Question

[guest_27]

hi i had a question about my computer. i have a mac book and it seems like the computer is giving an issue with the way it wants to charge, could it be an issue with the computer or the charger

[DaveLembke]

It could be either...

Suggestion i have is process of elimination. If a friend has a similar Mac with power supply that has the same power jack and voltage see if you can borrow their power supply to test with. Or take a multimeter to its jack that connects to PC and see if the voltage is measuring correct.

Or see if a local computer repair shop can let you borrow their spare power supply for a moment to test yourself right then and there in their shop without leaving with it if its the power supply, If its not the power supply then its likely the battery. The better computer repair shops will let you borrow a power supply on site to test with.


It could be:

- Battery wont take a charge and needs to be replaced.
- Power supply charger problem
- Motherboard has an issue in charging the battery

This is a list of most likely cause to least likely cause. Battery Failure and Power Supply failure due to damaged cords are the most common. Motherboard is very rare as the cause.

Does the power supplies cable have any physical damage to it?

[guest_27]

Hi,

Thank you for your response. Sorry I forgot to mention this, I've had this mac book laptop for maybe about 5 1/2 years now, and up until then it's had one charging issue prior to this, but it seemed at that point the issue was with the charger. So I just bought a new charger and that seemed to do the trick, however this time I notice that when I plug my new charger in, the laptop does not charge, but I still see like a greenish kind of light on the charger, my assumption is the charger is working but i could be wrong. Also I notice by the power jack there is a big crack, something i hadn't noticed until just now, it seems as though when my charger is plugged in to the power jack, it seems to be very loosely inside the power jack, in such a case do u think the issue could be with the laptop itself? no one that i know has a mac so i think i will take it to a local computer repair shop, do u also recommend me seeing if i might need a new battery for my Mac? Thanks much for your help.

[patio]

I'll bet a Pint you bought a generic charger...hence your issues...

PS More bad news...if it's that pld it needs a new battery as well...

[guest_27]

hey guys so i got my mac checked out by a local repair shop and it seems like the charger was part of the issue. yea i had gotten a generic charger, after my first one broke i realized i should have bought like an actual mac charger that was just like the original one so will make sure to go ahead and buy a new charger. my charge holds for about an hour, if not on AC power in that case is it recommended to get a new battery for my Mac? thanks again

[Geek-9pm]

Of interest.
Apple offers service on its products.
https://www.apple.com/batteries/service-and-recycling/
The link above invites owners to send a product to Apple for battery replacement.
(The given information on what it will cost is bad news. $129 for battery replacement.)

[patio]

If it's worth it to you ...get a new battery as well...not generic.

[guest_27]

hey guys so i got the battery replaced and my laptop seemed to be fine however now I'm encountering some issues with booting up, oddly when I try to switch on the pc screen it shows all black, I tried turning it off(using the power switch, since it can't get to the start menu to shut down) and restarting it but still the screen shows completely black, this is a laptop btw, I know that the computer is on since I see the light is on.

[DaveLembke]

So you have a PC monitor for a desktop PC connected to a Mac Laptop?

[guest_27]

hey DaveLembke,

basically its just a Mac laptop, im not connected to any desktop monitors, sorry I worded it wrong in my last post. What I meant to say was when i try to switch on my MacBook laptop(12 inch laptop) the screen shows all black, I know for sure that the laptop is on and running since I see the power light is on, and I can also hear the typical booting noise, its just the laptop screen shows all black, I don't have a PC monitor for a desktop pc, it's just a plain MacBook laptop not connected to anything, up until a few days ago my laptop was working just fine but 3 days ago was when my laptop screen stopped working

[patio]

Dont you have any backup restores you can revert to ? ?

[DaveLembke]

If you never see any logo or any information on the screen and its always black then its possible that the back light died, display itself died, or the mechanism that acts as a switch that gives a signal to ( laptop lid/display open )  is broken in which it thinks the display is still closed shut even though its open.

Something should show on the display even if the OS itself was ever corrupted somehow there should be something displayed as it tries to boot, but by which your Mac is likely booting up fine, but unable to see that on display.

If you see something on the screen and then it vanishes when the OS loads up then it could be corrupt display driver in which referring to a backup restore might be an option to roll it back to a previous healthy state as patio was asking/suggesting.

[guest_27]

sorry guys for late response, have to go to my city library nowadays in order to get access to a computer, to answer some questions yes whenever i start up my laptop it shows a black screen the entire time, ever since this last week it has been nothing but a black screen, i know for a fact that its on because i can hear the machine booting up it's just black the whole time, are you guys suspecting its  a backlight or display issue and how would i tell? also is there a way to revert to a backup restore if the screen is showing black at all times?
 thanks so much

[patio]

Put in a bootable CD/DVD...if you get a screen it aint the backlight...

[guest_27]

patio many thanks for the suggestion. will try putting in a bootable CD/DVD if that works and keep u guys posted in which case if i do end up getting a screen the backlight can be ruled out?