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RedPandaJ

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 17, 2023
1
0
Bought off of eBay for basic use, for an elderly relative. The item in question is an early-mid 2009 MacBook (the plastic one) and it has the T style charger. It will not go orange, despite how much I clean the charger and port. I have got it to go orange only once, which lasted around 10 seconds before going green again. I don’t want to spend more money on this as it was only £30 and wouldn’t be worth much else. Any help appreciated, thanks in advance!
-Jake
 

Bigwaff

Contributor
Sep 20, 2013
2,693
1,809
Sadly, it would seem the battery is dead. I'm pretty sure you can get a new one for $60-$80USD or even a used one for much less on eBay.
 
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MultiFinder17

macrumors 68030
Jan 8, 2008
2,739
2,084
Tampa, Florida
Install a copy of OS X, then run something like Coconut Battery to see if the battery is charging at all. Agreed with @Bigwaff that it sounds like the battery is completely dead. If they're planning on just using it at a desk, a cheap used battery would work well enough just to get it up and running.
 

rampancy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 22, 2002
741
999
If you've replaced the battery but are still experiencing the same issue, the MagSafe board or battery charging board might be wonky. Since I think you have an A1181 MacBook (as opposed to an A1342 unibody model), changing them should be relatively easy.
 
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