Hi, I have a 2012 Unibody MacBook Pro that I'm having a really weird issue with.

It wasn't used for around 6 months, but before that it was working perfectly fine. The battery was also working normally before I stopped using it.

Now, when I try to turn it on normally, it starts booting for about 1% and then suddenly turns off. But here's the weird part: if I hold down any key on the keyboard, it stays on and works like a normal laptop. As soon as I let go of the key, it immediately turns off.

The battery also isn't detected at all, and the battery indicator lights on the side don't work either.

I'm not really sure what's causing this. Could this be a battery or SMC issue, or could something on the logic board be causing it?

Is there anything I can test or try myself before taking it to a repair shop?

Also, diagnostics show reference code :PPT001, PFM001.

Thanks!

⟐ Commented August 29, 2026 at 21:49 MST

I found some similar questions, but none specific enough to make sure they were the same problem, and none with detailed solutions.

A video of the symptoms before I explain with words:

My Macbook's screen sometimes starts fading out. First the pixels get wider, meaning the image seems pixelated. Then the colors start changing, until it gets inverted, then it fades to completely dark grey.

There's no correlation of when it does that and when it doesn't. Sometimes I am just working while everything is normal, and all of a sudden it starts. Sometimes it’s in the morning, I am just waking it from sleep, without even touching the screen, and it’s in that state.

If I then try to bend a little bit the upper left corner of the screen, it goes back to normal. Sometimes it’s enough to keep it working without my pressure. Sometimes as soon as I let go, it starts fading again, and I have to push the whole computer against something to exert that pressure while I work.

Sometimes the problem will remain for weeks and months, and at some point go away for weeks and months.

Sometimes I have to press very hard for the screen to come back to normal, sometimes a very gentle touch will suffice.

It’s mostly on the upper left corner that I have to bend. Sometimes it’s on the upper right corner, but rarely.

When I plug an external display, it works fine.

I tried opening up the Macbook and disconnecting the screen, vacuuming the cable, socket, and everything.

Sometimes after I put everything back together, the problem goes away for a few weeks. Sometimes it doesn’t change anything.

I also tried opening the case while the laptop is on, and moving a little bit the display cable, to see if it changes anything. It didn’t.

I noticed that some kind of shield on the motherboard’s socket is out of position. But it seems unlikely to me to cause the problem:

I also noticed a visual irregularity on the display cable’s outer wrapping, but I don’t know whether that’s damage or not:

I very recently noticed that the top part of my LCD is unglued from its shell. But I don’t know whether it was there before, and thus could be a cause, or whether it’s the consequence of my bending the top left corner of the screen so many times.

It seems to me the screen itself is fine.

So I feel like it could be either the socket on the motherboard, or the cable, or the socket on the LCD. Right?

Does anyone know whether there is a quick fix to this, or how to narrow down the cause?

My partner’s laptop is a 2010 macbook pro, so the same but one year younger. Do you know if I could plug her screen onto my laptop? If so I could rule out the motherboard socket, or conversely incriminate it.

Thanks a lot in advance for the help!

So I tried swapping screen with my partner's laptop.

One important note, is that BEFORE doing so, I couldn't manage to get my screen to fail completely. For some reason it was working fine. I had to bend it a little bit for it to start pixelating and fading out. Basically the opposite of when it's failing. When it's failing, I have to bend it to get it back to normal.

This time it was working, and I had to bend it slightly to get it to fade away.

After swapping it with my partner's screen, here were the results.

On her laptop, with my screen, behaviour was the same: screen was working, but if I bent it slightly, it would exhibit the same symptoms, first pixelating then fading out.

On my laptop, with her screen, it was working flawlessly. I tried to bend it, to change angle etc, it would always keep showing the image perfectly.

After swapping the screens back to their respective owners, the behaviours are back to what they were. My partner's laptop is working flawlessly, and mine is in the same situation: it's working right now, but if I bend the screen slightly, the symptoms show up.

I don't want to make conclusions myself, because I am not an expert, but it seems to me to hint that my motherboard is fine, and the problem lies either in the cable or the LCD's connector or the LCD itself.

What do you think?

⟐ Commented August 29, 2026 at 20:47 MST

⟐ Commented August 28, 2026 at 15:24 MST

⟐ Commented August 27, 2026 at 18:27 MST

⟐ Answer edited August 27, 2026 at 15:57 MST

⟐ Answer unaccepted August 29, 2026 at 13:52 MST

And also, The hinge is getting tight overtime. i kept opening it gently because the screen might crack. I still have 3 more years to graduate with this laptop.

⟐ Commented August 27, 2026 at 5:51 MST

I have recently gotten my hands on a Mid 2015 15” MBP that was running slow, hoping I could get it fixed back up for personal use.

The previous owner had apparently swapped the old battery out with a new iFixit replacement one and then immediately sold the device as it has been running slow ever since. Using IntelPowerGadget on OSX or Task-Manager on Windows shows the CPU constantly being clocked down to 0.8ghz. This is definitely not thermal throttling as the chipset never exceeds 50C, there are also no faulty sensors when checking with HWMonitor.

The original battery had been discarded so I cannot check whether this issue is actually caused by the battery at all, however inspecting the battery visually and using CoconutBattery I can see that it is not an OEM battery since there is no battery serial number being displayed. Running the hardware diagnosis (holding the “D” key at startup) reveals that the battery might have problems but it says I should still be able to use the device without any noticable changes, showing the error code PPT004.

I then went ahead and bought this used original A1398 battery, thinking it was salvaged from another Macbook, however it ended up being some sort of refurbished third party battery causing the same issues again so I will have to return it anyway. The values shown on CoconutBattery are similar for both batteries (both less than 10 charge cycles, etc.) so I have just attached an image of the iFixit one below.

The machine itself is in mint condition, I have made sure to look for any water damage on the logic board but it seems perfectly clean, after all the device can be used flawlessly with the exception of it running at 1/4 the supposed speed.

I did come across similar threads however they were usually regarding older macbooks or were only having this issue intermittently when plugging in an external monitor, etc.

Others proposed just deleting the IOPlatformFamily.kext from OSX to get rid of the Intel Speedstepping feature, however this method is somewhat outdated and seems like a stupid idea anyway. A similar solution was being shared here, however that is again just circumventing the issue instead of fixing it, and even then Im not sure that would at all.

Essentially I just want to know two things:

1. Is this throttling behaviour really linked to a 3rd party battery instead of a logic board fault, and if so, why would anyone buy or manufacture such batteries if they make the device useless? If this is the case there should have been plenty of others with this exact issue, yet I have only found a few threads discussing a similar issue
2. With the iFixit as well as the other “genuine” battery not working as intended, where would I even begin looking for an actual OEM battery within Europe without having to get it replaced at an Apple store?

I never had any issues replacing the battery on a 2012 MBP, so Its fair to say this behaviour could just be another one of Apples shenanigans to get peoples devices fixed at Apple only and nowhere else, but I just couldnt find a definitive answer especially since I dont have the original battery to compare against.

I wouldn’t know where to ask otherwise, so any reply would be very appreciated!

Update:

I have tried using ThrottleStop on BootCamp Windows according to this thread, this does however also not work. Deleting the IOPlatformPluginFamily.kext as mentioned in the same thread is not an option since it does not even exist on my OS X Catalina installation.

Final Update (Found a solution):

So it turned out not to be a battery related issue . The person I bought the device from stated the issue appeared after swapping it for an iFixit replacement battery, but after buying yet another OEM battery the problem still persisted.

Instead, the issue was related to the CPU current sensing circuitry. I didnt manage to find accurate boardview and schematics for my specific model (820-00138) so I had to use this XinZhiZao (similar to ZXW tool) maintenance program which had the correct board layout to find the problem.

The issue was caused by the "SMC_CPU_IMON_ISENSE" line which is produced by the U7200 power management IC. This chip is responsible for measuring the CPU power usage among other things, and sends the signal through R5530 directly to the SMC. This line was permanently stuck at 1.8V which made the SMC read a high CPU power draw, so it throttled the CPU to 0.8ghz clock for safety reasons.

I ended up running a jumper (blue) from this line to ground, thus forcing the line to 0V.

This way the system now reads CPU current as 0W and I can finally use the machine with its intended performance. No lags, everything finally runs smoothly. It also no longer gets stuck in sleep mode after closing the lid.

Obviously this fix is only a workaround as I still dont know what was pulling the line to 1.8V, so I assume it was either the SMC or U7200 which shorted the line to a neighboring power line somewhere. I didnt want to risk ruining the SMC by reballing it so shorting the pad for C5530 to ground seemed easier to do. However this means there is a constant 1.8V short to ground so I might want to replace the jumper wire with a resistor to avoid losing much battery power being wasted into the short in the future.

In conclusion, the built-in Apple Diagnostics (Holding down Cmd + D on startup) did find an issue, however it was not related to the battery but rather the SMC or U7200. My assumption of having to use a OEM battery was wrong, as it also now works just fine with the replacement iFixit battery. I used HWmonitor on OSX to check the “CPU Package Total” readings, which were at 100 watts and above. After the fix it is reading -W, so the remaining battery time estimations might be inaccurate, but it technicallly isnt necessary.

Im not exactly sure how a simple battery swap could have caused this issue, but since I didnt find much information regarding Macbooks being throttled to 800mhz CPU performance, make sure to check all temperature and current readings using some sort of monitoring tool like mentioned above. A faulty temperature sensor might possibly cause a similar issue.

Hope this helps

⟐ Answered August 25, 2026 at 17:05 MST

Hi everyone,

I have a Late 2023 MacBook Pro 14" (M3 Pro), and I've noticed that the display lid is slightly misaligned to the right. When the laptop is closed and I run my fingers along the side edges, I can clearly feel that the top lid is slightly off-center compared to the bottom case.

I've seen other people reporting this exact same issue online, so I'm attaching a few more photos of misaligned screens for reference.

I would like to know: Is it possible to open the bottom case and adjust the hinge screws to realign the display perfectly?

Thanks in advance for the help!

⟐ Answer edited August 25, 2026 at 13:16 MST

⟐ Answered August 24, 2026 at 8:06 MST

⟐ Commented August 24, 2026 at 7:52 MST

So I want to disassemble the original Apple L connector and solder it to the unoriginal cable. I don’t mind cutting off the replacement L connector, as it is of no use for me, because when I use it with my Macbook pro 13” late 2011, the battery gets hot, and when I used it with my Macbook white mid 2009, the battery swelled and now when I use that MB 2009 with the unoriginal cable, with no battery, it won’t even turn on (it does turn on when used with fully original power adapter).

So… disassemble an original magsafe L connectror and solder it to another wire. How do I do that? In fact the problem is more about disassembling the L connector, because I do know how to solder things.

⟐ Commented August 22, 2026 at 15:22 MST

The issue:

1. With the new battery, the MagSafe light stays green. System Information sees the battery at 33% (2308mAh) but shows 0 Amperage and "Not Charging."

2. If I unplug the MagSafe, the laptop immediately shuts off.

3. I reinstalled the old (bulging) battery to test. It shows 100% (4322mAh) and "Fully Charged," but the laptop still shuts off immediately if the power cord is disconnected.

4. CRITICAL FINDING: The battery indicator button (on the left side) ONLY works when the MagSafe is plugged in. When plugged in, it shows 3 LEDs (consistent with 33%). When unplugged, the indicator button does nothing.

5. I have already:

- Reset the SMC and NVRAM/PRAM multiple times.

- Verified I am using an 85W MagSafe adapter.

- Reseated the battery connector and inspected the logic board pins.

- Ran Disk Utility First Aid.

Is it possible the original bulging battery blew a current-sensing resistor or a MOSFET on the logic board? What specific components should I test with a multimeter to diagnose why the battery rail is not being energized?

Here is an image (maybe) of the coconut app and the system report.

Here is an image of the system report with the bad battery

=== ===

⟐ Commented August 21, 2026 at 11:54 MST

⟐ Answered August 21, 2026 at 8:48 MST

A bit of a head-scratcher which i've been trying to troubleshoot for the past week. Hopefully someone here on the forum can provide some guidance.

The Context:

About July last year a cousin of mine gave me her old 2013 11 Inch MacBook Air because (in her words) it has stopped working and I'm known in the family to tinker with laptops (admittedly, she didn't really look after it).

Anyway, I got it home and quickly realised that the only issue is the magsafe connector is a bit worn out. By jiggling the connector around I could easily get the orange/green indicator light to show up, the MBA would charge and otherwise operate normally.

I went ahead and purchased/installed a replacement battery from iFixit seeing that the OG battery had over 1000 cycles. I then installed macOS Ventura (and eventually Sonoma) using OpenCore Legacy patcher which all worked pretty well.

For the past half year i've been using this little machine as my Discord and Spotify hub to great affect.

The Problem:

About a week ago I noticed that the Laptop would not power on unless the charger was connected. The magsafe indicator light shows a solid orange light. If the laptop is on and I disconnect the charger, it instantly dies.

If I reconnect the charger and hit the power button it seems to 'resume' rather than restart (even if the laptop was in the middle of booting).

The Investigation:

To date I have tried:

• Multiple SMC and PRAM resets.
• Disconnected the battery connector and left it for 24 hours before reconnecting.
• Tried a different Magsafe Charger
• Wiped and performed a clean reinstall of the latest Officially supported OS (Big Sur).

The weird thing is that if I power the laptop on and remove the connector AFTER the startup chime then it will go most of the way through the boot up process before it shuts off. I've even performed an Apple Diagnostic test (whilst running on battery power) where I'll get an error code PPT001 "The Battery was not Detected" (this whilst the machine was UNPLUGGED from its charger). So clearly the battery works in some capacity?

The System Information app in Big Sur only shows zero values under Battery Information.

I've Included a collection of photos at the end of this question.

The Question:

I'm unsure where to go from here? Is this clearly a logic board issue? Or is it a battery issue? Are there other tests I can try? Is the battery stubbornly stuck in a low power state? Something else entirely?

I am willing to purchase a new battery for this machine but if this turns out to be a logic board issue then repair would likely be expensive (I would need to send it away - that sort of repair is way outside of my experience level), likely resulting in me throwing it away.

⟐ Answered August 21, 2026 at 2:04 MST

My computer died awhile back so I changed the battery (which allowed the device to turn on) and the usbc board but it will not charge even after trying multiple charges. What else can I do to see why it isn’t charging?

⟐ Answered August 20, 2026 at 18:31 MST

This is my progress on removing the anti-glare coating after 2 hours. I tried Listerine, 90% alcohol, Peek Metal Polish, anti-bacterial wipes, bleach, and nail polish remover w/ acetone (before I read that someone else damaged the glass itself because of acetone). Luckily, my glass is still fine. Unfortunately, I haven't made much progress as you can see from the picture. I'm confused to why none of the solutions isn't working for me. Some said that Listerine alone worked well along with a microfiber cloth. I tried that but since it didn't work I moved on to try all the other solutions I mentioned. Is anyone else having this issue dispite of trying all kinds of solutions? And is there any other alternatives that would make it simple to remove w/o much time being spent?

⟐ Commented August 20, 2026 at 13:25 MST

I have a Macbook Air 13" (2019) that was not keeping a charge and eventually would just turn off when unplugged. I thought it would just need a new battery. So ordered the replacement Ifixit battery for the model. When I opened up the macbook, the original battery was slightly swollen so I took extra care removing it. I performed the surgery on the laptop, swapped batteries and re-assembled. On boot, everything is working (screen, trackpad, speakers, etc.) except that the battery is not showing up as recognized (an X on the battery icon on login screen) and the macbook requires staying plugged in. It also feels very slow. Its my girlfriends laptop, so I don't ever use it, but it stills feels sluggish. Besides the swollen battery, I did not see any damage on the logic board, though I wasn't really looking out for any. Did a SMC reset and a system update (laptop had been sitting for a month or two waiting for the repair). Still no luck.

Not sure where to go from here, open back up and remove logic board to inspect for damage? Would the swollen battery have affected the logic board?

Any help would be great thanks!

EDIT:

CoconutBattery main screen showing no battery detected.

EDIT 2:

Here are the pictures of battery connector with the new battery. It's as connected as the old one was, no damage visible on the mainboard.

As requested, I managed to connect the old swollen battery without removing the newly installed one (just got creative with some electrical tape to hold things in place). Wildly enough, the old swollen battery is recognized by Coconut Battery and was trying to charge. The laptop ran smoother and the fan wasn't going full tilt while I had the macbook running to get the pictures. Could the new Ifixit battery be faulty/bad connectors? Where to look?

EDIT 3

Last question before I reach out to IFixIt. As I was cleaning up the macbook and giving the new battery one last try (no luck). I noticed the control boards on each battery are quite different in layout and modules. I'm no expert, but would this difference in control boards be the source of my issues? Left is old recognized battery and right is new troubled battery.

LAST EDIT

New battery worked, guess I got a faulty lemon. Thanks all for assistance

⟐ Answered August 20, 2026 at 7:49 MST