IF you try and check, test, and use all the steps in the Support article about
re-setting the System Management Controller, ahead of performing an actual
SMC re-set; do that exactingly. Each step. One of these may help and then
you'd not need to use the SMC reset because that by itself may not help.
A few days ago after going through to see the status of my older Apple products
here in a box (in cases, some in bags, inside the box) I got around to looking into
my original MacBook1.1 13-inch 1.83GHz first-edition coreduo portable and as
the battery would usually need a charge before startup (after sitting for ? months)
I thought to charge it up first. Before not-too-long, the charge indicator read Green
on the MagSafe power cable. So I was suspicious.
So I started up the MacBook1.1 and the desktop battery indicator showed 29%.
A few restarts and nothing changed. I re-studied the instructions ahead of SMC
re-set in that Support article to see what all I could do before the last possible
step, to fix this issue. Because I consider something might work, SMC may not.
Not sure now what item on the list of pre-SMC reset things to do before trying
the Final one, but I still had maybe two left to try. There was at least one or two
restarts involved, per exact instructions; and once the desktop came back up
I left the unit to try & charge. And so it did. I managed to get the battery charged.
See the part after list of 'indicators that the SMC might need to be reset'. ~ Go
to where the next section says 'Before you reset the SMC' & start by doing those.
Each of them, one by one.
• Reset the System Management Controller (SMC) on your Mac - Apple Support
//support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295
While the battery may have another reason for not being able to get a charge or to
hold one, these steps did a surprising wonder. And because I'm certain the MagSafe
charger and its connections were likely OK and looked good, and the MagSafe DC-in
Board seemed to be able to route the power correctly, I sought another solution.
The battery nor charger in my vintage first-edition MacBook1.1 aren't new; and aren't
original to the computer. I did use the System Profiler (OS X 10.5.8 is in this model) to
see what the battery expectation was in possible total charge capacity vs what it told
me the battery had left. As these age, the total capacity changes, so it is possible for
a battery that says 100% to have much less than an original new total capacity.
There are Support articles on how to Troubleshoot MagSafe adapters, how to maintain
batteries, and other stuff. ~ I've posted them a few times online, each time by scratch
where I test the links in a browser before I re-post them... I'll not do that today, though.
Good luck & happy trails! 🙂