Battery Not Charging... stuck at 41%

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Level 1

9 points

Battery Not Charging... stuck at 41%

My battery life has gotten progressively worse over the past several months. A few months ago, my computer would only stay on battery life for maybe 20-30 minutes. Now it seems to be shorter. I just got back from a vacation where I was using it, and now it will not charge above 70%, but the light on the adaptor is green. However it says "battery not charging" on the status. I thought maybe I should try letting it die completely, or until my computer turns off (sometimes does this around 40%). But I plugged it back in at 41% because I was doing something I didn't want to lose. Now is has not gone above that %. I tried resetting the SMC without success. Also, my battery has 35 cycles, so it's not that much. I haven't found any other solutions on here... any ideas?

Thanks in advance. 🙂

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.3), 2.2 GHz Interl Core 2 Duo Processor, 2 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM Memory

Posted on Jul 20, 2009 10:06 PM

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Answer 1

cayte Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 31, 2009 2:14 PM in response to cayte

The same thing happened to me - I brought mine in, they ran the test and found it was bad, and gave me a new one for free. 🙂 However he said that since it's out of warranty, if it happens again, I would have to buy it. He also recommended letting the battery die once a month and then charging it back up to keep it in good condition.

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Answer 2

mnate

Level 1

0 points

Jul 22, 2009 11:05 AM in response to cayte

I strongly agree with "a Mac User" on running your MBP's battery all the way down. Doing this resets your computer to properly read the "remaining time" left on the battery. This issue is pretty common, although it's usually around 95-99%

If this doesn't work then it's almost definitely a problem with the battery itself and you should purchase a new one. (If by some crazy chance it's some a different issue, then you can just return the newly purchased battery).

Good Luck!

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Answer 3

cayte Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 22, 2009 2:04 PM in response to mnate

Ok, I'll give that a try... I'm just afraid that it won't work and I'll be without a usable computer until I get a new battery! (Assuming that is the problem.) Can you get a battery at an Apple Store, or only online?

Thanks!

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Answer 4

Weejitz

Level 1

0 points

Jul 31, 2009 1:04 PM in response to cayte

See this thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2092046&tstart=0

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Answer 5

Jul 21, 2009 5:01 AM in response to cayte

What is the full charge capacity of your battery? A green light means that it is not charging. An orange light means that it is charging.

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Answer 6

cayte Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 21, 2009 6:44 AM in response to Retired Engineer

It's always green now. When I got on this morning it's even lower, at 35%. 😟

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Answer 7

Jul 21, 2009 6:45 AM in response to cayte

have you tried running the battery all the way down then charging it back up again?

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Answer 8

cayte Author

Level 1

9 points

Jul 21, 2009 7:20 AM in response to a Mac user

I was going to try that, but I'm afraid it won't charge back up since it doesn't seem to be doing that now... although now it is back up a little at 39%...

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