My battery icon has an X over it

Thanks for posting this and updating once you solved the problem. Mine is doing the same thing, I tried everything from the battery updater, cleaning and reseating, even an SMC reset. I was hesitant to buy a new battery incase it was a connection within the man, guess ill go ahead and place my order. Thanks again!

Hi! I'm having what I guess is the same problem. Did a new battery solved it?

Thanks XMousey! I was trying to ask The_Dragon, but thanks anyway. Cheers! : )

This is going to seem crazy, but after reading lots of these threads and no one coming up with an answer, I picked up the ball where it was dropped and tried something.. different. Some people had some luck replacing the battery connector / contact, but it only worked intermittently. My belief was that perhaps the computer body was simply warping and causing the battery disconnection. I then applied a vice clamp to the part of the body that houses the battery and the connector, slowly increasing the pressure until, Presto! The macbook started up.

Thanks for the tip. I'll try that later. Cheers! : )

I'm going to see if I can find a clamp that is low profile enough to allow for access to the keyboard / the laptop to close.. maybe an office type document clip would work..

Just happened to me as well, I let the computer sit without the charger and it randomly shut down

(thought it was the battery being fuly drained, as I had no idea how it was running being NOT connected to the bettery at the time as system prefs said)

It allowed me to turn it back on afterward and thusly it returned at %64 and seems to be working well.

I had the same kind of problem with a macbook 4,1 and there are endless discussions about the "X" over the battery. I stumbled upon a solution after purchasing a new battery and still getting the "X". I took off the top case and discovered the battery connector was a little loose even though the screws holding it were tight. I added a small shim behind the connector which pushed the connector a little deeper into the battery terminals. This completely solved the problem. I was ready to change out the top case ribbon because whenever I used the trackpad or keypad the battery would shift ever so slightly causing the connection to the battery connector to be lost, giving me the "X" icon on the battery icon.

All the macbook discussions on this are archived, so I thought I would take the opportunity to share here so someone else may find it.

You were right on the numbers though. If the battery is good and the "X" icon is present, it is likely the connector. Check it first before buying any new parts.

Cheers

Thanks for this post ... exactly what I was looking for. Do you have any detailed advice/info on the shim-fix?

my macbook is about 2 years old. i got the x on the battery yesterday and it only worked if i kept it plugged in like everybody else has said. then this morning, voila! (spelling?) no more x, and back to normal which makes me think that it's a connection issue - or at least that's the first thing to check out.

this is my first apple discussion post... i'm not much of a poster anywhere. guess i just really love my mac!

I'm having the same problem, how did you fix yours?

If http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1713 does not help, take the computer and charger and cable o an Apple tore genius bar for diagnosis.

I am also having the same problem with my MacBook Pro. It's been happening off and on for about 6 months. My laptop does work but will randomly just shut down. Thank you all for posting your solutions. I'm going to try them all this evening. I have a friend who has the same laptop so I will borrow her battery and see if that does the trick! With so many people having this issue, I wonder if it's a MacBook glitche that needs to be corrected by Apple!?

Here's an update to my last post. Just tonight I was prompted to make an update and restart. When I did, voila! No more x and my fan is also not conitually running! I'm up to 28%! I was really hoping that I didn't have to purchase a new battery since the laptop is less than 2 years old.