I have a macbook late 2008 (macbook5,1), and it has no battery or hard drive. I boot from an external macOS hard drive. A third party MagSafe charger from ebay worked for a day, but after trying to install macos to another drive unsuccessfully, I turned it off, and the charger stopped working after that. There is no light, except sometimes if I look really closely, I can make out a blinking orange light on the charger
MacBook
It has been a while since I worked on a 2008 model and thought I had used the Control + Option + Shift + Power Button keys on them. According to the linked SMC article if the battery is removable, then make sure both the power adapter and battery are disconnected. Hold the power button for 5 seconds. Reconnect the power adapter.
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
While writing this, I just recalled a quirk the older Apple laptops have when powering on if a battery is not connected. If a battery is not connected, then sometimes you will need to press the power button several times before the laptop will power on. Sometimes it may even require holding the power button for a few seconds as well. Without a battery connected, the laptop won't instantly power on at the press of the power button.
I would suspect you have a bad charger. I've haven't seen many good third party Magsafe chargers. Most third party chargers are actually dangerous to use (both to you and your laptop). See this excellent article about the difference between an original Apple charger and some third party ones:
https://beetstech.com/blog/oem-magsafe-chargers-vs-counterfeits-teardown-for-truth
You can try unplugging the charger from the electrical outlet for a minute and trying again. Also try an SMC reset. It is also possible you have a hardware issue with the laptop. There is no way to tell for sure without using a known good charger.
If this doesn't work, then I would suggest purchasing a Apple Magsafe power adapter instead.
An 85W power adapter will work just fine. I use the 85W adapter all the time regardless of the Mac I'm testing & repairing.
There is no way to tell what you will receive from any third party out there. You have no way of knowing if the pictures shown are of the actual product currently for sale or if it is from something sold long ago or taken from elsewhere on the Internet. You just need to pick a seller that you feel is reputable.
Since the seller has several available the picture is unlikely to be the one you will receive. At least the seller's page looks decent so that is a plus. Unfortunately there is no way to tell for sure until you receive it.
I found two other chargers that seem to be selling only one:
They are both from the same seller and seem genuine.
Would you recommend going with the 60w or 85w? Its a Macbook5,1 and I think its rated 60w, but would getting 85w be a safer decision? Can I get the 85w even if my model is rated 60w?
Thanks!
Is it possible to do an smc reset without a battery on the models with a removable one?
Ok thanks! I might order it.
Thanks again for all your help!
Edit: I think the catch is that the seller does not include a picture of the side including information like manufacturer. Do you think the other pictures are enough to prove the authenticity of it?
Sorry this response is so late,
I couldn't do an SMC reset, so I'm looking into buying an OEM charger. I don't want to buy directly from apple though, because it is a really old laptop and I don't think $70 is worth it for such an old device. I was looking into buying it used on ebay.
What do you think about this one?
I've inspected it in the picture, and there seems to be no red flags. There are no misspellings, the printing looks pretty dark/readable, and it claims it's made by Delta Electronics, the company that makes Apple chargers. Tell me what you think please!
Thanks for all your help so far. I really appreciate it!
Macbook late 2008 charger
