resolving black X / No Batteries Available issue in Macbook 2009 from afar

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Level 1

15 points

resolving black X / No Batteries Available issue in Macbook 2009 from afar

My mom's late 2009 Macbook (running 10.6.8 I think) is displaying the "black X" in the status bar and also shows "No Batteries Available" when clicking on it.

Two years ago (in late 2013) I put in a new battery as her previous one wasn't holding much of a charge. I noticed it was even stating "needs service" before I replaced it. The newer battery has seemingly worked pretty well since then. I used the Macbook a few months ago and it could still hold a charge for a decent amount of time, but not for hours and hours. I'm not around to watch how she treats the battery in terms of how charges it, uses it on battery power, uses it without fully recharging, etc., but it's probably not ideal. Recently she's implied that it hasn't been holding a lengthy charge (maybe under an hour), but it's hard to tell exactly what she was experiecing.

Within the past week it stopped recognizing the battery. It doesn't power up unless plugged into the ac power cord. It displayed the "black" in the battery icon area in the status bar. "No Batteries Available" appears in the battery pull-down menu. Going into System Information indicates that no battery is installed.

The nearest Apple store and/or authorized service provider is an hour's drive away (and I'm even farther away), so I'm trying to determine what I can before directing her down certain paths.

I tried to have her reset the SMC via the keyboard command way (shift+control+option + power). It didn't seem to work. But does the keyboard command version of this only work with macbooks that don't have a removable battery? Does a person have to reset the smc in this model by removing the battery? Does it matter of the power cord is plugged in or not when attempting a reset via the keyboard? If there any beep or anything to indicate that the right keys + power were held down?

also, when she turned on the macbook the other day (using the ac cord), she had to re-select her wifi network and then put in the wifi password, etc. Does indicate more than just a battery issue? Should I have her try to reset the pram too? When she turned on her macbook today she didn't have to re-select her network.

Ideally the battery would be removed and put back in place to see if that helps, but they aren't capable of doing that. There's a local guy who works on pcs and apple (non-authorized) so maybe I will direct them there to try some simple things like that. I'm not sure where they have put the old battery (which at least could be used to see if everything else works).

I just don't know how to rule out things like the logic board etc.

Posted on Dec 19, 2015 6:09 PM

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Answer 1

my ginger

Level 5

4,928 points

Dec 21, 2015 12:47 PM in response to lee p.

If you reset SMC with the battery in, you do so with the power cord-magsafe plugged in. If you remove the battery to do it. You also disconnect the power supply and then hold down the power button for 5 seconds. reconnect everything and restart. You could try the pram reset it won't hurt anything. In worst case the internal battery cable could be bad. You may have to replace the battery and run the same commands again with the new battery.

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Answer 2

Lanny

Level 6

13,235 points

Dec 22, 2015 8:03 PM in response to lee p.

3rd party battery replacements can have varying quality issues. Plus Apple's OEM batteries have additional proprietary circuitry that's used to provide warnings and alerts at low charge conditions. I had purchased a NewerTech once, it worked okay, but when it started running low my Mac would just shutdown without any advance warning. When I questioned NewerTech about it, they explained that they didn't have access to the proprietary circuitry in the Apple OEM batteries. It was a tradeoff, their battery had higher capacity and was less expensive though.

Check with PowerbookMedic and authorized Apple repair facilities, i.e., Micro Center, for the availability of Apple OEM batteries.

http://www.powerbookmedic.com

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Answer 3

lee p. Author

Level 1

15 points

Jan 17, 2016 10:43 PM in response to lee p.

Update:

I sent her a "new" battery from a place that got decent reviews on Amazon. Not the most expensive, but not the cheapest battery.

Guy in her town who runs a small pc repair business (has done work on apple laptops but isn't an authorized provider) put the new battery in for her for $20 while she waited. Battery is working so far, but who knows how long it will last. Part of the problem is the unknown quality of this or any battery put in but another part of the problem is how the laptop is used. I think the cycles just get depleted very fast.

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