This MacBook originally belonged to my uncle. He upgraded some components, then years later gave it to my grandmother. It stayed unused for about 4–5 years. I turned it on once after that and it worked perfectly, but I stopped using it because it had an admin password that no one knew. I was younger at the time and didn’t know what to do.

Now, about 6–7 years later, I tried turning it on again. After charging it for a long time (the MagSafe light stays green), it powers on but then shuts off abruptly during startup. After it turns off, I have to wait several minutes before it responds to the power button again.

Here’s what’s happening precisely:

Power / Boot Issue

• The Mac turns on normally, shows the Apple logo and the throbber.
• It shuts down before completing the boot process.
• The shutdown is abrupt, like the power is suddenly cut.
• After it turns off, it doesn’t respond to the power button right away — I have to wait a few minutes before it will turn on again.

Fan / Internal Noise

• I hear clicking or buzzing sounds that seem to come from the fan or possibly the hard drive area.
• The fan appears to spin.

Magsafe

• The green light takes about 5–8 seconds to turn on after connecting.
• Once it turned orange for 4 seconds, then switched back to green. Probably is poor contact.
• The MagSafe port has been cleaned, but the behavior remains the same.

Battery

• With the battery disconnected, the Mac does not power on using only the MagSafe adapter.

Other Details

• No burning smell or unusual odor (just a normal old plastic smell near the keyboard/screen area).
• The screen lights up normally during the partial startup.
• Startup chime is present.
• The Mac is always cold and has never overheated.
• Internal components do not show signs of corrosion, moisture, or staining.

I’m especially worried because the hard drive contains important family memories that I would really like to recover. I know the hard drive could be accessed with an adapter using another computer, but I’m 15, in Brasil (Things here are expensive), so I was hoping to repair this Mac myself and change to linux so I could also use it for studying.

I would really appreciate any help or advice.

---

So, could the MagSafe be solely to blame for all this? A few weeks ago I discovered that MagSafe is the 40W version, not the 60W one, and it isn't an Apple original. My grandmother bought it thinking the Macbook was a Macbook Air.

⟐ Answered March 16, 2026 at 8:45 MST

⟐ Commented September 30, 2025 at 13:50 MST

⟐ Answer accepted July 10, 2025 at 18:12 MST

Thank you very much for replying to my question.

Yes, I have seen the iFixit guides relating to the trackpad etc. As always, very useful - but only really dealing with taking it out and putting a new one in.

I had hoped that there might be more about the construction of it and fixing of the various parts - as I couldn't see much more to adjust than the flimsy little switch that it all seems to depend on. But I'm coming to the conclusion that there isn't much more to it than this.

I've replaced the springs and screws - even the adjustment screw, but it seems that if the little switch and its plastic covering are even slightly worn, then it's all thrown out of alignment. Might it possibly be that adding a little shim to the adjustment screw might make it workable again?

Anyway, just thought I would ask - just in case any of your contributers might have come across this and found a solution.

⟐ Commented April 30, 2025 at 8:24 MST

So I was trying to use my mid-2010 MacBook Unibody, but when I try to turn it on it won’t detect any RAM (beeps every 5 sec.)

I thought it was my RAM stick failing so I ordered new RAM.

But when I tried using it with the new RAM it was still beeping.

My idea is that my RAM slots are now failing, so does anyone know how I can fix this issue?

(I made sure that the RAM I was buying was compatible with my Mac, so this shouldn’t be an issue)

⟐ Answer edited December 30, 2024 at 7:03 MST

Exact voltage and current it can supply to an external device ?

or where I might find this information

⟐ Answered December 17, 2024 at 3:34 MST

⟐ Commented October 29, 2024 at 8:41 MST

But while I was trying to update to the latest OSX, I did noticed the performance was horrible, I found out the kernel_task was going like 700% CPU usage in activity monitor and after some digging around that means the laptop is throttling.

I checked my temps they are fine (used ol good istat pro) so I couldn't figure out the problem, and then someone on reddit suggested to check the thermal sensor in the battery, which honestly didn;t even knew existed.

I will try to check once I'm back at office although the system is so slow that it is a pain to do that.

In the meantime I wanted to ask, if let's say the removed with the battery sensor indeed is giving some crazy readings, is there a way to stop the system from trying to read from it?

THank you!

@danj Hey so as I love fire hazards I decided to go MacGyver and open up the old battery, and removed the module that was getting a bit fat.

Soldered the 2 ends to close the circuit and installed it again on the macbook.

So far it is working, the system reports weird numbers on capacity but the temp is good (sensor working), no burning smell, no hot spots on hand. Well I guess it somehow works.

Given the way I'm planing to use this system I don't expect it to have any trouble and not catch it immediately. I will monitor it for sure but this is just an old system that I play around with, I will probably try to hack sonoma on it and then again reinstall OSX 10.6 to keep as vintage system around (the last OSX to have rosseta).

Thanks for your input!

edit: not that the mac performs normally I was able to look a bit more around with the opencore legacy patcher, to my surprise there is an option to disable through the installer the firmware check for the battery!

So if everything went ok and I'm able to install a newer macOS I could also have the battery removed again to be safe from my tampering.

⟐ Commented October 10, 2024 at 5:36 MST

I will start with the fact that this device doesnt exist and thats because I dont know the model. I bought the laptop for 30 bucks and it came without hdd and the adapter for it apparently and the cover was some makeshift fake thing. One two pin connector is broken but doesnt short.

The power adapter is missing the part for the outlet and I’m using my ps5 power adapter to fix this issue but even after that the adapter doesn’t show light and the laptop doesn’t turn on.

The motherboard has some pins which I think should be shorted in order for the laptop to work but the makeshift cover has metal exposed to shorten them. I am asking you to help me with this and also identify if you can the model. Use the photos to help me please. Also please reach to me if you want to help me further on diacord: jordi.joeyson.

Thanks!

⟐ Edited by author September 17, 2024 at 6:22 MST

I'm sure this has been asked before.

I replaced the battery in my friend's MacBook yesterday without a hitch and the display was fine.

My friend contacted me last night to tell me the display brightness is off, it's darker on the left side and normal brightness on the right.

I tried zapping the PRAM, resetting the SMC and even ran the AHT (Apple hardware test). The AHT said no issues.

I took a photo of the display and its attached. It might look like it's completely black in the photo but in real life, it's just darker.

Is the display going bad, (inverter cable or LCD cable), a graphics card issue? If it's the display I could replace the display entirely or cables myself.

My guess is it's the display, inverter or LCD cable perhaps.

If you need more information, let me know.

MacBook 6,1, unibody, late 2009, OS X Yosemite, 10.10.5. 8GB of RAM.

⟐ Commented July 24, 2024 at 9:07 MST

Is it possible to adapt a MacBook Pro mid 2012 logic board (and other parts maybe) in this system?

⟐ Commented June 06, 2024 at 6:33 MST

E.g.

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.p...

and

http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions...

and several more I couldn't find it now.

But many people failed at doing this. And I found a interesting phenomenon. There is two different model of this MacBook. One with Bootrom version MB61.00C8.B02, which is majority, the other with MB61.00C8.B00 which is minority. And it seems that only those with Bootrom version MB61.00C8.B00 can use 1333Mhz RAMs.

Can anyone verify this? I have a MB61.00C8.B00 one and recently I'm considering to upgrade its RAMs. I go for as fast as I can, so if 1333Mhz RAMs can be used, and without any side effects. I'll go for it.

Thank you guys!

⟐ Commented April 18, 2024 at 6:19 MST

I bought A1342 (2.4GHz) yesterday.But this macbook won't turn on. So I took out the logic board. And built it into another A1342. It started.

I also installed another logic board into the A1342 I bought yesterday, but it didn't work. What do you think is the reason? Charging is complete.

Another small question: Can the A1342 (2.4GHz) logic board be used with the A1342 (2.26GHz)?

Thank you.

⟐ Answered March 18, 2024 at 20:55 MST

Problem: The main problem with this computer is that the battery is not detected and therefore it does not charge.

Things I know:

- Charger will turn orange for approximately 3 seconds when you first power on, but then resets to green

- No water damage

- Computer displays "there are no available batteries" in top right of screen with [X] where the battery should be when booted into OSX

- I think I was able to get it to say "not charging" a few times (I think this was immediately following the slew of SMC resets), but I can't get it to repeat that now

Things I've tried:

- I have tried multiple, known-good batteries

- I have tried multiple, known-good chargers (both 60W and 85W varieties)

- I have tried multiple, known-good magsafe boards

- I have reset the PRAM (cmd,opt,p,r) and SMC (shift, ctrl, opt, pwr) multiple times

- I have tried the "power button down for 10 seconds" and the "power button down for 5 seconds, plug in charger, wait 5 seconds" methods, each to no avail

- I have re-installed OSX, both Snow Leopard and Lion

- I have tested the RAM and RAM slots, both are fine

Is there some fuse that controls battery recognition/charging that could be blown? Similar to the way the backlight fuse can blow, etc. If not, what should I check? There's no water damage and no other damage. I don't have a schematic for this board (820-2567-A) so I can't tell where the battery/charging circuit is.

Other things I noticed:

- This logic board, for some reason, has a connector on the board that I've never seen. I searched on eBay and Google for a picture of one like mine, but could not find any. It looks just like the bluetooth board connector (and is in fact located right next to it, near the fan) on the logic board, but it's twice as long (same width and pin layout and everything). What is this connector for? There's nothing to plug into it in the case, and I've never seen one before. It looks factory-done.

Edit: I can't get it to let me post a comment to your answer, so I'll just edit here.

I have tried everything you mentioned with no success. Something else I noticed tonight, though, which is very strange, is the fact that the laptop WILL run off of battery perfectly fine! I accidentally pulled the charger out while booted into OSX, and the laptop stayed on...so I left it unplugged. It ran fine for 10 minutes off of the battery, despite showing the "[X]" icon in the top right (it tells me there's no battery available, but I'm running off of it).

When I plug the charger in right now, running from battery and booted into OSX, it turns orange, but then to green, so not charging.

I'm baffled. The computer still is not charging, but now it shows the "[X]" although it runs from battery fine (the screen even dims when I remove the charger...so it obviously detects the change in voltage from charger to battery power.

Any clues?

⟐ Commented February 16, 2024 at 16:36 MST

This is screws what lasted

I will provide more informations how it looks from my perspective in video

No these screws are in place

⟐ Commented February 15, 2024 at 13:53 MST

P.S I haven't tried to take out the battery because I'm scared maybe something worse will happen.

⟐ Answered February 05, 2024 at 8:45 MST

⟐ Commented December 08, 2023 at 20:06 MST

⟐ Commented November 16, 2023 at 21:57 MST

⟐ Commented November 07, 2023 at 9:42 MST