No life, x on battery, shuts down on boot

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MacBook Pro 15" Unibody Early 2011

Model A1286. Released February 2011 / 2.0, 2.2, or 2.3 GHz Quad-core Intel Core i7 Processor

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asr043 @asr043

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Posted: May 5, 2017

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No life, x on battery, shuts down on boot

Hi,

I changed my keyboard as the volume button had a mind of it's own. However found that the computer at first would not start up. I detached and reattached the keyboard ribbon which fixed it however a few keys were not working. So I decided to disconnect the battery while the mac was on to re-adjust the ribbon.

That is when the MacBook decided it rather RIP, the only sign of live was the mag lite when connected it was green but only when it was connect the battery indicated showed the battery had charge. Tried SMC but no response, PRAM wasn't an option as it was not turning on.

I finally managed to get some response by holding the power button 10 sec and then attaching mag lite then release power button after 10 sec. The mag lite shows no lite and every time the mac is at the boots up stage it turns off. The fans run at max, noisy. If mag lite is disconnected it turns off. I have tried to disconnect the battery overnight but still nothing. As I was able to turn on the mac with the above method I did a PRAM, not fixed!

I had to run it n safe mode, which was successful, but of course limited. On the battery icon was an "x", battery is not recognised but the battery is new from last year. I then tried to do a Hardware test via "option + D". The mac shuts off a minute into the test.

I have downloaded coconut battery but that also does not recognise the battery as being connected. I tried to do a reinstall but installation does not trust the verification for some reason, so will not start install (checkmate)!

Does anyone have any ideas as to what is the next step to get this sleeping beauty back as an action man?

P.S I did clean the fans and added some lub to the centre as one of them was making a bad noise. Could this have caused an issue?

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Hi all,

I borrowed a mate's MacBook Pro to format the new SSD drive, installed fresh OS and placed it into my mac. Booted up but no change in behaviour. This clearly was not a hard drive issue.

However, seen as the x was on my battery symbol I placed my friend's battery into my mac and issue resolved. Took a few presses on the power button but noticed the fan moved a little each time, then mac decided to start up.

So I ordered a new battery however that appears so far to be faulty as MacBook behaviour reverted back as before. So will try to charge battery overnight as suggested by seller and see if the battery is ok.

So my fix was - it appears I shorted my battery when disconnecting whilst turned on. In electrical terms, I pulled the power supply under load thereby shorting the battery.

I hope that helps others to remedy all the issues I was having.

Regards

May 19, 2017 by asr043

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Reece @reecee

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eFix Ltd (UK)

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Posted: May 6, 2017

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Try a known working battery first. If this doesn't resolve your issue, check resistance for R5280 and R5281.

Most likely you shorted the battery pins when disassembling, sent 12V to the battery sense data line, killing that portion of the SMC. The only way to resolve this would be to remove, reball and replace the SMC, pulling it from another board of the same year, or replacing the logic board. Not really worth it, since the 2011 models are very likely to develop GPU issues, so I would personally live with the issue.

Usually if it is a battery data line issue, the fans will keep spinning for a bit if you pull the charger out (if the battery has some charge), proving the battery is providing power to the board. It will also usually stay on when unplugged during boot up, turning itself off when it gets into an OS.

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Hi all,

I borrowed a mate's MacBook Pro to format the new SSD drive, installed fresh OS and placed it into my mac. Booted up but no change in behaviour. This clearly was not a hard drive issue.

However, seen as the x was on my battery symbol I placed my friend's battery into my mac and issue resolved. Took a few presses on the power button but noticed the fan moved a little each time, then mac decided to start up.

So I ordered a new battery however that appears so far to be faulty as MacBook behaviour reverted back as before. So will try to charge battery overnight as suggested by seller and see if the battery is ok.

So my fix was - it appears I shorted my battery when disconnecting whilst turned on. In electrical terms, I pulled the power supply under load thereby shorting the battery.

I hope that helps others to remedy all the issues I was having.

Regards — asr043