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coryherndon · Sep 19, 2006, 04:04 PM

I had left my macbook (non-Pro) in the bag for about a month without charging it (bought it on 8/8/06). It recharged fine when I first brought it home, but now when I plug in the charger it tells me there's no battery. I've taken the battery out and tried resetting the PMU, and other tricks. The adapter light is green. No LED lights appear on the battery.

Any ideas? I suspect I'll be taking a trip to the apple store, but if I can avoid it..

bill k · Sep 19, 2006, 04:23 PM

Start the book up on charger power then leave it on the charger for 6 hours, see if that helps. The long inactive period shouldn't have done anything to the book or the battery.

coryherndon · Sep 19, 2006, 04:26 PM

The battery icon in the top menu bar has an X in it--I don't think it is actually getting a charge. Shuld I leave it plugged in anyway?

Thanks for your help!

Legit · Oct 26, 2006, 10:46 PM

I've got the same exact problem. Only I left mine uncharged over night and it didn't work the next morning. PLEASE help me find a solution.

k squared · Oct 26, 2006, 11:20 PM

Go to an Apple store and get a new one under warranty.

ThisGuy · Oct 26, 2006, 11:58 PM

MacBook and MacBook Pro: Battery not recognized after being fully drained

If your MacBook or MacBook Pro's battery is fully drained of power, the battery will put itself into a low power state to preserve its ability to charge in future. Fully draining the battery might be done by running the battery until the computer sleeps and then leaving the battery in the sleeping computer for an extended period without plugging it in.

If you have fully drained the battery, once you plug in the MacBook or MacBook Pro's power cord and start the computer up, you may see a red X over the battery icon in the menu bar. If you see this, please allow the battery up to five minutes to come out of its low power mode and begin accepting a charge again. If your battery still is not recognized by the computer (still has a red X over the icon) after five minutes, you may want to re-seat the battery. If the battery still isn't recognized after re-seating, try resetting the PMU. If the battery is not recognized after those steps please contact AppleCare for further assistance.

Legit · Oct 27, 2006, 01:35 AM

Thanks a ton, This guy. I'm giving the last bit a try now.

Legit · Oct 27, 2006, 01:42 AM

Dadgum, no luck with resetting the PMU. Looks like I'll be taking it into where I got it. There isn't any Apple Store in Nashville. I got this thing at "Mac Authority"

imitchellg5 · Oct 27, 2006, 04:04 PM

Mac Authority is a great store, they should take care of you

IEEE1394 · Oct 28, 2006, 05:11 AM

I had the same problem with my MacBook. Resetting the PRAM worked for me (restart while holding down , Option, P and R. Wait for 3 chimes. Release Keys).

Edit: After actually reading the thread properly this sounds like a different problem than mine. My MacBook would sporadically think that no battery was connected.

Legit · Oct 28, 2006, 09:50 PM

Originally Posted by IEEE1394

I had the same problem with my MacBook. Resetting the PRAM worked for me (restart while holding down , Option, P and R. Wait for 3 chimes. Release Keys).

Edit: After actually reading the thread properly this sounds like a different problem than mine. My MacBook would sporadically think that no battery was connected.

Thanks for the tip man, but it is a different problem. Haven't yet had a chance to contact apple support, I'm going to on Monday.

Simon · Nov 2, 2006, 04:05 AM

Originally Posted by IEEE1394

My MacBook would sporadically think that no battery was connected.

Yeah, mine has started doing that too.

It came back from RSS repair about two weeks ago. At first everything seemed fine, but it has started to shutdown randomly again. It turns out the battery discharges really really fast - so fast actually that the MB doesn't even give the low battery warning. It just shuts off. I don't know if the battery is charging properly - but the MagSafe does give the orange and green light so I'd guess yes. Sometimes, just out of the blue, I get the battery icon with a cross on it in the middle of work. Even though the battery is properly seated and AC power is attached. If I then put it to sleep and wake it again, the X disappears.

I've recalibrated the battery, reset the PMU and the PRAM.

Could it be the battery has gone bad? What capacity (About this Mac > More info > Hardware > Power) do MB batteries normally have? Mine is down to 3300 mAh which sounds rather low. My MBP has 5500 mAh although it's just a 60Wh battery vs. the MB's 55Wh. Is 3300 mAh a normal reading for a MB battery?

If the battery's toast, I'll have no problem getting a replacement, but if it's some weird effect it will be a pain to demonstrate to the repair fellow. Argggh.

IEEE1394 · Nov 2, 2006, 04:10 AM

Originally Posted by Simon

Yeah, mine has started doing that too.

It came back from RSS repair about two weeks ago. At first everything seemed fine, but it has started to shutdown randomly again. It turns out the battery discharges really really fast - so fast actually that the MB doesn't even give the low battery warning. It just shuts off. I don't know if the battery is charging properly - but the MagSafe does give the orange and green light so I'd guess yes. Sometimes, just out of the blue, I get the battery icon with a cross on it in the middle of work. Even though the battery is properly seated and AC power is attached. If I then put it to sleep and wake it again, the X disappears.

I've recalibrated the battery, reset the PMU and the PRAM.

Could it be the battery has gone bad? What capacity (About this Mac > More info > Hardware > Power) do MB batteries normally have? Mine is down to 3300 mAh which sounds rather low. My MBP has 5500 mAh although it's just a 60Wh battery vs. the MB's 55Wh. Is 3300 mAh a normal reading for a MB battery?

If the battery's toast, I'll have no problem getting a replacement, but if it's some weird effect it will be a pain to demonstrate to the repair fellow. Argggh.

Kind of like my story. Got repaired for RSS, battery started to randomly disconnect (X over battery icon in menu bar). When this happened I would pull out the power cable and the battery would kick in fine. But like I said, reset PRAM and it's been fine since.

My battery capacity is 5027mAh, yours does seem very low. I get 3-4 hours out of mine (depending on wireless, CPU use, screen brightness etc etc).

Simon · Nov 2, 2006, 04:23 AM

Hey, thanks for the quick reply.

Your value seems to be about what I would expect with the MB's 55 Wh battery.

I'll try resetting PRAM again and I'll do another calibration. If the capacity comes back to ~5k, I'll be fine. If it stays at 3300 mAh or this cross thing keep showing up I'll see if I can get a battery replacement.

I must say I'm kind of disappointed with my MB. The discoloration (my g/f has the white one and needed a needed a new case - fortunately I have a black one), the RSS issue (both our MBs needed to get new heatsinks) and now this. I really think Apple needs to take a better look at QA/QC. Of course it's never been this cheap to get a portable Mac before, but OTOH do they want to risk their rep just to shave another $50 off the price?

Simon · Nov 3, 2006, 04:35 AM

OK, I've tried resetting the PRAM again. And the reading after the last shut down was ~4000mAh which is still low compared to your ~5000, but as long as it won't shut off w/o a warning I'm OK with that. I'll let you know if the problem persists.

Frans · Nov 4, 2006, 05:24 PM

Help

My black Macbook was one of the first to ship. It had serious RSS problems. It took over two months to repair. And now the laptop won't recognize the battery. Dit de P-RAM, V-RAM, PMU reset. Apple Care send me a new battery. Nothing changed. They ask me to turn in the Macbook for a repair. I've about had it, I already bought a replacement macbook but my wife is using that one since her macbook got serious RSS too....

AppleEngineer · Nov 14, 2006, 05:26 AM

Hi all, i just thought i would share with you all.

The Battery icon that shows the X in it can be a result of a corrupt SMC, if resetting the SMC does not fix the problem, try the firmware update, if that too does not work the most likely hardware component is the battery connector/sleep switch module.
In most cases the battery is not faulty.
In 7 cases of X in battery icon that i personally have fixed the offender has been the battery connector/sleep switch module, and 1 case the logic board had failed.
Either way, it is a Back to Apple repair centre for a fix.
Hope this helps you all.