Chosen Solution
Hi guys, First time asking but I’ve used this forum to troublshoot many issues on this machine and others over the years. Thanks in advance for your help! I just ordered a replacement battery for my mid 2012 macbook pro. The original was getting pretty hopeless. I popped the new one in, proceeded with the calibration process. Everything seemed fine - charged up to %100 (+ an hour or two), unplugged it and drained it down (left overnight), then plagged it back in, charged it back up again. Used it while it was plugged in for a while. Thought I was good to go and took the thing to work. Now unplugging power kills the thing instantly. It won’t boot unplugged. I’ve tried everything in all the common threads, especially here MacBook turns off when charger is disconnected and here MacBook Pros suddenly shutting down when disconnected from power adapter
PMU reset, PRAM reset, SMC bypass(??), SMC reset, every which way you can imagine (holding power anywhere between 5 seconds and 3 minutes, with and without all combinations of battery and AC plugged in). Coconut says the battery is fine, and charged (see light colored screenshot). I thought maybe the logic board had given out based on other answers, but lo and behold, I popped the old batter in and it starts up just fine with no no power plugged in. (see dark colored coconut screenshot ) Is this something flukey where its still not expecting such a high output from the new battery because the old one was so trashed? Did I screw something up in the calibration process? How can I drain the new battery down to start over when it the computer won’t run from it alone? Is the new battery just a dud? I’m gonna try switching back and see what happens, maybe use it plugged in for a bit and pray. Seems like the issue has resolved for some people when they clean the logic board or take apart the motherboard, but these always seem like accidental solutions, and doesn’t really make sense if the old battery works fine. Any help is much appreciated! EDIT: 4/25 Swapped back to the BRAND NEW battery and it booted just fine. Status read fully charged. Got halfway through typing the previous sentence and it dies suddenly again. What the heck is going on???
As suggested by @danj the strange behavior of the battery checker was the appropriate clue. (In addition to the other more obvious symptoms, when I would press the button on the side that will display lights to indicate the charge level, It would light up a few of the lights, sometimes even most of them but it will shut off abruptly/prematurely. When the checker/lights are behaving normally a fully charged battery will illuminate all the lights and keep them for a bout 3 seconds, this normal behavior returned when it was plugged in, the abnormal behavior occurred consistently when unplugged.) There didn’t appear to be any damage to the ribbon cable, but the panel was loose. I made two changes - I applied tape to hold the battery checker panel more securely in placeI removed the 2 screws that hold the battery in place. They appeared to be forcing the new battery into a strange position that may have been applying pressure to the panel/ribbon cable. It has been working fine for over a month now.
Hi Greggory, It sounds like you’ve already tried a lot–thanks for giving us so much information! I agree with reinstalling the new battery and recalibrating it again. Follow the directions here (even though you’ve done it before, this should help get the battery on track) and let me know if that solved the problem! If that doesn’t work, you can email our Customer Support team. Check out this page to find the proper email address (it varies depending on what country you’re in.) They’ll ask about the recalibration as well as your screenshots from coconutBattery. Best of luck!!
You might have received a defective unit. This can happen with even the most reputable brands.
Hello this is Maxed Out IT So what is would do is take a good look at the main board ware the battery connect to it and see if that has any damage. If so you may need a new motherboard but if that is not the case then try redoing the calibration and get a new battery. That is what i would do if that doesn’t work take to YouTube and see what you can find
