Chosen Solution
When the computer starts up is says (Not Charging) Next to the battery. Any suggestions on how to address this issue? It does have liquid damage, Are there any known parts that “fry” most often when the macbook still works but doesn’t charge the battery?
Liquid Spill? Old Battery? Shorted Charger? Solutions depend on why the battery won’t charge. N.
Hi! This generally means that the battery is dead. MacBooks, unlike iBooks, are pretty blunt when it comes to telling you a battery is no longer any good, which is actually pretty nice, because it’s better than being misled into hours of testing, when at the end of the day you probably just have a dead battery. I’d download Coconut Battery, a free battery meter which shows more info than the Mac OS, and see what it says. Here’s a link to the download: http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/morein… It will show whether or not it’s taking a charge, what the maximum capacity of the battery is compared to new, and how many load cycles the battery has (how many times it’s been charged and discharged). But assuming your MacBook does not have a hardware issue that is preventing it from seeing/charging the battery, the most obvious answer is just that the battery is bad. The best way to test this is to borrow a good battery from a friend, and verify the laptop behaves correctly with a known-good battery. That will tell you whether your battery or the laptop is the problem: If the borrowed battery works fine, your battery is dead and needs replacement, and if the borrowed battery behaves just like your battery and the X is still present, then your laptop has an issue. If that’s the case, let me know, and we can start going down that road.
The only time I’ve had that happen is when the battery’s been dead. Replacing the battery was the solution in my case. I’d recommend troubleshooting by borrowing a battery from a friend and seeing if you get the same problem. If a different battery charges up, chances are excellent that it’s your battery and not your computer. If you’re running Snow Leopard, you can also check under “Power” in the System Profiler to get the status of the battery, which can provide some helpful information. For example, if your cycle count is very high, that’s a good indication that your battery has died a natural death. Although it’s worth noting that my battery died suddenly – after being completely drained – even though its cycle count wasn’t egregiously high. Apparently completely draining a lithium ion battery is a good way to kill it.
