battery 'calculating???'

[rdunnjulia]

I have a macbook 12" (bought 9/06) that now won't take a charge. The icon on top states it is 'calculating' how much time till battery is charged, but never does so. The little lamp on the adapter doesn't show amber or green. It isn't the battery, as I tried my daughter's battery and its the same story. Anyone hear of this problem?
Thanks

 

[OrangeSVTguy]

could be a bad ac adapter since you said it doesn't glow when charging or while charged? or a bad ac jack on your MB

 

[MacNut]

Does the icon show it plugged in or on battery? And what is the charge percentage.

 

[rdunnjulia]

icon shows that its plugged in, but charge percentage never goes up.

Ive used another adaptor and same problem. So it seems like its in the computer, but I don't know if its electronic or software or?

 

[sal]

have you ever calibrated your battery?

and as it was mentioned by a previous poster, it could be a bad charger since it doesn't light up.

::Edit::
if you tried another charger, then it could be the battery itself.

 

[MacNut]

Unplug it for a while and let the battery drain a bit then plug it back in and see what it does.

 

[rdunnjulia]

i tried another working charger and another working battery, neither works. I have calibrated the battery several times. its funny that it works off the cord, but won't charge the battery up.

 

[rdunnjulia]

oh and I did unplug for a while, the battery just drains, and when i plug it in again the 'calculating' word comes back up...

 

[MacNut]

Maybe a login board problem. Has the battery ever had a full charge.

 

[rdunnjulia]

yes. worked fine until saturday

 

[mikeab]

Same here

Just today, my MBP stopped charging the battery. I thought it was a battery and picked up a new one. Still nothing. I'm gonna now try resetting the Power Management Unit.

I'll let you know how that goes.

 

[adrianblaine]

EDIT:

If you are near a genius bar, they would be much quicker in getting it fixed rather than trying to figure out what is wrong right now.

 

[mikeab]

Found a possible solution...

I just reset my Power Management Unit on my MBP and that fixed the recharge problem. Wish I remembered that as an option before buying a new battery, but now I have a spare battery.


http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=303319

MacBook, MacBook Pro

1. If the computer is on, turn it off.
2. Disconnect the AC Adapter and remove the computer's battery.
3. Press and hold down the power button for 5 seconds and then release the button.
4. Reconnect the battery and AC Adapter.
5. Press the Power button to restart the computer.

 

[cphickey]

same problem with iBook G4

My iBook just started having problems a few weeks ago. I would have the power cord plugged in and the icon would show that it was charging, however, all that it would tell me was that it was calculating the time remaining. The battery wouldn't charge at all, and in fact, continued to decrease. In addition, the computer would just power off and crash. I took it to the apple store and they sent it out for repair. When it came back they had replaced the main logic board (thank you apple care). But, when I got home, the computer still had the same problems with the charging. This has become a problem that happens intermittently where I will notice it begin to charge for a few moments and then say calculating again for awhile. I took it back to the apple store and tried it with one of their batteries and power cord and basically observed the same thing.
Still not sure what is causing this.