Need Help to Troubleshoot Charging Issue w/A1226

[Hack5190]

My son has an A1226 that worked fine before being placed in storage for ~8 months, now it won't charge.

He has 2 batteries and 2 chargers, all with the same symptoms. Tested the chargers with a different Mac, both work. Can't check the batteries, no other units available that have removable batteries, but do know that both batteries worked and had ~75% charge when stored.

99% of the time the chargers glow green, never go orange and the batteries don't charge. By constantly disconnecting and reconnecting the AC adapter I was able to get 1 battery to charge. The laptop booted (and ran fine), it reported the battery as having a 85% and the laptop worked fine. After sitting for 2 days the battery is flat and (once again) it won't charge.

After some web searches the best guess is the left power / IO board is bad. Of course it could also be that both batteries are bad. So I'm here to ask if there is some way to confirm if the board or batteries are bad before we flip a coin and start buying parts?

 

[Sanpete]

You already tried an SMC rest? Does seem to be the batteries, but it's odd that they would become unusable so quickly in storage. Were they in a cool place?

 

[DeltaMac]

Sometimes you can see worn or even broken contacts on the magsafe connector - where the power adapter attaches.
But, your symptoms can be the battery. You have a spare that seems to (not) work the same.
And, no change with a different power adapter (?)
Of course, if there is visible damage to the internal magsafe connector, then it's definitely the I/O board
There's also the battery cable (plugs in to the battery, and other end plugs into logic board), which is a possible failure.
But, I would more expect that left I/O board to fix your issue.

 

[Hack5190]

You already tried an SMC rest? Does seem to be the batteries, but it's odd that they would become unusable so quickly in storage. Were they in a cool place?

DARN, I forgot about the SMC! Right now it won't power on so a reset will have to wait

UPDATE: It's time to admit my mistake

Someone swapped the 85% battery for the flat one yesterday while I was away . After reinstalling the 85% battery I was able to boot the laptop and reset the SMC. Very early but it appears the SMC reset helped - the 85% battery is now at 88% and still orange (charging).

Thanks for the help!
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Sometimes you can see worn or even broken contacts on the magsafe connector - where the power adapter attaches.
But, your symptoms can be the battery. You have a spare that seems to (not) work the same.
And, no change with a different power adapter (?)
Of course, if there is visible damage to the internal magsafe connector, then it's definitely the I/O board
There's also the battery cable (plugs in to the battery, and other end plugs into logic board), which is a possible failure.
But, I would more expect that left I/O board to fix your issue.

My first suspect was the magsafe port, but since one battery charged with 3 chargers I ruled that out. The batteries and laptop were stored in my sons apartment. Not cold, but not hot either. Based on the way it's working since doing a SMC reset I think his problem is 1 bad battery. But time will tell......

Thanks for the reply and confirmation about the left I/O board.