging in the charger, the charger is detected (even shows the lightning bolt on the battery icon in the top menu), and the battery is well down in its charge, yet no charging is taking place.
The battery is "OK", not great, but OK.
Your laptop detects the charger, and it appears to be part way to showing as charging.
But, the charging circuitry isn't doing that final step automatically.

I am suspicious of either the charger (easy to try a different charger - you just need to find one somewhere, maybe borrow one to test? Or a display MBPro at an Apple store, etc) That's by far the easiest thing to try.
If a different charger does the same, then I am pretty sure it will be the magsafe board. Not too expensive, and not hard to replace.
The battery will be the most expensive item. I would suggest that you try charger and the magsafe board first.
My bet is on the magsafe board.

If you tell me that is a 13-inch MBPro, then I can tell you what the Apple part number is for a magsafe board - if that will help you. Makes it easier to find, eh?

 

[EndlessBuffoonery]

Great title

 

[PieTunes]

Great title

Well, technically, he's not lying