2011 13" Macbook Pro shows a green charging light but battery was draining and now it won't respond to SMC Reset

Question

I was using my Macbook Pro and I was letting it discharge to about 30%; then I plugged it back in to charge.

It charged for a while (orange light) but after a few minutes, it changed to green. My laptop wasn't fully charged yet and my battery actually started to drain even on a green light. At first I thought my charger was defective so I borrowed a charger but it still showed a green light. Using my charger on another MBP showed expected behaviors (orange for charging).

I then turned my laptop off and tried to reset the SMC by holding down the left side shift control option and the power key, but to no avail. I have done SMC resets before, and I know that the LED Indicator light of the charger should change had I done it successfully. I am pretty sure I shut down my laptop properly.

Has anyone encountered this situation before? Any help is very much appreciated. I would post more technical information about my laptop, however, I don't think turning it on is a smart idea as I don't think the battery is functional at all.

Answer 1

Unless you have had the battery replaced in the last few years it’s most likely dead. You can use a couple of different apps(Battery Health, Coconut Battery), or even the built in System Info screen to see the charge cycles and condition of the MacBook's battery.

I helped a friend with almost the same identical problem on a system of the same vintage, and it was the battery that was dead. No matter how many times he reset the SMC, it never helped.

As a side note, Apple recommends that you cycle the battery fully at lest once a month to avoid potential problems that can occur form charging the battery to soon in a battery discharge cycle. So if you are always plugging into power when you have only 30% of your battery drained, you could be shortening the life of the battery.

Answer 2

Press Option and click your battery, if your battery status is normal then your charger IC need replacement. I did mine few days ago

Answer 3

This is an olde post I know but I have just had the a similar problem, and via trawl around the web came here and tried the suggestions above. Sadly they didn't work. However I also came across what did work for me.

Simply unplug the power adapter from the mains for a few seconds; then plug and switch on. èt voila the charging process now starts OK - the green led on the mag connector switched to orange to show charging; which it wouldn't before.

I had also tried the SMC as well; removing the battery first as that routine varies according to whether or not to the battery is removable. But it was unplugging the power adapter from them mains which resolved it all.