Chosen Solution

So I recently replaced the logic board in my Early 2011 MACBOOK PRO in an attempt to breath some life back into it. Previous symptoms were the screen coming out greenish with very pixelated apple logo then crash before ever reading login screen. New logic board fixed that problem, got the computer running but a new series of issues has arisen:

  1. originally the battery emblem had the grey X in it, and the power cord light is stuck green even though battery is not charged. Tried resetting NRAM/PRAM and the SMC, instead of fixing the issue the battery icon has disappear entirely. I also have tried running Coconut Battery which also does not detect the battery. Put a multimeter on the battery connection to the logic board and I am getting 3-12 volts on various pins (first thought was the DC in had gone bad).
  2. Running High Sierra the settings menu Trackpad section does not detect the internal trackpad even though it is working. Instead it is stuck looking for a bluetooth magic pad. Trackpad works fine accept I can’t change any settings and it does not recognize Right-Click. All other gestures work. My question is, could this all be from a bad battery? Its like the computer thinks it is a desktop now the way the battery icon has vanished and it is looking for a magic pad. Im trying to avoid a 60-100 dollar battery unless I am sure it is the battery and not a module on the logic board, SMC, etc. Any recommendation are greatly appreciated for further testing or a definitive on what the issue is. UPDATE: New battery has not fixed the issue. Battery is still not being detected by system settings or coconut battery. However, the logic board is drawing power as disconnecting the charger does not cause instant shutdown. System settings is still not recognizing the trackpad either. I’ve reinstalled OS High Sierra from disk recovery to no avail. At this point I’m running out of options other than possibly a faulty logic board. I’m hesitant to call it that since the battery is providing power and the terminals on the logic board read 12v which would seem correct for a 10v battery. Any other ideas on tests to run or hard resets are much appreciated. Only other hardware step that involes power is the MagSafe itself, which I may try to sneakily test one at a local Apple store before purchasing a new module. I’ll attempt to call iFIXIT regarding the logic board they sent me and see if they recommend trying another. To recap: SMC and PRAM reset have not helped, reinstalling OD has not changed anything, Single User Mode fsck -fy has not repaired anything, replacing battery has only changed that the computer appears to be drawing power from the battery though not detecting it. Update (12/05/2017) to be more specific, the battery icon will not appear. every time i change the setting to show battery percentage it resets the box to unchecked after a brief pause. I’ve also tried reseating the RAM cards and the battery twice.

Hi Gabriel, A semibroken battery can cause all sorts of weird problems in a MacBook, so yes, this can all be because of the battery. Also, a broken battery tends to swell up, pressing against the touchpad and thus creating touchpad issues. If you open up the machine and remove the battery you can check if (some of) the problems disappear. You can also try running a different OS to see if it does anything about the touchpad problem.

EUREKA!! I just did. I had the same problem with my macbook pro late 2011 edition ever since I have upgraded it to High Sierra and my battery is dead. I update to MacOs 10.13.4 and still the same problem (the macbook thinks its a desktop it’s not showing trackpad properties in System Preference panel) and still looking for at bluetooth trackpad So, I put my bluetooth trackpad (from my Imac) to work with my MacbookPro so with this trackpad I reach all settings and the real trackpad catch the same settings of the extra trackpad. When I turn-off the extra trackpad my settings there was still ok, even if the (without the extra trackpad) the settings panel doesn’t see my real trackpad So, I’m happy with that until I figure out another solution. Best Regards

ifixit is a great place to find help for your problematic electronics so let’s try to keep it organized for everyone’s sake ! different year and models may have different and or similar behaviours when problems occur and therefore we need to be organized . So please only post in this thread if you have the SAME YEAR MacBook as original post . Make a new thread with your model and year so it’s easy for other people to quickly find relevant solutions . Also please keep things factual , your feelings , intuitions and opinions are very important but they just confuse , mislead and bloat the troubleshooting thread ! Example year : 2011 Model : MacBook Pro 15inch version of OS X : 10.4.1 issue : trackpad working but options not showing up in settings

Tried : changing battery Result : didn’t fix issue tried : reinstalling operating system 10.4.0 result : successful

I have the same problem with my macbook pro late 2011 edition ever since I have upgraded it to High Sierra. Its was working fine previously but now after upgrade its not showing trackpad properties instead its searching for blue tooth device. Please help.

When you said system settings are you referring to “System Preferences” or “System Report”? Have you have checked system report and battery information and USB/touchpad is not showing up?

I have the same problem: MacBook Pro late 2012 upgraded to High Sierra. Working fine previously now it’s not showing trackpad properties in System Preference panel and it’s searching bluetooth mouse and trackpad (I don’t have either).

Hi, same problem here. No battery icon and no trackpad settings available. Plus the webcam stoped working too. I have a MacBook Pro late 2011, this happened between me changing the optical drive for an ssd and updating from Yosemite to High Sierra. So it could be a hardware problem or maybe the update. I will try to solve it coming back to Yosemite.

hi I had this same problem, I could not change the setting for the  trackpad,  my battery was faulty and after changing it, the setting appeared. so the only thing I can suggest is that you may have a problem on the board itself that is not detecting the battery.  that is the reason why you won’t see  the settings for the trackpad. As long as you get the board to detect the battery, the settings for the trackpad will show up

I have to same issues on a macbook pro 2018 (A1990). Under preferences, the trackpad is not detected. I’ve had to apply changes via command line (like enabling tap to click) and the battery icon is gone from the top menu bar despite being checked under preferences/power. The battery does work and so does the trackpad. I’ve open up the computer and visual inspection doesn’t indicate a bulged battery and is working so I’m hesitant from going to buy a new battery just for the icon to appear or the trackpad settings as well. I’ll subscribe to this thread to see if there is an update/patch/settings that will bring them back to life. I think this happened after an OS update (Big Sur or Catalina, I’m unsure which).