"No battery available", no charging, will run off battery with charge

[modifiedcountry]

I have a mid 2006 2.0ghz core duo macbook.

Within the last month or two I started having problems with my battery not being detected and having the X battery icon with "no battery available". When this occurred, when plugging in the power adapter, it would not charge and run from power adapter. However, if my battery had a charge, it would run off the battery.

At first, reconnecting the power adapter a few (or several) times would cause it to start to charge the battery. Also, I would sporadically have software detect the battery and actually show me my battery stats in system profiler under power.
Those days seemed to be short lived. I have had no success having the battery recognized by the OS or begin charging in my macbook.

Yesterday I switched batteries with a friend who has an older macbook. His battery was not detected and would not charge in mine, but the macbook would run from battery fine. My battery was recognized fine in his, and charged fine.

Any ideas? I'd like to be able to charge the battery without having to swap batteries with another macbook......

 

[Blondie :)]

It sounds like you may have a bad connection where your battery goes into. A few years back, I had a similar problem with a Compaq laptop. The power button would only work when it wanted to. We rapidly pressed the power button, and plugged and unplugged the power cord until it started. Eventually, the motherboard fried. You might wanna take a look at the connections and stuff. If you could, upload some pics of the "guts" of the macbook, around where the battery plugs in, the power connector port, and power connections around the motherboard. If I can see it clearly enough, I might be able to tell you if it's repairable or not. If it's the motherboard, I'm afraid your S.O.L. If it's something else, it MAY be repairable.

 

[Pax]

This was a known problem with early Macbooks. My 2006 model had it. The battery has a small brain in it, the Mac needs to talk to this brain.

I can't remember what the fix was - a new battery I think. But I worry that the fix MIGHT be a new logic board.

You need to talk to Apple or a reseller.

If you Google around "battery x not detected" you will find loads of info on this problem.