MBP without battery? Should it work?
 

early 2007 15" MBP, 3Gb RAM, 10.6.7:

In short, should it work with power plugged in and no battery inserted?

My battery has died this week and the machine doesn't seem interested in starting without a battery in it. I know quite a few PC users that use laptops with dead batteries/none inserted.

I think it should work.
My MacBook Pro (early 2008) certainly works without the battery.

Maybe the power cord is (partially) defective - try a different power cord.

My understanding is that it should work, though I seem to recall a year or so ago it coming out that for some reason that arrangement led to a speed decrease. First thing I would suggest is an SMC reset. To save you a trip, on your machine,

1. shut it down (not needed in your situation);
2. remove the power cord from the Mac;
3. press and hold the power button for 5 seconds;
4. re-attach the power cord and try starting up.

Thank you gentlemen - looks like a combination of both issues.

I actually have 2 power packs for the old MBP and neither of them work. But....the cable for my 11" MBA did start the MBP? (it reported "not charging", as one might expect) This was after an SMC reset. 2 power blocks fail simultaneously?

I even tried changing the connector on the block that goes into the wall socket. Only the Air cable worked.

I think it may be best to try a 3rd, known-good MBP cable/block and see if it a.) works and b.) charges the battery to any level.

Any other avenues? I am not sure about leaving the Air's block attached for any length of time.

Thanks again!
Gavin

The MBA uses a 45W power adapter. An early 2007 MBP uses an 85W adapter. I wouldn't run the MBP for long on the MBA's adapter. If you do, you may soon have three dead adapters!

FYI, my first-gen MBP (early 2006) will run from the adapter, without a battery installed in the computer.

Indeed. I need a 3rd, known-good 85W, eh? I have a friend, with one coming back here soon, so I'll wait and try that. 2 simultaneous failures is hard to believe though.

running your MBP on a 45W cable works fine - except at peak demand the machine shouldn't be drawing more than that (though you wouldn't have enough juice to charge the battery at that wattage), and in the worst case it just won't operate as quickly as you might hope. It won't do any damage. I did that for a good two weeks while I was shopping around to replace an 85W brick.

My computer also works perfectly on cord alone (though, of course, you will inevitably get that sucky moment when you pull the computer the wrong way and the magsafe connection pops off).

chack to make sure the pins on the magsafe connector aren't gummed up and stuck.

OK, problem now isolated:

Both of my 85W adapters are dead. My mate showed up yesterday and I borrowed his and the machine leapt into life, as it were. Admittedly, the battery doeas have the somewhat inappropriate message "service battery" in the menu bar. Odd.. You can't "service" those batts.

Both went at once? I still can't get my head around that. The only out-of-the-ordinary thing the MBP has done is 4 hours/night of live streaming IPL Cricket for the last 6 weeks. Surely that isn't too taxing for the adapters?

So, I now need a new adapter and a new battery.

tw: I did buy an engineer's brass brush and gave the MagSafe connectors a good clean, but nothing changed. Gummed up? Worth another go with some rubbing alcohol, eh? Nothing to lose at this stage.

Does anyone have any opinions about the aftermarket batteries on eBay, etc? Or, should I stick with Apple original?

Thank you one and all.

I can't speak to the aftermarket batteries on eBay, but I have had a great experience with the OWC replacement battery I have in a circa 2000 PowerBook G3 (Pismo). I think I bought the battery around 2003-04, and while the machine doesn't get used too much anymore, that battery is still in it and working fine.

The OWC battery for your machine is here, if you want to have a look.

Try the old battery with the new power adaptor - it might revive.

NaOH: Thanks for that - sadly, they are "sold out" on power adapters, making the shipping cost unnattractive, i.e., for "just" the battery and no adapter.

hayne: Thanks for the pointer, I'll give that a go. In fairness, the battery has done about 3.5 years of hard work, so I won't be too disappointed if it has pushed up the daisies. As it is now about as discharged as it can be, so the next cycle will be as pure as driven snow, so we will soon know.

Thanks again Gentlemen!

I should have said this before. I don't think anyone sells aftermarket power adapters because the MagSafe connector is proprietary, and my understanding is that Apple has not licensed it to any third-party companies. If you're seeing them on eBay, I would do thorough research before considering buying one there.

Agreed. There are qute a few sellers selling them out of HK and PRC - Shenzen, so perhaps they "borrowed" them? :-)

Can't recall who, but there was a company buying dead MagSafe-equipped bricks so they could get the connector and attach it to their own device.

And I seem to recall that Apple put an end to what they were doing using a lawsuit. I'm guessing this is what I'm remembering.

I've purchased three non-Apple adapters (60W and 85W) from eBay sellers in the US. I figured at $20-25 with no tax or shipping fees (vs. Apple's $79 + tax) that I'd roll the dice. No problems so far, though I have noted that the MagSafe plug indicator light on one model doesn't behave the same way as on Apple-branded adapters. (They all cycle orange/green when connected to the laptop, but one of the knock-offs stays lit even when disconnected from the laptop.)

A friend bought a third party battery from Ebay, it worked fine for 3 months and now drops from 95% to zero in 20mins. Best buy Apple in my opinion.

macsnoob: Non-Apple? Magsafe? As NaOH says, I thought that had been done for, no?

soho: I have bought loads of aftermarket batts out of HK and PRC, adapters as well and not one has let me down. Lucky maybe? Just because it's Chinese, doesn't automatically make it crap. On top of that, the prices are generally so low, that a relatively short lifespan would not be the end of the world anyway. Maybe easier for me being closer - usually get free postage to Thailand too, which helps.

Yes, they're non-Apple MagSafe knock-offs. Here's a current sampling: http://shop.ebay.com/i.html?_nkw=mag...=p5197.c0.m627. The Apple ones are mixed in the listings with the non-Apple, but the description usually specifies whether it's the real thing or merely a compatible replacement. The quick visual tip-off is often a garish photo for the knock-offs.

The price gives them away too.

Not seeing knock-offs of the more modern right-angled version yet, mind.

New battery arrived and installed. Both older power adapters tried and nothing whatsoever.

New adapter arriving next month, so let's hope that will help, maybe even revive the old batt, as hayne mentioned above.

Fingers crossed.

New battery arrived. Old power adapters not doing a thing with it.

So, waiting for the new power supply to arrive and more then...

New charger has arrived from China and it is Pukka.

Charges the new battery very well and, as hayne suggested it may, it has run a full charge into the old battery. The old battery is still listed in the Menu Bar as "Service Battery"??? Currently using the old battery, sans charger, to see what life I get.

It has now run down 15% in 20 minutes. More when the battery expires.

Doubt it will make a difference because I've never heard of the Service Battery warning being cleared by anything other than a new battery, but you may want to calibrate the battery. At the least, I guess you can milk whatever juice remains in that battery until it gives you no more functionality. I figure it will save your new battery at least a few cycles.

Old battery now down 26% in 47 minutes.

Have you opened System Profiler and looked in Hardware > Power to check the battery cycle count? Usually, if memory serves, a few hundred cycles is about the threshold before battery life noticeably diminishes. Not sure if your tropical climate may reduce it further since, if memory serves (again), batteries are ideally stored at cooler temperatures.

I am on 10.6.8 and cycles don't show.

ideas?

I'm also running that OS. In System Profiler, click the triangle left of Hardware so its sub-categories are showing. Next, click on Power. Over in the main part of the System Profiler window, at the top it should say Battery Information. The fourth sub-heading is Health Information, and directly below that is Cycle Count. My battery, as you can see, has been cycled 15 times (it's only 6–7 months old).