Got gifted a Late 2006 15" MacBook Pro in pretty good condition. The OEM battery had swelled up and split, so I removed it and booted it using just the MagSafe AC adapter. Everything worked fine. I swapped the HDD for an SSD, installed a fresh copy of Lion and had zero problems getting it set up.
OEM batteries are pretty much unavailable at this point, so I bought one of the $30 generics. It just arrived today. Pressing the battery's charge level button lit up 1 out of 5 LEDs.
I installed it in the MBP, connected the MagSafe and watched the LED on the MagSafe connector stay green--didn't change to amber. I performed an SMC reset (battery and MagSafe unplugged, then hold power button for 10 seconds), but no change.
I figured I would boot it to see what OS X said, but pressing the power button did nothing. Holding it down for 10 seconds or pressing it momentarily--the MBP would not boot up. As soon as I removed the battery, it would boot with the MagSafe connected. After it booted, I tried inserting the battery while it was running, which completely cut the power and again it would not boot until I removed the battery.
I decided to leave it for a while with battery and MagSafe connected to see if it would start charging. No change after an hour, but I've just now noticed the LED embedded in the button that releases the display latch is blinking (not "breathing" like it does when in sleep mode). It's bright with the lid closed. If I open the latch the LED is still blinking but dimmer. That's the only sign of life (no display/backlight, fans, etc.)
Google-fu has failed me trying to diagnose this, so I'm hoping some of you Early Intel gurus might have some relevant knowledge of this model. Is the likely explanation just a bad battery? If so I will try to get another one. But it occurred to me there might be an issue with the battery charging circuit of the the laptop itself--maybe some damage occurred when the original battery swelled up?
Any ideas?
OEM batteries are pretty much unavailable at this point, so I bought one of the $30 generics. It just arrived today. Pressing the battery's charge level button lit up 1 out of 5 LEDs.
I installed it in the MBP, connected the MagSafe and watched the LED on the MagSafe connector stay green--didn't change to amber. I performed an SMC reset (battery and MagSafe unplugged, then hold power button for 10 seconds), but no change.
I figured I would boot it to see what OS X said, but pressing the power button did nothing. Holding it down for 10 seconds or pressing it momentarily--the MBP would not boot up. As soon as I removed the battery, it would boot with the MagSafe connected. After it booted, I tried inserting the battery while it was running, which completely cut the power and again it would not boot until I removed the battery.
I decided to leave it for a while with battery and MagSafe connected to see if it would start charging. No change after an hour, but I've just now noticed the LED embedded in the button that releases the display latch is blinking (not "breathing" like it does when in sleep mode). It's bright with the lid closed. If I open the latch the LED is still blinking but dimmer. That's the only sign of life (no display/backlight, fans, etc.)
Google-fu has failed me trying to diagnose this, so I'm hoping some of you Early Intel gurus might have some relevant knowledge of this model. Is the likely explanation just a bad battery? If so I will try to get another one. But it occurred to me there might be an issue with the battery charging circuit of the the laptop itself--maybe some damage occurred when the original battery swelled up?
Any ideas?
