Battery Not Charging

[djackmac]

I disagree, mostly because there's no DC-in board on a MacBook

Sorry to drag up this from 6 months ago, but there actually is a magsafe DC-In board on all macbooks, but it rarely has much to do with a charging issue unless the machine will only run on battery and not through AC power. Otherwise your posts are 100% accurate Delta.

Other than the great advice that DeltaMac has provided you so far, if your gf has a spare magsafe power adapter you could test with, that would be good to try. The magsafes are pretty popular for stuck pins. If one of those pins is stuck down the machine will either not charge or not run on AC power at all. Another good thing is to take some isoprophyl alcohol and a cotton swab and clean the magsafe DC-in where the power adapter plugs in to. Also since the mag-safe DC-in is magnetic, make sure there is no metal debris in there blocking charging.

[wicentow]

I have the magsafe plugged in and the battery in the computer, but batter icon says "not charging". Even wierder, this message persists EVEN IF I CHANGE THE BATTERY. I've tried changing chargers, resetting PRAM, everything on the apple support site basically. So this must be an internal, computer problem, right?

Also, i checked the battery info, which is:
Model Information:
Serial Number: DP-ASMB013-3674-ada8
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: ASMB013
Pack Lot Code: 0001
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0102
Hardware Revision: 0300
Cell Revision: 0100
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 2662
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 5032
Health Information:
Cycle count: 471
Condition: Good
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 148
Voltage (mV): 11575


So what can I do? Is my entire computer fried?

[DeltaMac]

Although your battery has a fairly high Cycle count (471), your symptoms do not really indicate a failed battery, You have already verified that with another battery, which also doesn't charge. The resets are good to try, so you have the charging circuit in your MacBook as the problem. There are two internal cables that are part of the charging/power circuit. The Magsafe cable (Power Adapter plug, which attaches to the logic board. And, the battery connector cable, which also attaches to the logic board.
Each of those cables could be the problem, although the battery cable might be the first to try. Each cable is fairly cheap - maybe $20, and not difficult to replace. Take your MacBook to an Apple service shop, where you can get the correct fix. If neither cable helps, the logic board is at fault.

[Talpa]

I have the same problem as described above. I went out of the country for 2 weeks and left the thing unplugged when I got back it would not charge. The profiler info is given below:

Battery Information:

Model Information:
Serial Number: DP-ASMB016-38fa-291c
Manufacturer: DP
Device name: ASMB016
Pack Lot Code: 0002
PCB Lot Code: 0000
Firmware Version: 0110
Hardware Revision: 0500
Cell Revision: 0102
Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 0
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 0
Health Information:
Cycle count: 470
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 9206


This macbook was purchased in 2008 and has given good service except for the power adapter dieing out about a month back. Is it time to change the battery or is there still some hope left? Could it be some other, more serious issue?
Thanks!
Talpa

[JoeApple]

Hi - I'm also having this problem with my mums MacBook bought at the beginning of 2008 and the battery is completely non responsive. The battery meter reads: "Battery is not charging". Here is the system profile information:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 0
Fully charged: No
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 0
Health Information:
Cycle count: 22
Condition: Check Battery
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 40
Voltage (mV): 3957


As you can she hasn't used it very much whilst on the battery and we are pretty disappointed that the battery might have given up so easily. If anyone knows any tricks to get the battery charging again, we would really appreciated it. I have done a SMC reset but nothing happened.

Thanks - Joe

[DeltaMac]

The battery has failed.
Here's the trick to get it to charge:
Purchase a replacement battery. (Not really a trick, but that's the next step)

Your battery has lasted about 2 1/2 years. That's really all you can expect from one of the user-replaceable batteries, 2-3 years. Sometimes, the batteries will last quite a bit longer, but the design life has limits. The newer MacBooks, with batteries that are not user-replaceable, will last much longer.

[JoeApple]

Thanks for your help. I think that these companies should make it more clear that the battery will only last so long. I think a battery should last much longer than that. Especially as it's had so little use. Pretty disgraceful.

[DeltaMac]

There's really no way to predict how long a rechargeable battery will last. All you can know is that any rechargeable battery has a finite life, and that will be some range of time according to engineering specs. At some point - it just will not hold charge as long as new, or may stop charging entirely. A shorter-than-normal battery life can just be bad luck. There's quite a few threads here, and elsewhere, trying to understand how to extend the life of the battery. Often those hints will help, sometimes not.

I don't recall if I have ever seen _any_ rechargeable device with readily available info about how long to expect the battery to last, until it no longer accepts a reasonable charge.
Batteries fail over time.
You replace the battery, or live with a non-working battery (which is also a choice)