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davidflas · Sep 4, 2010, 04:42 PM

I have a mid-2009 17" MBP. Lately I've noticed that when it's plugged in, the light on my magsafe adaptor goes out completely. Plugging, and unplugging it a few times makes it go back on. Also, I notice that I get a message in the that my MBP is not charging..but that goes away with the unpugging attempts. I figure that I have an issue, and need to call Apple, but I wanted to check here first. I have Applecare, but didn't want to call up and look like an idiot if some software update caused the light to change.

Big Mac · Sep 4, 2010, 05:22 PM

Your adapter is going and needs to be replaced, it seems. No software update would ever produce that kind of behavior.

davidflas · Sep 4, 2010, 05:25 PM

I know that seems obvious, but I wanted to check first....

SierraDragon · Sep 4, 2010, 10:15 PM

Call. If you paid that huge Applecare fee you might as well be one of the small percentage of buyers that benefit from the expenditure.

AKcrab · Sep 4, 2010, 11:31 PM

Originally Posted by SierraDragon

Call. If you paid that huge Applecare fee you might as well be one of the small percentage of buyers that benefit from the expenditure.

What? Just ONE repair out of warranty will be more than the "huge" cost of Applecare.

macaddict0001 · Sep 9, 2010, 01:29 AM

Part of applecare is the telephone support, you can call them for anything if you want to, that's one of the things you pay for with applecare.

Waragainstsleep · Sep 9, 2010, 05:00 AM

I call them up whenever I get lonely.....

davidflas · Sep 11, 2010, 12:38 PM

So, I finally talked to Apple this morning and a new MagSafe power adaptor is on its way to me. A couple of thoughts about Apple service..... 1. I used the online service assistant to create a service ticket and schedule a call from Apple. They called within the 15 minute window that they said they would..but it was an automated call. I was placed on hold just as if I had called in without making an appointment. 2. After talking to the tech, then being sent a senior tech, the senior tech who told me I would need to give them a credit card before the replacement adaptor could be sent. I was a bit miffed about being on hold and the needing a credit card, but the experience was positive overall.

Eriamjh · Oct 28, 2010, 12:13 PM

I have seen this on two macbooks and finally put it together.

It could be a faulty battery.

Do a capacity check on your battery (fully charge, then fully discharge, this resets the capacity of the battery).

Does the battery crap out at the end (say reports 15minutes left, but then dies)? Does SL report "Service battery" in the menu?

I think the charger shuts off to prevent further battery damage. if you disconnect the magsafe and reconnect it, the light comes back on right?

Check it.

davidflas · Oct 31, 2010, 09:52 PM

I've never seen the "service battery" dialog, but the light does go back on if I disconnect and reconnect the charger. I have a new charger now, and still have the same issues that I reported earlier in the thread. I have not noticed any issues with shortened battery life or sudden shutdowns. Coconut Battery says that capacity is 11940mAh after 272 loadcycles and 17 months of use.

seanc · Nov 1, 2010, 10:17 AM

Originally Posted by davidflas

I've never seen the "service battery" dialog, but the light does go back on if I disconnect and reconnect the charger. I have a new charger now, and still have the same issues that I reported earlier in the thread. I have not noticed any issues with shortened battery life or sudden shutdowns. Coconut Battery says that capacity is 11940mAh after 272 loadcycles and 17 months of use.

Eh? That's an odd capacity.

I'm on 4444mAh after 216 load cycles and 27 months.
Original battery AFAIK.

spiff72 · Nov 1, 2010, 06:10 PM

I had a similar issue with my adapter, but I have the early 2008 MBP (17"). Same thing was happening - light would sometimes stay on, but most often it wouldn't light up, and the battery wouldn't charge.

I brought it into the Apple Store, and they ran their tests on it and found it to be defective. Actually their diagnostic program wouldn't even recognize the adapter, which they stated was rather unusual. They gave me a new one and all was fine for about a year or so. My battery did just fail recently (I was getting the Replace Now warning for it), and it was swelling up to the point that the trackpad button wasn't clicking properly anymore. I brought it in for the trackpad button problem and was hoping they would replace the battery under warranty, but no luck. (I didn't realize that the battery was swelling up and causing the issue).

I don't think the battery issue was related to the defective charger.

davidflas · Nov 1, 2010, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by spiff72

I had a similar issue with my adapter, but I have the early 2008 MBP (17"). Same thing was happening - light would sometimes stay on, but most often it wouldn't light up, and the battery wouldn't charge.

I brought it into the Apple Store, and they ran their tests on it and found it to be defective. Actually their diagnostic program wouldn't even recognize the adapter, which they stated was rather unusual. They gave me a new one and all was fine for about a year or so. My battery did just fail recently (I was getting the Replace Now warning for it), and it was swelling up to the point that the trackpad button wasn't clicking properly anymore. I brought it in for the trackpad button problem and was hoping they would replace the battery under warranty, but no luck. (I didn't realize that the battery was swelling up and causing the issue).

I don't think the battery issue was related to the defective charger.

I don't have any issues with the battery charging,....it sometimes says "not charging" when I first plug in the adaptor, but that goes away and the battery charges to 100%, or 99% some of the time. Does your MBP have the user replaceable battery? I can't recall if that generation did. My MPB is the mid 2009 generation.

spiff72 · Nov 1, 2010, 09:06 PM

Originally Posted by davidflas

I don't have any issues with the battery charging,....it sometimes says "not charging" when I first plug in the adaptor, but that goes away and the battery charges to 100%, or 99% some of the time. Does your MBP have the user replaceable battery? I can't recall if that generation did. My MPB is the mid 2009 generation.

I am pretty sure that the battery is the same -- it is the replaceable one. And it cost me $130 to get a new one.

Waragainstsleep · Nov 2, 2010, 05:31 AM

Some Macs just seem to exhibit this behaviour. My MacBook does it very occasionally. You can often cause it on purpose by 'half disconnecting' the magsafe, then letting it 'snap back' into place.

Lots of "afflicted" machines actually function perfectly normally.