Any idea what that symptom means? The last time the computer was used, months ago, it worked fine. Now I plug it in and get no sign of life. Only indication of life is the battery indicator, which when pressed, blinks 5 times quickly. Power cable is a solid green light continually. Any suggestions? I've tried removing the battery but the same thing happens. Thanks!
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2011 Macbook Pro 15", no power, battery indicator flashes 5x?
- Thread starter cameronjpu
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Disconnect the battery, connect the charger, don't touch the machine and see if the machine powers up and can be used normally.
OK, I've pulled the battery and connected the charger. Computer has been sitting there for 5 minutes, no sign of life. I then pressed the battery indicator button on the left side and got the same 5 blinking lights. I then pulled out the RAM and tried again, plugged in and waited. Then pressed the power button. No sign of life at any point. Any suggestions for what's next? Thanks!
If the machine has been sitting for months without being connected to a charger, it's possible that the battery is completely discharged.
Try reconnecting the battery and connecting the charger. If you press the power button, you should see a battery icon to indicate that the battery is completely drained. If you get nothing, you might want to carefully remove and inspect the battery for any signs of swelling and the logic board for any sign of corrosion.
I assume the charger has been confirmed to be working properly.
Try reconnecting the battery and connecting the charger. If you press the power button, you should see a battery icon to indicate that the battery is completely drained. If you get nothing, you might want to carefully remove and inspect the battery for any signs of swelling and the logic board for any sign of corrosion.
I assume the charger has been confirmed to be working properly.
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Plugged the battery back in. Plugged in the power cable. The battery indicator lit one light, blinking, like a normal computer would do when charging from zero. That only blinked about 3 times. I was optimistic! But then it stopped blinking. Pressed the power and nothing happened. Removed charger cable and reattached, now I get all the battery lights blinking 5x again. Nothing happens with power button.
Battery looks like it's in good shape, no bulges at all. Shouldn't the computer be able to boot just fine without a battery anyway? I feel like this has to be a motherboard problem
Battery looks like it's in good shape, no bulges at all. Shouldn't the computer be able to boot just fine without a battery anyway? I feel like this has to be a motherboard problem
Try leaving the battery connect and charging for a couple of hours, then try to power up using the power button.
That's how it's been most of the time. No dice
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Tried both the removable and non-removable options for SMC reset, but no life after either.
If the charger is working for sure, I think it's time to carefully examine the logic board for defects.
Ah yes sorry - the charger works on several other computers on hand. No issue there. Carefully examining the motherboard may tell me what's wrong, but it won't help me fix it. Replacing the motherboard is not going to be worth it
You did not say anything about the LED on the magsafe connector!
What color is the LED when you attach the connector?
Is it a bright green (not very dim)?
Make sure the battery is installed, and the battery connection is secure.
Disconnect the magsafe connector.
Then, unplug the adapter from power, wait about 10 minutes, then plug back in.
The connector LED should light up immediately.
Let that sit connected (with the LED on green) for 10 minutes or so, then try the power button.
If the LED appears a normal green (but never goes orange), then the battery is not charging.
If all lights flash 5 times after pressing the battery test button, the battery is bad.
Remove the battery AGAIN. Connect the magsafe connector.
Again, let it sit plugged in for a minute or two.
Press the power button. Does it turn on? Watch the magsafe LED. Does that change (maybe go dimmer)?
Press the battery test button... Do the battery test lights blink 5 times again?
Probably a FAILED MAGSAFE BOARD, as there's no battery to test when its not installed.
If replacing the magsafe board does not fix, then it's a logic board.
What color is the LED when you attach the connector?
Is it a bright green (not very dim)?
Make sure the battery is installed, and the battery connection is secure.
Disconnect the magsafe connector.
Then, unplug the adapter from power, wait about 10 minutes, then plug back in.
The connector LED should light up immediately.
Let that sit connected (with the LED on green) for 10 minutes or so, then try the power button.
If the LED appears a normal green (but never goes orange), then the battery is not charging.
If all lights flash 5 times after pressing the battery test button, the battery is bad.
Remove the battery AGAIN. Connect the magsafe connector.
Again, let it sit plugged in for a minute or two.
Press the power button. Does it turn on? Watch the magsafe LED. Does that change (maybe go dimmer)?
Press the battery test button... Do the battery test lights blink 5 times again?
Probably a FAILED MAGSAFE BOARD, as there's no battery to test when its not installed.
If replacing the magsafe board does not fix, then it's a logic board.
The LED is bright green all the time.
Yeah, that's what happens. All of those things are exactly as it behaves.
Computer did not turn on. Magsafe LED did not change a bit, not dimmer. Battery test button does blink 5x when presed.
Is the Magsafe board this tiny little board I see right by the connector? I'm sure iFixit has a repair guide, doesn't look like it could be too difficult. Lets see!
Edit: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBoo...Mid+2009+MagSafe+DC-In+Board+Replacement/1732
Ack! 28 steps, basically it's a complete teardown. I think this computer is a goner
For a 2009 model, the upside is pretty limited.I have exactly same issue with same MacBook but video is gone. I see comment below that it helped, but now way to figure out what was done in this video. Any way you could help me to find original video please?
Do you by any chance recall anything in this video that might help me? Video is down and no way for me to find it.
Hi, just thought I'd make an account to let you know that I was able to recover the instructions from the video description via the internet archive (archive.org). Here they are:
Edit: Did some more research on the first method. The first method is what's called an SMC Bypass, among other things it allows your MacBook to boot despite there not being a battery present or the battery being broken. Booting a MacBook in such a fashion is sufficient for backing up your files and such, but your MacBook's fans will run at 100% speed at all times and performance is reduced significantly, making it quite unpleasant for daily usage. It is advisable to just get a new battery instead and replace the broken one. Once you've done that, perform an SMC Reset. Your MacBook should now work properly again.
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I attempted the instructions listed above, and there is no boot. The HDD seems to spin up. The indicator lights only blink what looks like 6 times but I bet it means 5 times when I take out the battery. I got it to chime a few times after taking the battery out before, but now I can't get it to chime at all. I can't find ANY MENTION of my specific problem anywhere, this is the closest to the problem I'm having that I've read.. It's really frustrating.
Which MBPro do you have?
The magsafe LED flashing multiple time usually means that the battery is bad (not accepting a charge)
Do the battery test LEDs on the side of your MBPro light up when you press the test button?
Do you get a green light on the MagSafe connector when you plug that in?
If you can't get your MBPro to power on with the battery in -- or out, then I would suspect that you not only have a bad battery, you also may have a bad DC-in board (that's where the MagSafe connector is located)
SMC reset: Hold Control+Option+Shift, then press and release the power button. You do not need a working battery or any power connected to do an SMC reset.
NVRAM reset: (you need to have power (magsafe connected, or a working battery) for this reset to work:
Press and release the power button, then immediately hold Option+Command+p+r
Hold those 4 keys -- you should hear a boot chime
Keep holding those same 4 keys, until you hear the boot chime 2 more times.
If you do not hear any boot chime, hold the keys, waiting about 2 minutes before you give up.
If you have a newer M1 MBPro, then those resets no longer exist.
MacBook Pro 2010 15 inch: https://everymac.com/systems/apple/...-2.66-aluminum-15-mid-2010-unibody-specs.html
The battery seems fine, it'll run off the battery just fine, the lights on the side are fine, the battery is good, the Mac just revvs up the ODD, then the HDD spins up, but no boot chime, and the Mac just sits there with nothing on the display. The Mac also heats up quite a bit while just sitting there. I've had it sitting in that state trying to get it to boot for 48 hours straight, still nothing happens. I've tried taking the battery out, I've tried resetting the SMC, I've tried resetting the PRAM and NVRAM, I've tried everything I've found so far, and I seriously doubt it's a hardware issue, but everywhere try to get help from says it might be a hardware issue and that there's nothing I can do unless I have someone experienced actually lay eyes on the thing which just wouldn't be worth it to pay for, since what I would be selling it for would be the price of that.
How does it "... run off the battery just fine ..." if it won't boot, and does not turn on the display?
Have you tried different RAM?
Have you tried removing the hard drive, then booting to another system on an external drive?
Can you see anything on the screen if you try to boot to Safe Boot mode? (Boot holding the Shift key)
Do you get any text on the screen if you boot to single-user mode? (Boot with Command+r)
Have you tried different RAM?
Have you tried removing the hard drive, then booting to another system on an external drive?
Can you see anything on the screen if you try to boot to Safe Boot mode? (Boot holding the Shift key)
Do you get any text on the screen if you boot to single-user mode? (Boot with Command+r)
It runs off the battery just fine because it draws power from it without issue. The battery isn't the problem.
I only have 2 RAM sticks and they are the ones that came with the machine, but I've tried only leaving one in there, and I've tried swapping their positions, still nothing.
I have tried booting messing with the boot disk too, I even put it in another MacBook Pro to make sure it still worked as an internal drive.
I don't get anything on the screen period, in any way, through any means I've tried so far. that includes but are not limited to Single user mode, the boot picker, normal booting, safe mode, inserting an install disc in the ODD (which it held in there but eventually came out), recovery mode, I've tried almost everything.
The select few times I was actually able to get something on the screen and get a boot chime, was when I completely deprived the machine of power, which generally meant leaving it trying to boot until the battery ran out, and then waiting like an hour after that before plugging it in, and right after plugging it in, I would gold Command-R as to bring up recovery mode (theoretically), and I eventually heard the chime and it actually booted into recovery mode. The reason I didn't reinstall MacOS from there that INSTANT was because there was no internet access period. WIFI didn't appear to work properly, it said it was on but it wouldn't give me a list of networks and manually typing in my SSID and crap didn't do anything either, and Ethernet didn't work at all.
Right after this, I went into the boot picker within recovery mode, and I couldn't make it boot from anything. Pressing enter, double clicking, nothing did anything. I can't remember how I did this but I opened a log, and it said "Couldn't bless current disk" or "Couldn't change boot disk" or something along those lines.
Yes, I've also tried different disks. 3 of them, 2 HDDs, and an SSD. None of them appeared to do anything different.
The next day I would try simply taking out the battery instead of waiting hours before I could attempt to do this again, and that's when I ended up getting the 5-6 light flashes. I'm saying 6 because it looks more like 6 flashes, but there's absolutely NO info about this anywhere that I could find, so it has to be actually only 5 flashes.. right?
Shortly after that, maybe like a week later, I had the idea to use that strategy again but instead I would use a USB flash drive with the installer locally on it as to not require an internet connection (Yes I realize now this wouldn't have worked anyway but I was... desperate?). So, I tried the energy deprevation strategy, and it didn't work this time, or any other subsequent time, no matter what I did.
Your five LED flashes (?). I guess you mean when you press the battery test button...?
All LEDs flash at once? or, "moving" left to right? Or only some flash (depends on the charge on the battery)?
Some other info about that here - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201842
You say you don't get anything on the screen? Do you also mean that the screen does not light up, and always stays black?
My first guess is that the graphics chip has now failed.
Similar problems can be caused by failed RAM - swapping around RAM when you don't really know the status of that memory might be a waste of time.
(faulty memory can cause a variety of strange symptoms, and I have seen some Macs that get very intermittent results with POST, NVRAM resets, etc -- potentially fixed by replacing the RAM.)
If the battery is "drawing power", that doesn't necessarily mean that the battery is good. Is the battery the original battery? 12 years is a long time. Do you have any idea about the health status reported by the MBPro (total charge cycles, full charge capacity?)
And, to test the video, you might be able to plug in an external display, and try that out in clamshell mode (plug the display in, with a USB keyboard. Restart your MBPro, closing the lid to force the laptop to display the video on that external monitor)
BTW -- the USB installer should work (assuming it is made properly, and is a system supported by your 2010 MBPro)
All LEDs flash at once? or, "moving" left to right? Or only some flash (depends on the charge on the battery)?
Some other info about that here - https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201842
You say you don't get anything on the screen? Do you also mean that the screen does not light up, and always stays black?
My first guess is that the graphics chip has now failed.
Similar problems can be caused by failed RAM - swapping around RAM when you don't really know the status of that memory might be a waste of time.
(faulty memory can cause a variety of strange symptoms, and I have seen some Macs that get very intermittent results with POST, NVRAM resets, etc -- potentially fixed by replacing the RAM.)
If the battery is "drawing power", that doesn't necessarily mean that the battery is good. Is the battery the original battery? 12 years is a long time. Do you have any idea about the health status reported by the MBPro (total charge cycles, full charge capacity?)
And, to test the video, you might be able to plug in an external display, and try that out in clamshell mode (plug the display in, with a USB keyboard. Restart your MBPro, closing the lid to force the laptop to display the video on that external monitor)
BTW -- the USB installer should work (assuming it is made properly, and is a system supported by your 2010 MBPro)
Not what I mean. I mean there are 5-6 flashes of the Status indicator light on the front after I take out the battery.
The battery seems to be a new replacement battery that was installed by the people that sold it to me, the last time the computer booted properly, coconutbattery reported 100% health.
The USB installer won't work as there's no way to get the machine to actually boot into the USB installer. There is no way to get to the boot picker in this state. The machine doesn't get that far.
The USB installer won't work as there's no way to get the machine to actually boot into the USB installer. There is no way to get to the boot picker in this state. The machine doesn't get that far.