Macbook Air - Intermittently Charging , Now not at all

I found this thread while trying to figure out the no charging issue on my 7 month old 11" MBA. I tried warming the brick part for 2 mins in front of a space heater, but still showing no charging and 0 wattage, so it's not even powering the laptop :-( Tried the SMC reset too. < 4 hrs of battery power left, so had to shut it down. Since it's under warranty, I made a genius appt for tomorrow. From this thread, sounds like it'll miraculously work in the store :-/

I wish the warming trick worked for today at least. I'll let you know what they say.

Disappointing.

I have the same issue. MBA 13 in', bought early 2012. I lodged my issue before my warranty expires so I am still covered by it.

Weather condition: Summer.

At first when its charging, the light will turn orange but just for a few minutes (enough to trick the genius into believing its actually charging and thinking that maybe you might be insane), then it will stop charging and stays green. I made my genius stay with me and it did turn green after a few minutes.

I have met the geniuses for about 4 times now. Problem still unresolved. Geniuses were friendly if that helps. 🙂

They tested on the charger, it passed. Still not charging.

Reset SMC & RAM. Still not charging.

Reseat battery. Still not charging.

MRI did not passed battery test. Amperage is too low (-197) in every single test they run in front of me (Perhaps they should consider raising the am? I am a noob in stuff like this so not sure if that's possible).

Replaced power adapter, replaced board, I/O yesterday. Still not charging.

Should replace battery by now but genius is 100% problem is solved because of the solution above. It did not. I doubt it will solve the problem as some of you have changed the battery and its still not working.

Going to the genius bar like right after this and show them this thread and see what they are going to say. It sounds like a problem with MBA year 2011/2012?

Well, I cancelled my trip to the genius bar. When I got home, the adapter didn't power my 13" MBA either, so I switched adapters and the 11" got power. I swore I tried that adapter over the weekend and had trouble. But, it appears OK today (but then again it's unseasonably warm out yesterday and today!)

Thank you o' wise poster of the hair dryer trick! It works! Love ya! Mean it!

Thanks, and glad it worked!

Same for me. Charging started to go intermitent sometime around 15 months after purchase. Now it's completely dead. Big deception with this first Apple's experience. I paid a premium price for what I expected to be a premium product, but with that situation 18 months later and no more warranty, I looks to me like a weak investment.

We miss Steve I guess.

Crap!

Simon A.,

Montreal

What a joke. My first Apple computer a MBA and I can't charge it. I can't believe a company like Apple with all there money has not fixed this. I read all the posts and I warmed up the charger in my hands for a few minutes and I can't believe thats what it took to get it charging. So I have to pull out my night stand and unplug it, then warm it up to get it to work. What year is this? I cant believe how much I paid for this and I have to warm up the charger. I had already gone into the store, they were zero help, but very nice, but had nothing for me. And I find the problem on an apple disscusion board. But maybe with Spring approaching we will have some warmer weather and I'll be set till next winter. Apple fix it NOW.

I've been having this same problem with the cord light not coming on when connected, for no apparent reson. Totally randomly. I'm in Arizona, so it's not THAT cold here. Probably mid 70s. Anyhow, I couldn't get it to work because I accidentally unplugged it. Which caused it to lose its "sweet spot." While reading the boards, I took the white block and held it in my hands. After about a minute it just randomly came on. Orange light pops back on. So warming up the block corrects the issue. However, give me a break. How did no one at Apple ever catch this? I'm assuming they're just going to ignore this and move on to the next model like it never happened. This cord is so awkward and fussy that it was the only negative from day one. I'm hoping they ditch this design completely and come up with something worthy of the brand.

I tried charging again today with no luck. My house is 70 degrees inside. So I held the charger in my hand for about 30 seconds while breathing hot air on it 4 times, plugged it in and its now charging. I don't remember seeing those instructions in the manual. So it just needs a jump start every time like an old car. Thanks Apple.

UPDATE:

After a few weeks with the new battery and IO board my MBA is now charging correctly and consistently. It took about 2.5 weeks and now it seems to charge correctly everytime on the first shot. I have tested this with 4 different charges and I am seeing great results everytime.

Also, I have done some testing in the basement @ 55 degrees leaving two of the charges down in the cold and they have both been charging 1st time. I cannot explain why you need to warm up the charges because I did as well but as I noted in an earlier post I have been doing my tesitng with 4 seperate chargers and i was able to duplicate the issue before my battery and IO board swap out and had the same results as everyone else.

I dont know the ins/outs of the MAC but perhaps IO Board is sensing a false full charge or something.

If someone else is under warranty go into the Mac Store and demand a new battery and IO board and see if you are seeing better results, I didnt for the first week so I dont know if there was an update or something released but I am having expected results at this time and I have the same power supplies as before.

GOOD LUCK.

Thank you for your post. I will go in and demand that they replace something. My MBA charged fine for 2 or 3 months. Then for the last month I noticed it wasnt always charging but did not think much about it untill this last several days when it stopped altogether. Then reading these posts I found that warming it a little would get it to work. I think there is a problem with the charger that gets worse over time. I will go in Monday to Apple and post what they do about it.

I've been facing a similar problem.

I've found that actually shutting down my MacBook Pro makes it charge in one go.

I first kill all applications, then shut down tha Mac.

After that it works for a couple of days.

I think it has to do with how many applications I've got up and running in the background.

C

Same problem with my MacBook Air. This was happening around 4-5 months ago but went away after a day or two. Now this problem has come back. It's been 2 days since I was able to get any light indicators on the magsafe.

This is a serious problem!

Crazy, but the blowdryer trick worked. Very hi-tech! However it is now only recharging to 99%, so the icon never goes to 'full' but stays on the 'recharging' symbol. Not sure how good this is for the battery.

Warming up the power brick definitely fixed the issue of my laptop not charging.

I had the problem previously and it went away but then came back and refused to charge until I heated it up. I hope I don't have to do this every time. :/