MacBook Battery Won't Charge...Get "Not Charging"

I'm having the same problem. I have not used my MacBook Pro for a couple months now, since my power adapter/ charger broke and could not buy one until now. I plugged it in and it would just stay green even after leaving it to charge for an hour or so. It turns on and everything works fine, it just won't charge.

Here is the battery info:

Model Information:

Serial Number: 9G0460936D3NB

Manufacturer: DP

Device name: bq20z451

Pack Lot Code: 0000

PCB Lot Code: 0000

Firmware Version: 0201

Hardware Revision: 0002

Cell Revision: 0164

Charge Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 0

Fully charged: No

Charging: No

Full charge capacity (mAh): 5018

Health Information:

Cycle count: 296

Condition: Normal

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 0

Voltage (mV): 8754

I've been plagued with the same problem over the past week.

Tried every possible solution I found online.

I was about to check-in with a technician to see if it was an internal problem, when I tought of cleaning the battery terminals. After brushing the terminals of the battery and of the computer with a small brush, my battery is charging once again.

Hope that helps.

Subject - Am I crazy?

Hey everybody! I admittedly just skipped to the last post so if someone already made this comment sorry folks.

I'm having the same problem with a 6-7 year old Macbook where when I use my brother's power cord from his 2012 Macbook Air, (the newer one with the cyclindrical head), my battery icon on the upper left of my screen shows power is hooked up but it's "not charging" the battery. But here is the weird thing and what I was wondering if anybody else has come across... This problem has been a constant for me for a while. But when I use an older Macbook power cord, the one that came with the Macbook originally, the battery charges as it should when the cord is plugged in. It works FINE, no dead battery, it's GOOD. But if I switch to the newer cord from the 2012 Macbook Air, it doesn't work. Now I'm not a technical guru so you can tell me this is nuts, but this is exactly what is happening for me repeatedly 7 days a week, ever week, repeatedly for the last 3 months. With the 7 year old version of the power cord, battery charges, with the newer, 2012, different version of the power cord, battery won't charge. ???????

Unfortunately now I'm screwed because that one old power cord that was working for me got destroyed thanks to my young cat and her annoying teething habits and now all I have to use is the newer cord which of course won't charge my battery and I assume when I buy a replacement power cord, which will be the same as the newer Macbook Air cord I can't get to work, I'll still be unable to charge my battery. So I guess now I'm in all of your boats and I'll be reading the last 13 pages of this thread really carefully to try and solve my problem when using the newer cords...

Me again... Seems I should have read the earlier pages of posts, the last page of posts held the answer to my dilemma and confusion over my older Macbook power cord charging my battery and a newer cord not charging my battery. It was mentioned that the Macbook Air power cord isn't powerful enough to charge certain Macbooks. I was trying to get a 2012 Macbook Air power cord to power my 7 year old Macbook and ran into that not charging problem. Glad I read that earlier post, now I know to buy the more powerful Macbook Pro power cord when I replace the old Macbook cord that I had been successfully using before it got destroyed recently.

Hello,

I have "not charging" as everyone else. I am however in the strange situation that despite going through the three "reset" procedures of power management without any success, have a macbook which lets the battery run to zero charge and THEN first when the computer turns itself off, begins to charge. I cannot use the macbook without a battery as the screen only gives a brief flicker but does not start up. I have read all thirteen pages (on battery power each time) of your sad stories and did not find anyone with my problem. It sounds like my own power supply is at fault not being able to deliver enough power to both charge and also run the book. Hence I have ordered another (forth one in ten years - like tyres on a car) power supply. The present one from Kensington lasted the longest (and still works to some extent) but those from Apple failed relatively quickly (two years was the longest any of those things lasted). It may take a week for the power supply to arrive in which time I have to work with the thought that at any time the screen will just go blank and I will have lost whatever it is I am doing. Then I have to wait (overnight) until I can again have a dash at trying to check emails and find forums to ask how to get over this problem. The pins on the Magsafe are all ok, the battery connections have been cleaned and as I said above the three resets have been done. I did also try to switch to another disk and it also gave the "not charging" message above, but at one point this went to "charged" and I thought that one of the many fiddles I had done had worked so I went back to my original hardisk to reboot and am again left with Not charging. Back to the external disk and it too is again at Not charging. This occupies lots of my time but then people all over the world are doing exactly the same - it is what we come to expect today - things that just don't work. My advice to others if they wish to have something which works - buy a Swiss Army Knife - this is the ONLY thing I have ever bought in my life which actually does work - I use it almost every day (expecially since I have a macbook - to open the battery for example you just don't turn a knob - you need a tool, or coin and who has coins in this day and age?) I wonder do they sell shares....I hope that someone can advise me since the post from Germany is not something which can be relied upon. I could buy another powersupply here in Portugal and when (if) the other turns up then take it back and get my cash again, but I did that before (successfully while waiting for my ebay replacement) and I don't like to abuse the generous service the people here give.

Back again. I bought a replacement here in Portugal (never heard of Pa or Md - is that Africa? or Australia not really important is it?) and that worked, everything ok. Hence I got the confidence to take the other one apart and have just managed to fix it too. Thus since I live in a civilised place (thank FNAC) at the minute I can take the new one back and continue to use the Kensington which is repairable in contrast to Apple products which are as we all know non-repairable and are tossed in the rubbish once something fails. Once you have experienced civilisation you really won't want to go back to a primative toss-world but then most of you won't even be able to grasp that very concept - try explaining walking to a fish.

Best of luck with the trash all of you, my trash has been rescued for the minute, but we never know.

I presume it is called Magsafe2, it has only a small plug, but it goes back to the shop tomorrow as I don't need it. I use a 1st gen magsafe plug cut off a defective apple power source and the two wires connected to the more reliable Kensington power source which has lasted now some five years. There is a good page showing how you can repair all this apple trash at:

http://www.sunrisepage.com/computers/machardware/pwradtrs.htm

so look around and get enlightened!

Then enlighten others.

My Mac would not operate without the charger anymore. So with the charger plugged in and the laptop turned on i simply flipped over the laptop, disconnected the battery and then plugged it back in. Its now back working perfectly.

I hope this helps. 🙂

Here's what worked for me.

My magsafe started playing up a year or so ago. It would just stop working. Sometimes for a day or more.

Several times I was on the point of buying a new one, then it would come back to life again.

Gradually I got suspicious.......because it was really bad when I am in Thailand, but not so much in the UK.

To cut a long story short - I put it in the freezer/refrigerator for 10 minutes. Works every time for me!

Basically it seems that if you live in a hot climate, or just a hot room!, and even more, if your grid electricity is unstable, or you are in a place with lousy wiring and bad earths, the magsafe will "trip out" ..... and often takes ages to reset. Chilling seems to accelerate this process.

Obviously this will not work all the time, but it has really worked for me!! Maybe my magsafe just has an over sensitive protection circuit (is it called a thermistor?).

But if your magsafe suddenly stops working, check the fuse ...... while the magsafe is in the fridge!

Hi

Had the problem of "battery not charging" on Macbook Pro 2006

Charger connecter lit up green

It was very new non apple battery from OWC

Looked at the System Profile only 16 cycles on the battery

AC charger was shown as "connected"

Battery showed up so not a problem with poor connection or not properly inserted (I had tried taking the battery in and out several times) but the profiler said "Charging: No"

Charger worked on another Macbook so that wasnt the problem

I tried the SMC reset where you sleep, shutdown, take out the battery, press power supply for 5 secs, reconnect AC, reinsert battery etc - No luck

Then I read the SMC also controls the sleep wake cycle and lid closure.

I cant exactly remember what I did because I was so ****** off by this stage and starting to lose concentration but I think I closed the lid and let the computer go to sleep and then opened it again to rewake.

After doing this 3 times the bloody thing now shows the battery is charging

A bit random I know but saved me having mental breakdown

I would love to know if this helps anyone else!

I don't know if this will help anyone or not, but I had the same issues. Did all the stuff that has been suggested.

Reset the everything

Booted without battery and then with

Checked for latest software being installed

"Smacked the battery a bit when installing, to make sure it was seated"

Nothing worked

So, I checked the pins on the Magsoft connector and all the pins seemed fine.

But, there was some crud on the laptop connector.

So, I used a pencil eraser and lightly cleaned the connectors

Then, used a toothpick to clean around the edges.

All is well and charging normally.

I think there was just enough dirt to keep something from connecting correctly.

Thanks,

HI

Thanks for your contribution but the problem I was having and many others were having was nothing to do with the battery, charger or connector.

When I was going into the Mac system profiler it was clearly showing the charger was connected but the bit where it says "Charging" was coming up as "No"

The problem was something in the SMC software that was not allowing the battery to charge even though everything was saying it was connected properly

This is why many solutions involved attempts to reset the SMC (System Management Controller) like the one on YouTube involving taking the battery out etc

The one taking battery out did not work for me but opening and closing the lid which put the laptop to sleep and then reawakened it seemed to fix the problem as the SMC also controls sleep wake.

Hello Tim and others with power problems.

I found that:

1. taking the "magsafe" plug off and knocking it sharply against a hard surface enabled the tiny pins to become fully extended again.

2. Better still is cleaning them with hi pressure air or a cleansing fluid.

Take a close look at all the pins. If they are not all the same length, then you will have a fault. They have to all sit parallel and fully extended. Swinging the magplug on the end of about an arm's length of cable against something hard will jolt them into position. If this works for a short time then you KNOW that this is the problem - dirt around the pins. Once cleaned all the other methods of resolving this problem will be irrelevant.

Best of luck, and

3. As a last resort there are macpowersupply copies in EBAY which are cheap (20€ each instead of 75€), made in China (where the Mac originals are also made) and so far mine has not let me down used for four months now.

I was having the same problem...plugged in, green LED dimmer than usual, and "not charging" next to the battery icon. Also, the screen would brighten up when plugged in so I knew the charger itself was working.

As Kenneth Keen1 suggested above, I tried firmly tapping the magsafe connecter on a hard surface. Viola! Plugged it back in and it started charging, amber LED, back to normal.

Thanks!

I didn't get this far in the discussion until now, but I thought I would post what finally worked for me. First I finally got 13" MacBook to run on the battery during the course of the numerous resets, when I tried booting up without the magsafe connected, and it booted, which was a huge step forward. Still saying "Not Charging" on the menu bar indicator, though. In doing the SMC reset for the umpteenth time, I plugged in the magsafe, which went to green, and then installed the battery and the indicator on the magsafe went orange! I booted up and it continued to charge.