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Macbook toggles between charging and not charging (green and yellow)

Starting today the status bar shows my macbook as charging, not charging (icon goes from battery to ac, led goes from yellow to green) over and over again. I have cleaned the contacts on the battery thinking that was the issue to no avail. Also did a reset of the SMC. It is working fine, just seems that the health and capacity are quite diminished now.
Cycles - 56
Health - 62%
Charge - 90%

I am going to do a recondition tonight, but the toggle seems to be the issue more than anything. I also see a new SMC firmware revision that will be my second thing to try.

Any help appreciated

Dual 1.25 G4, MBP, MB, PB G4, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 24, 2008 12:42 PM

Reply
9 replies

Jul 25, 2008 12:23 AM in response to Douglas Parks

Hi Douglas,

Try re-seating the battery, it sounds like a battery contact issue to me. Mine also flicks between charging and not charging but I discovered a temporary fix.

Shut down your mac, close it up, place your mac on a soft surface and propped up against a wall so that the Apple logo is facing you and the correct way round. Plug in your magsafe, it should be at the bottom right as you look at your MacBook. If the LED is green (charged) when it should be orange (charging) and the status LED on the battery isn't flashing (or flicking between the two) then give the right side of your MacBook a light tap on the floor and with a bit of luck, it will change to orange and stay that way.

I've found with my MacBook that the tapping motion gives the battery a slight nudge which in turn makes a more stable connection and this very untechnical method works every time!

Hope this helps.

Jul 28, 2008 4:11 PM in response to Douglas Parks

The flickering between green and orange (that's the colors mine is, anyway) is very irritating because the screen flickers between light and dark. It has not worked good for quite a while now, and instead of "tapping" the computer, or going to any other lengths (like jimmying the cord around, like I've been doing) I called apple and am having a new power adapter sent me. Tired of it not working...they were very accomodating and said they'd send a new one right out.

Sep 3, 2008 2:54 AM in response to Douglas Parks

Hy everyone. I've gote the same problem since 3/4 days with a Fastmac battery (substitutinge mine original one that died completely).
I'e tryed charging it with a macbookpro magsafe and it seems reach 100% without toggling, but with my magsafe always the same problem.

I've tryed tapping, umpligging, resetting etc. but nothing!

Maybe it's the adapter that can't charge the 5600mah battery...

Macbook toggles between charging and not charging (green and yellow)

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