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MacBook Air won't charge

Valdaquendë

Valdaquendë

macrumors regular
Original poster
Nov 7, 2018
133
60
Oregon, USA
I've got a MacBook Air (2020, M1, A2337, EMC 3598, 2-ports, Sequoia) that will not charge. When connected, the battery's "lightning bolt" is not displayed and the battery panel shows no charge and a very slowly discharging battery level in its graph (it also shows energy usage in its graph). At this point, I can think of no other possible culprit than the logic board itself. I have tried:
• Forced Rebooting
• Using two different chargers (both tested and known-good)
• Swapping out USB-C cable (the existing one was bad but replacing it with known-good hasn't helped)
• Resetting the SMC (shut down for 30+ seconds)
• Force-resetting SMC (disconnect battery for 30+ seconds)
• Removing and cleaning the USB port connectors
• Cleaning and reseating the USB port connector board
• Replacing the USB port board
• Replacing the battery (both old and new show "normal" condition and 100% maximum capacity but neither charges)
• Connecting a USB tester: With known-good charger and cable, the tester shows a 5V/.44A trickle of current flowing to the device but the battery does not charge. This flow is displayed whether or not the laptop is running. I have performed this measurement after performing each of the steps above.
• In addition, the device powers up every time it is plugged in. I have made sure that "wake on lan" is set to "off".

Before I order a logic board and perform a replacement, does anyone knows of any other diagnostic or remedial possibility?

Thanks for the time and energy you spent reading this and, in advance, for any advice.
 
Thanks for your replies.

JPack, I appreciate the tip. It appears that the functionality of the CD3217 can basically be diagnosed with a schematic, a thermal imager, and a significant knowledge of power flow through the logic board, none of which I currently have. I have replaced a number of ICs, including the 5,1's MX25L3206E, but those were relatively simple replacements for which I had ROM images and which did not require circuit diagnosis.

In most of the cases and tutorials I was able to find, including this summary, the only real solution was to replace the CD3217 even if the diagnosis didn't explicitly show that IC to be at fault. It also appears that, as the chip seems to be programmed, as shown in this video, and a new one is presumably not, a donor board may be necessary in order to copy the firmware programming on the chip.

Unless you know something different, it seems that in my case, just acquiring the imager, schematics, donor board, new CD3217 IC, etc., might very well equal the cost of a replacement board. Please correct me if this conclusion is incorrect. In any case, I appreciate the knowledge; I can see that there is much to learn.

Thanks, Bigwaff (and assuming that "waff" indicates "waffle", let me say that I am a proud, card-carrying lifetime member of the NWA, the National Waffle Association) but as I mentioned in the OP, I had already replaced the USB board.

In the absence of further insight, it appears that logic board replacement is the most practical choice. I rather thought so. I very much appreciate your remarks and insights. Thanks very much.
 
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Additional note: When I decided to perform a TM backup of the system (it is set to backup to iCloud; working out of an abundance of caution), found that no external SSD connected to either USB port will mount or be recognized by MacOS; another sign that the problem is with the USB subsystem or deeper in the logic board.
 
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