I have a white basic macbook, it is 3 years old and I keep having this issue where it won't charge. I took it to the "Genius" bar Sunday and they replaced the power cord. It powered up once then wouldnt charge anymore. Yesterday I took it back and they made me replace the battery. It charged up once and now this morning will not charge, even though the power is down.

The wall plug is good - other things work there, but it won't. Since they're obviously not geniuses, does anyone have any ideas on what the problem is? I know the computer is getting old, but it shouldnt just crap out after 3 years like that...it's not overloaded with a lot of programs or anything. 80% of its usage is my wife using it for facebook...

2/9/2011 10:52:28 AM

Quote :

"does anyone have any ideas on what the problem is? I know the computer is getting old, but it shouldnt just crap out after 3 years like that"

You own an Apple product that is more than two years old. It is basically obsolete.

That said: If you can take the battery out of the laptop, do so. See if you can get it to power up just running off the wall.

2/9/2011 11:34:58 AM

Quote :

"but it shouldnt just crap out after 3 years like that"

haha, nice try. Good thing you don't have the unibody - you'd be shipping it off

2/9/2011 2:42:30 PM

Did you try a different power brick? My wife's died so we grabbed a cheap one for $15 off ebay. It makes some...interesting...noises but it seems to charge. Her Macbook is approaching 5 years old.

2/9/2011 4:07:39 PM

Yo D, I have a few suggestions...

1)You should try resetting your PRAM and NVRAM. [link]http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US">Instructions here.

2)You might have some debris or something in the magsafe port on your macbook (causing it to intermittently charge?)

3)Reset the SMC - Instructions here

4)Since you said you got a new charger, maybe one of the 5 tines on your macbook might be pushed in like in this pic:




5)If it's out of warrantly, a final fix that I'd try before paying those "geniuses" $texas would be to replace the Magsafe board yourself. ~$25 for the part and should be relatively easy to do yourself. Or come visit your buddy T.N. in Raleigh and he'll hook you up.


If all else fails, try this: http://tinyurl.com/49tsp54

[Edited on February 9, 2011 at 4:38 PM. Reason : .]

2/9/2011 4:09:45 PM

Thanks, I will try it out, I'm not willing to put too much money into it...I did get a new power brick for free from apple since its only a few days out of apple care, but the same thing happened after one charge.

Thanks for the advice Rob, but I don't trust that crazy fool with any of my electronics

2/9/2011 5:09:09 PM