Battery Dead or Computer the Problem?

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Level 4

1,242 points

Battery Dead or Computer the Problem?

I have a 2006 MacBook that I haven't used in awhile and recently pulled it out to spruce it up for resale on eBay. I ran System Profiler to check on the battery status and it reports "Condition: Normal" but is not charging when plugged in to power. These particular batteries are rated by Apple to have a lifespan of 300 cycles and mine has only 26. I will also note that the remaining charge is reported to be 0 but I surmised that is because the battery isn't charged. Is my battery dead or is something else the problem such as the battery connector to the computer? It seems like a logical answer or easy solution seeing that the battery won't charge when connected to the power adapter but I am confused when System Profiler tells me that the battery health condition is normal. I would appreciate any thoughts before I buy a replacement battery and put this MacBook up for sale. Thank you in advance for your responses!

Posted on Nov 11, 2017 5:12 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

tjk

Level 9

51,116 points

Nov 11, 2017 5:22 AM in response to Pismo 900

Hi,

In addition to cycles, batteries die from age. Yours is 11 years old. I'm not at all surprised if it's dead. Why it says "Normal" I don't know. You can try resetting the SMC: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201295. If that doesn't work, check out the cost of a battery compared to the price of Sold auctions on eBay to know if it's even worth buying a new battery and not even be able to sell the Mac for that much money. In that case, you'd be better off trying to sell it as is. Just a note: bargain battery prices are too often too good to be true, as in you get what you pay for, so if you go for a cheap battery, make sure it has a refund/exchange policy that the seller is going to back up in case of a bad battery.

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Answer 2

Pismo 900 Author

Level 4

1,242 points

Nov 11, 2017 11:13 AM in response to tjk

Actually, I bought this used in 2010 and got a new battery for it. And in 2012 I handed it off to my parents and they used it for about two years before "retiring" it so it's only not been in use for three years since it was last working. I did instruct my parents to make sure to use the computer on battery every so often but they always left it plugged in. Could that have killed the battery? I know my boss had an iBook once that was purchased brand new and she left it plugged in all the time and it killed the battery.

Another quirk I noticed was that with the battery installed, System Profiler reported the wattage of the power adapter as 0W. When I took the battery out and ran profiler again, then it reported the correct wattage of 60W. Could that be a sign of something? Like the SMC does need to be reset?

Since I am putting this up for sale, I am not looking to invest a whole lot of money to make it work. I am planning to buy a generic replacement battery for $15 that comes with a one year warranty. At least that will give the computer a little more value and make it sound better than selling it with a dead battery.

But before I do that, I just wanted to make sure that one, my battery is indeed dead before I e-waste it, and two, make sure that nothing is wrong with the computer so if a new replacement battery is purchased (and if the buyer should ever buy their own genuine battery that they prefer) that the computer will charge it.

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Answer 3

Pismo 900 Author

Level 4

1,242 points

Nov 11, 2017 2:07 PM in response to tjk

So I just reset the SMC and checked System Profiler again.

You know what?

Now it shows "Charging: Yes."

!!!

I will check back later after I have given the bbattery time to fully recharge and see if I can unplug and run off the battery.

Thanks for the suggestion!

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Answer 4

Pismo 900 Author

Level 4

1,242 points

Nov 11, 2017 9:08 PM in response to tjk

TJK:

Well how do you like that? The battery works!!! Fully charged. I knew my battery wasn't dead. I feared it was but when System Profiler said "Condition: Normal" something else was up. My battery now reports a remaining charge or 4113 out of 4118 mAH. Oddly enough it still says 26 cycles. I'm so happy! Funny thing is after about six hours I checked profiler and nothing changed and forgot you have to quit profiler and relaunch it to get a new update. It doesn't update on the fly. Weird quirk.

Thanks so much again for your help! (Usually I'm the one helping out others here but every so often, the tables are turned!).

🤓

Pismo 900

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