Mid 2010 17 inch MacBook Pro shuts down and uses battery while plugged in

Question

Level 1

8 points

Mid 2010 17 inch MacBook Pro shuts down and uses battery while plugged in

HI

I Have a bit of a strange situation here.. while plugged into AC power my MacBook see me to still consume battery power. When thie battery goes flat it just shuts down.. I have to wait for the battery to charge up again to turn it back on...

i Have reset the smc and the PRAMM ... I have installed the new firmware and I have installed a new battery... I really do not know what else to do here!

i Am almost positive the Como should not consume battery power while plugged into Ac power and should not shut down just because the battery is flat when it is plugged in.

does anyone have any ideas?

a quick history on this computer.. I had a liquid spill which killed the original logic board.. I had a new logic board installed. I have also replaced the dc in power board as the old one had corrosion damage. It also has a new hard drive. All of this has happened in the last 8 months..

any help would be greatly appreciated.

MacBook Pro, iOS 8.2

Posted on Apr 3, 2015 10:16 PM

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Answer 1

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 4, 2015 4:55 AM in response to Rszarka

Run an Apple Hardware Test, that may provide a clue:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201257

Note that an error free AHT is not definitive.

If no success, bring it in to a genius bar for a free evaluation.

Ciao.

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Answer 2

Rszarka Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 4, 2015 5:19 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

Hi,

Thank you very much for the reply and advice!

I have tried to run the diagnostic holding down the D key but it won't run..i do not have a disk to run it off of... so my last option is to try holding down the option & d key to boot the diagnostic off of the internet.

I have also been trying to get into my local genius bar here in Bondi Australia for weeks now unfortunately there has not been one appointment for 3 entire weeks and counting.

While looking around through system profiler i found something that may either be the problem or part of the problem. My magsafe adapter died about a year and a half ago. Not knowing what i was doing at the time it looks like i got the 60 watt adapter when these 17 in Macbook pros need the 85 watt!

Right now the computer runs fine unless i try to run an energy intensive application like a game... it would make sense that the game would need more power than this adapter can provide causing a shut down...maybe because my battery is a bit older now and will soon need replacing it can no longer provide the extra watts needed that it was able to provide when it was new..it could explain why just now this has become a major problem.

For quite awhile now probably since i got the new adapter the comp has consumed battery power while plugged in but it never shut down like it has recently unless the battery was fully discharged. Now if i use anything that is a resource hog it just shuts off without a warning.

I have just ordered the 85 watt adapter, i will post here if that has solved the problem once i receive it.

Thanks again for your reply and advice

Rob

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Answer 3

OGELTHORPE

Level 9

57,305 points

Apr 4, 2015 5:25 AM in response to Rszarka

An underpowered charger can be a problem when using resource demanding applications. Though rare, even the correct charger may not be able to provide enough power and the battery will be taxed to make up the difference. Obviously with a 60w charger, that would create those condition much more frequently.

Ciao.

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Answer 4

Rszarka Author

Level 1

8 points

Apr 4, 2015 8:28 AM in response to OGELTHORPE

OGlethorpe

I have tried every which way to run the AHT! Holding down the d key at boot up, running it from system recovery. Holding down the option key with the d key...none of them work! Just holding down the d key leaves me on a grey screen until I let it go, it then boots normally. Holding down the option and the d key looked like it would work but in the end a strange symbol with an error code popped up on a grey screen.

Any other ideas how I may be able to run the AHT? Is there any other diagnostics I could run from within OS X once the machine has booted up?

what do you think, is it likely my shut down issues during high power usage is due to the under powered MagSafe adapter..you mentioned it can cause problems, just didn't say what kind of problems.

THanks for for your help mate

Rob

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Answer 5

John Galt

Level 10

141,150 points

Apr 4, 2015 9:52 AM in response to Rszarka

Any other ideas how I may be able to run the AHT?

You must remove the firmware password, if one has been set, before you can use AHT.

The version of AHT that was installed in your MBP's hard disk was removed when the hard disk was replaced, leaving the Internet version of AHT as a possible option. If the Internet version of AHT does not load when you use option D at startup, your Mac may not be able to use it. In that case, running AHT will absolutely require that Mac's original Applications Install DVD.

From Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery:

"Some computers that are upgraded can't use the Internet version of Apple Hardware Test."

If you are unable to use AHT do not be overly concerned. It is a very cursory test that does little more than check for the presence of operable hardware. More thorough hardware diagnostic abilities are not available to the public.

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