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Ok here is the deal.
The macbook ONLY works from a charged battery.
The charger works on other macbooks and other working chargers don't charge either.
I know the problem is the charging circuit of motherboard and that replacing it will solve my problem.
But what I want to do is to power the macbook from the battery pins.
Does anyone know how to do this? Anyone have the battery pinout?
Is this a good question?
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You state that it only works from a charged battery...by that do you mean that the AC adapter does not power the computer when the battery is removed? What color is the light on the AC in any given situation? If the AC adapter powers the computer when the battery is out, and you are certain that the DC-in is fine (which it usually is -- they don't often go bad in A1181s), I'd try replacing the battery connector. Make sure to get the correct battery connector -- some are Energy Star, and some are non-Energy Star.
If no AC adapter will power the computer when the battery is out, I'd verify the DC-in is good by swapping with a known-good DC-in. Beyond that, it's probably the logic board.
Also, stupid question, but have you verified in another machine that the battery you're using does in fact charge? Many of these battery issues end up being...the battery. Yours sounds a little more complicated though.
I don't know how to "inject" power to the logic board, and I'd be very reluctant to try that, for fear of frying the board.
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The part you need is the MagSafe board, here's the installation guide.
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That is correct. The AC adapter does not power the computer when the battery is removed. The light on the AC adapter is always off. But it works fine on other macbooks.
I have measured the voltage directly on the motherboard and it is at 16.3 V without the battery installed. So the MagSafe board is passing voltage.
Everything indicate that the charging circuit on the motherboard is fried.
The DC-in works fine in other MacBooks, or were you referring to the AC adapter? I'd swap the DC-in (MagSafe) before giving up on the machine, just in case there's something else wrong with it that the voltage reading wouldn't indicate, but beyond that, it does sound like a logic board-level issue. I'd remove all components (Airport, extra RAM, optical, HD, battery connector, video, etc.) one at a time to see if by chance anything makes a difference (although it's unlikely), and also do the usual resets, again, if for no other reason than to rest assured you tried everything before giving up. I have seen A1181s show no light on the AC when they had bad RAM or RAM that was not seated correctly, but in those cases the screen was also black...the fact that the machine generally works pretty much rules out the RAM. Anyway, good luck. I'm also wishing I knew more about MacBook logic boards (the information is not exactly easy to come by), so I feel for ya.
Exactly - i wish we could stem some common effort to reverse engineer those logicboards. Apple is not helpful at all in this.
I have the exact same issue on my MacBook Pro Mid-2010. Runs perfectly with a charged battery, but does not recognise any MagSafe AC adapter. I tried three different ones. It keeps saying "AC Adapter Connected: No" in the system profiler.
Swapping out MagSafe DC board didn't help.
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2 Comments
The MagSafe board is working. Anyone know how to inject power directly to the motherboard bypassing the charging circuit?
by alx
Have you been successful at powering the logic board from an external power source?
by asdf