My macbook has stopped charging

Question

I have a 3.5 yr old macbook. 6 months ago the charger died. When I replaced it, they warned me i might need to install a driver. It worked without it so I just went on. Just now the machine stopped charging. The light on the charger doesn't come on. The machine died.

I have tried removing the battery and turning it on. No signs of life.

Any suggestions what to try next?

Answer 1

It may be another bad power brick. It may be dirty pins, it may be a lot of things. If you have an Apple retail store near you, schedule an appointment to take it in. Personally, I've never heard of needing a driver for the charger.

Answer 2

You may need a new battery too. If you can borrow one from somewhere to test, that would be helpful. Did your battery have a big memory on it? It's also possible your new charger is busted. Further, "they warned me i might need to install a driver", is a slappable offense.

You can try an SMC reset.. To do that, you must hold in the power button, starting from the machine being in the off state. You have to hold in the power button for like 20 seconds. You'll know if a SMC reset has occurred as the computer will make this terrible high-pitched squeel for two seconds. If you called Apple support, I'm pretty sure the first thing they'd suggest is trying an SMC reset. Though I don't that that'll actually help.

If you end up not being able to get the machine booting on another battery & power adapter, then I fear your motherboard may need attention, which won't be worth it as the parts will probably cost you too much. You can take out the hard drive, put it in a USB enclosure and get any other Intel Mac to boot very very gracefully from it, all your stuff will be right there.