MacBook Magsafe Charging, But No Light?
Gee, I wonder if 2007 means all my Apple peripherals start failing on me. First my keyboard’s “return” key died, now there’s something up with the Magsafe charger that came with my Macbook. Basically, I plug it into the MacBook and the light, which is usually amber or green, doesn’t turn on at all.
It could be something up with the connector pins (as in this Apple help page) but I’m not seeing anything amiss when I look at the adapter or the port on the MacBook.
Anyhow, I’m right now on 28% battery charge and when that goes, I might be in a hard place.
Update: Well, actually, it looks like the charger is charging the MacBook battery and enabling it to run off of an outlet, but what’s amiss is the amber light isn’t turning on. I get a green light just fine. So the power adapter is working properly — just not lighting up to indicate it’s charing the MacBook. Still, I’m a bit worried it’s going to fail on me.
After a run-in with one of my cats, my PowerBook’s non-mag charger does the same thing. It takes precarious positioning to actually glow, but it usually charges without problem. Of course, YMMV.
Hmmm, well seeings how a replacement adapter is 80 bucks, I’m going to stick with this non-lighting variety until it really dies or explodes (obviously I’m hoping for the former).
You make me wonder if one of our cats did something to it. I have seen one of them nibbling at the end of the cord from time to time…!
I plug my charger into my laptop and no light goes on AND it doesn’t charge.
I’m at 15% battery life and as long as it stays plugged into the wall .…The % stays the same. It doesn’t go up or down. Looks like I’ll be stuck to the wall until I gather up some money to buy a new charger. So gay
Them’s the breaks. With my old iBook I think I went through three chargers… the first two died because the wire frayed right before the plug.
Hmmm, the same thing just happened to me today. Went to the apple help site and tried their suggestions but nothing worked. I’m at 86% battery and right now if it stays plugged in it remains at 86%. This could be a problem as I have to take it to school everyday. So if its just the adapter it be no problem for me to get a new one, but I’m worried that it might be the charging unit on the computer itself… Again same symptoms as above though, no light when plugged in adapter seems to be ok on the outside no visible prong damage or melting. I guess I’ll just take it to the mac shop and post what they say here incase it might help anyone else. But any suggestions from folks online would be appreciated as well.
Good News, it turns out I didn’t have to go to the apple shop at all, heres what worked for me atleast. Try putting the Mac OS CD 1 in and rebooting your computer, while its starting up, (after the sound) press D, and it will run a hardware diagnostic test which seems to have magically solved the problem of the adapter, good luck.
gerneraladam — gee, that’s an interesting fix — I’ll have to try that! Thanks for posting your information so others can benefit.
Generaladam: did you run the short or the long form of the diagnostics?
–phil
I ran the long one and it seems to have fixed the problem for now. I don’t know how long it will last. I did a clean install of the system a couple of weeks ago, but still had the some problem. Hopefully this will work. Thanks.
I’m going to have to go with, “The amber light burnt out”. That’s my best guess.
using the mac os cd 1 and running the diagnostic test worked for me as well. thanks.
TOTALLY WORKED!!! this is after i repleaced BOTH the charging unit and battery through apple.… must be a software glitch. so yes, do the hardware diagnostic test it’ll fix it
i have the same problem with you, where i assume that the magsafe is charging but not increasing the percentage of the battery, as long as i plugged the magsafe cord my macbook will work, without it the battery stays 92%. And there’s no light on the indicator light on the battery.
im gonna try this now, and hope “magic” is in my side too…
Similar problem here, my macbook’s plug kept giving out a spark every time I plugged the 3 prong end into an electrical outlet. Then last night no spark and it would not charge I saw no light on the end that plugs into the macbook. And after walking around my apartment no other plug outlets worked with that powercord, so I tried back at the original outlet and saw a spark then the cord charged the macook and the light came back on.
So I called apple today and after 30 minutes on the phone I have a new macbook powercord coming my way free from apple.
My situation: My MacBook Pro would charge with the magsafe adapter, but inconsistently the amber light would go off, but still charge my computer. I usually would unplug it and replug it back in, and the amber light would go back on. I followed the suggestion published here. I ran the hardware diagnostics test (long version) with the adaptor plugged in It took about an hour, and it seem to have fixed the problem. Thank you, generaladam
Well i have had the same problem and solved it on my own looking at a real good find from one techie at forums.askskt.com under the DIY tutorials sections i got poorer by $100 for the new charger but actually got to know the root cause of the MAGSAFE adaptors going bad
Clean & straighten the pins? You found that all by yourself? F-ing brilliant…and described in the Apple support pages. So I guess this is just a spam link to your “ask skt” forum…?
Hi all,
I’ve dismantled a newer “L” style magsafe adapter today.
The root cause of my MagSafe problems are this : the cable has no protection against shorting by twisting. That means that when the cable (a simple coaxial one, by the way) is slowly twisted overtime, relative to the L plug, it will short inside the L plug and/or fray, making it useless.
So if you want your power adapter to last, take a felt tip marker and put a mark on the cord to L plug joint, and make sure it stays aligned. Half a turn of twisting is all that’s needed to kill your charger!
Next, never use the ears to roll up your cable. A coaxial cable is not meant to roll and will break in no time.
Guess what. There is even circuitry inside the charger to cut the power to the cord when the (preplanned) short circuits happen. Obsolescence by design…