Possible short circuit? Help please?

[cookieowen]

So my charger has been acting a bit weird lately, where it would charge, and then it wouldn't. But I haven't gotten the chance to get a new one quite yet, and I have to have a charged laptop to right essays and whatnot. So I've been using it. And today it was especially bad, but since the battery was about to die, I plugged the charger in, and the second I attached it to my laptop, the whole thing turned off. I got it to turn back on after about a minute, charger now unplugged. But now the fan is extremely loud, and the date was set back to Dec 31 of the year 2000. I also do not know how much battery life it has because there is an x inside of the battery symbol. When I click on it, the first two drop downs say "no batteries available" and "power source: power adapter". Although everything else seems to be working fine.

I'm just really confused and stressed, and I'd love to know if this is an easy fix or not. My assumption is that it was a short circuit, but I'm not very computer savvy when it comes to issues like these. The semester ends soon, and these upcoming essays I need to write are a huge part of my grade, and I really need to get them done.
Thank you.

 

[Cristian .b]

So my charger has been acting a bit weird lately, where it would charge, and then it wouldn't. But I haven't gotten the chance to get a new one quite yet, and I have to have a charged laptop to right essays and whatnot. So I've been using it. And today it was especially bad, but since the battery was about to die, I plugged the charger in, and the second I attached it to my laptop, the whole thing turned off. I got it to turn back on after about a minute, charger now unplugged. But now the fan is extremely loud, and the date was set back to Dec 31 of the year 2000. I also do not know how much battery life it has because there is an x inside of the battery symbol. When I click on it, the first two drop downs say "no batteries available" and "power source: power adapter". Although everything else seems to be working fine.

I'm just really confused and stressed, and I'd love to know if this is an easy fix or not. My assumption is that it was a short circuit, but I'm not very computer savvy when it comes to issues like these. The semester ends soon, and these upcoming essays I need to write are a huge part of my grade, and I really need to get them done.
Thank you.

That sounds like a damaged SMC. Thats the system management controller. It controls battery, fan speed, backlight etc... The only thing to to is to take it to Apple for repair. Is it an Apple charger or an knockoff? The knockoffs generally lacks protection from surges and shorts, so if it´s not from Apple it´s quite possible that´s the culprit. It´s a pretty bad issue and not easy to fix yourself.

 

[cookieowen]

That sounds like a damaged SMC. Thats the system management controller. It controls battery, fan speed, backlight etc... The only thing to to is to take it to Apple for repair. Is it an Apple charger or an knockoff? The knockoffs generally lacks protection from surges and shorts, so if it´s not from Apple it´s quite possible that´s the culprit. It´s a pretty bad issue and not easy to fix yourself.

Yes, I am taking it to an Apple store tomorrow. The charger is actually the one that came with the laptop when it was purchased from an Apple store. So no. However, the charger itself it quite old and hasn't been replaced since I first got it, which is leading me to believe that is why it happened in the first place. It has been about 3.5 to 4 years since I got it. I think its cycles are long since overdue. Thank you for the insight. I'll be sure to mention the SMC as a possibility.

 

[Cristian .b]

Yes, I am taking it to an Apple store tomorrow. The charger is actually the one that came with the laptop when it was purchased from an Apple store. So no. However, the charger itself it quite old and hasn't been replaced since I first got it, which is leading me to believe that is why it happened in the first place. It has been about 3.5 to 4 years since I got it. I think its cycles are long since overdue. Thank you for the insight. I'll be sure to mention the SMC as a possibility.

Thats good. The charger is genuine, so it´s weird it somehow may have shorted the Mac. Hope they will repair it.