Magsafe behaving like power button

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MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Late 2011

Late 2011 model, A1278 / 2.4 GHz i5 or 2.8 GHz i7 processor.

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Allard @allard85169

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Posted: Oct 16, 2013

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Magsafe behaving like power button

My macbook is behaving rather funny since a few weeks:

When plugged in, the macbook functions perfectly like it should. It charges the battery, powers on and off.

When the magsafe connector is disconnected though, the problems start: immediately after disconnecting, the shutdown menu shows up in OS X, like when pressing the power button. After 5 seconds, the macbook just powers off like when the power button is held.

When trying to power up when the magsafe cable is not connected, the power button just doesn't respond. It only works when the cable is connected.

The battery has been diagnosed by the local apple reseller as being in very good condition, so i think that the battery is not the problem(the shutdown dialog in osx when disconnecting is the regular one, not the low battery one.)

I have already tried the usual tricks like PRAM and NVRAM reset. I also tried an other magsafe cable, but this did not solve the problem

Does anyone have a clue what might be causing these problems? Magsafe board? Power button? Logicboard?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

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After a little reasoning from myself, and some research i figured that the problem should be the SMC. So i tried some ways to reset the SMC, without it solving the problem.

Then i tried to update the SMC through the manual SMC update installers from the Apple website. Even though the macbook did have the latest SMC, and the SMC version number did not change after this update, it has magically solved the problems of my macbook!

So: if a SMC reset does not solve problems associated with a SMC failure, try updating the SMC, even if it is already running the latest version!

Oct 23, 2013 by Allard

Thank you for the update and solution... would you please include a link to where you found the files to download and manually install?

Oct 23, 2013 by originalmachead

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originalmachead @originalmachead

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Posted: Oct 16, 2013

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I think since two charge cords provide the same symptoms the DC-in board is your problem. It is in the process of failing and acting strangely as it does.

Do not keep using the laptop in it's present state - you could cause more damage... the board is causing voltage fluctuations... that's not good! (If you do not have/use a backup battery-surge protector doing so might help).

If this Answer is helpful please remember to return and mark it Accepted.

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After a little reasoning from myself, and some research i figured that the problem should be the SMC. So i tried some ways to reset the SMC, without it solving the problem.

Then i tried to update the SMC through the manual SMC update installers from the Apple website. Even though the macbook did have the latest SMC, and the SMC version number did not change after this update, it has magically solved the problems of my macbook!

So: if a SMC reset does not solve problems associated with a SMC failure, try updating the SMC, even if it is already running the latest version! — Allard
Thank you for the update and solution... would you please include a link to where you found the files to download and manually install? — originalmachead