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Macbook Air - Intermittently Charging , Now not at all

Hi all,


I own a Macbook 13 inch air which I purchased in early 2012. My problem lies with the charging of my laptop.


The symtoms;


Macbook intermittently charges, but is now not charging at all

Mag connector is not showing any lights (being green or orange)

Laptop shows no charge increase with mag attached and no light


Took laptop into my apple store and they ran a 'diagnostic test' which showed everything as OK . I also noted that as soon as they plugged the laptop in the charger started charging the battery.


I then took my laptop home frustrated, after trying for the last week to get it to charge with no success. I plugged the laptop in and it started charging. Unusual i thought!


However now the same problem has came along again, with my laptop not charging and the mag light not glowing any colour.


Is this a hardware fault perhaps?


My software is up to date.


I have tried multiple known working plugs around the house.


The power adaptor is in excellent condition, it just sits in the same place and is never wrapped up etc and looks in perfect condition.


The power plug on laptop and mag are both clean.


Im really struggling to find any info as to what is wrong?


Any ideas?


Much thanks in advanced,

Flipstick476

MacBook Air, iOS 5.1.1

Posted on Sep 4, 2012 1:22 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Oct 25, 2017 10:28 AM

Wow...just wow. Like farleftlane said, it boggles my **** mind that after I paid AUD$1,300 for this laptop, this kind of **** what I have to put up with from a supposedly "superior" product. It's the general consensus among IT professionals (and many other geeks) that Apple notebooks are the "best" on the market, and "well-worth" the extra expense...I find this absolutely absurd!


Granted, my Mid-2013 13" MBA is now 4 years old, but after taking it to a "Genius" bar and having them look at it (and two different chargers with which I've had this problem), I was actually shocked when they didn't take that as a perfect opportunity to upsell me a new Mac. Instead, they told me that it was still well-within its feasible life span. All hardware diagnostic tests passed with flying colours and the battery had only been through 50% of the acceptable charge cycles before they would deem it replacable under warranty. Of course, my warranty had long-expired by then anyway, but that's the reasoning that they used to suggest that I just stick with it.


That was roughly 6 months - 1 year ago (please excuse my spotty memory) and the problem has gotten worse. Now every time I plug in any charger, from any wall outlet, I have to fiddle with the MagSafe 2 adapter for anywhere between 30 seconds - 5 minutes to get the charging light to come on. This involves unplugging and re-plugging it in at the computer end, turning it 180 degrees, and manipulating the cord at various angles before a green light will eventually come on and turn to orange after 5 seconds or so. Over the last few days, I've noticed that this has gotten worse still in that the light will stay green for roughly a full minute before the computer/charger finally realises that the battery level is below 100%.


I haven't tried a SMC reset, nor the ludicrous hair dryer solution that worked for others. I will try those the next time it needs charging. But this is just such a frustrating issue that I thought I'd add my 2 cents to the conversation, in the hope that an Apple employee will eventually notice it and help us all who are still struggling (and will undoubtably struggle in the future) with this crazy problem.


I will also add that once I finally get the charger to work, the slightest move can (not always, but more-often-than-not) start the whole process over again, whereby I have to fiddle with the adapter to get it to start charging again.


I'm not an electrician, but I'm pretty sure that this is not an issue with the wall outlets or the wiring in my house or anything like that. How could it be, when every other appliance and device works flawlessly? I do use a lot of power boards, which usually have lots of other devices plugged into them, but I doubt that could be a cause for this. Even the Apple Genius that I spoke to denied that as a possibility.


To those who got this far in my post, many apologies for the long-winded rant. I just find this issue so utterly unbelievable and inexcusable that I'm at my wits end, and needed to vent to somebody who might care. I also really hope that if enough of us complain about this, Apple will take notice and fix their dodgy chargers that cost way too much (like all their products and accessories). Many thanks to those still reading, and best of luck :-)


<Edited by Host>

118 replies

Apr 4, 2013 8:01 PM in response to Flipstick476

I had the same problem too. I am amused by you guys who bother to take a hair dryer just to continue using the mac book. For me it is simple, there are may other good products coming out and getting so closed to iProducts but with cheaper price. It is now time to try some alternative products. Why hang yourself on a tree who does not care if you are falling down.

Apr 30, 2013 8:23 PM in response to Flipstick476

The blowdryer trick is a great find and all but it is ridiculous it has to come to that. It's clearly a hardware problem related to either the battery or the Magsafe board. I have the same issue in both Holland and Thailand. I have the same issue using an original Macbook pro 85W adapter (recently bought to power my 2007 model) an original White Macbook adapter AND the macbook air adapter that came with it.


This is definetly a production issue and I have a feeling each and everyone will run into this problem sooner or later, frequent and critic users like people here will notice it earlier, casual users and people who don't really care enough to post onto a forum (like me) will run into it but never reach out.


Going to the store to have G(lorified hip sales people)eniuses look at at it will only lead to BS like 'it's not common' and 'weird' but usually never to the truth.


It takes a lot for Apple to admit to their mistakes it even takes legal charges sometimes. I used to work in techincal support back in Holland back when there were no official Apple stores but only Premium and Authorised resellers and literally hundreds of people came with their macbooks (both black and white) with top casings being damaged and torn. It was clearly the shape of the screen and the magnets that caused this damage and I pointed it out in official meetings with Apple representation but they denied it. An even bigger number of people came back to the shop with those macbooks not booting, the problem was the lubricant used while inserting RAM modules which dried up and became powder which prevented it from making proper contact, simply removing them and cleaning them solved the issue each and every time. I literally did it hundreds of times. Yet still they refused to admit this was the case.


Apple should fix each and every unit that has this problem but the only way is to make Apple do it, then maybe they'll offer extended warranty so we can all have them replaced without having to pay for a thing.


How to make them I don't know, but that's the way to go, if anyone has legit info on how previous extended warranties were ignited that would really help. ...please don't mention Applecare because it's the biggest mistake one can make.


I

May 8, 2013 4:46 AM in response to Flipstick476

Same deal here. MacBook Air purchased in late 2011 in Beijing (from the official Apple Store). Problems started summer 2012, but moving the connection around into different positions until finding one that worked did the trick until a week ago. It gradually got harder and harder to find a position in which it would charge, and eventually it quit charging altogether.


Bought a new brick, charged for a few days without problem or incident. It's been back again and getting progressively worse the past few days... now nearly as bad as the old one was - in some ways, worse (it's easier to get charging, but quits charging randomly and sometimes without the computer being touched, which it wasn't doing with the old charger). Blowdrying doesn't seem to make any difference (the brick's already pretty warm anyway). Only thing that seems to work is spending a few minutes trying different connections until this thing charges. Move the computer a little bit and it quits charging, and you've got to get to work connecting and disconnecting the power again until it starts up again.


This is my first Mac product. I switched to it because Macs were supposedly higher quality and I'd get more bang for my buck - I work on a computer 14 hours a day for work and need something reliable. Thing isn't even 18 months old now though and it's become a pain to use... real shame. Seems like there are no quality computer manufacturers left (Lenovos overheat and slow way down, Toshibas have trackpad problems that require you to use a mouse, Acers don't last, and Macs won't charge - the search for a functional laptop that lasts longer than a year goes on).

May 8, 2013 6:30 AM in response to Flipstick476

Hi


Having the same issue on my 2011 MBA 13"


It happened once before a few months back and don't know what I did to stop it from happening but it started again yesterday. Only noticed it while working because I am getting interferance with my external speaker that is connected and the screen is dimming every now and then when it switches between battery and charging.


Charger is original, had no issues with it and seems in perfect working order. Problem for me seems to be when the MBA gets to 96% charge. The machine thinks the battery is full and then starts switching between battery and charging again.


if I remove the charger and let the battery drain for a while then plug the charger back in it's fine until the charge level gets back to 96% and then the issue starts again.


Was thnking it was a software issue with something I had running (Flash, CITRIX) but don't think.

M.

May 25, 2013 4:25 AM in response to Flipstick476

I am having the same problem for a few weeks now.


What does the trick for me is following: Try sockets multiple times. Even if they did not work when you tried first time, keep trying until you find one which works (for me, sometimes i just try the same socket after 10 minutes and it works fine).


Once you find the right socket on which the charger start charging, you can switch to any socket and it will be charging as well.


It is frustrating and I have no clue why it happens, and first time it happened I was in panic because I was travelling in the morning, but now I just don't loose patience and keep trying the sockets and all goes back to normal (if it can be called normal 😁) .



Apple support in my country is completely useless so you no point going to them...

May 26, 2013 3:03 PM in response to Flipstick476

This is a "me too" adding some hopefully useful elements.


I'm experiencing the problem with my MBA 13, initially once in a while, now constantly.

After a number of attempts I found a way to (temporary) fix the problem:


1. Situation: MBA charger (output: 14.5 Volt) not charging - light can be randomly either green or red or off. Please note that I've 2 MBA chargers, one brand new. When my MBA stops charging nothing changes whichever of the two chargers I use. Furthermore: the behaviour of the light is the same at the same time for both of them: it demonstrates that the problem is related to the MBA and not to the charger.

2. I plug in a MacBook charger (appearenty identical to MBA's but output: 16.5 Volt): my MBA wakes up and its battery starts charging again

3. I then plug back one of my MBA chargers: they both work!


This could explain also my frustrating experience at Genius': I was there 4 times and everytime when they plugged their charger in my MBA eveything was fine. And afterwards also my charger was working fine. My idea is that - having to deal with any kind of Apple devices - the Genius' chargers are the most powerful ones (16.5 Volt). This would also be a good explanation of the "heating effect": when the charger is warm/hot, the voltage is a little bit increased, at least at the beginning. This "unlock" the MBA charging, obtaining the same effect of giving the MBA a little shock with a 16.5 Volt charger.

Jun 5, 2013 12:31 AM in response to Flipstick476

...I had a really, really good examination of the problem. I used the hair-dryer trick and that worked..for a short time. Then I noticed a weakness in the cable where is joins the charger block.


After much fiddling I think the problem is to do with where the cable joins the charger block. I think there is an inherant weakness there that gets worse over a long period, when the cable is pulled accidently or curled to store away. Mine eventually gave up and I noticed the cable in that area had crumpled...the cabl just isn't sturdy enough or the 'join' is too flimsy/weak to deal with being stored as a curled cable or if it gets tugged or pulled...as it invariably will.


Hope this helps.

Macbook Air - Intermittently Charging , Now not at all

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