TT Repair of the Week: MacBook Won't Charge

This week’s repair is on a first-generation MacBook that had a very slight amount of water spilled on it. The customer did everything right: he immediately turned off the computer and removed the battery, and left it alone in a warm place for ten days. An attempt to fire up a spilled-on computer generally makes the situation worse, so while it might be tempting to cross your fingers and hope for the best, resist the urge and wait it out.

After 10 days near his wood stove (not too close!), he plugged it in, pressed the power button, and it fired right up. Delighted, he attacked his inbox for a half hour and right after signing into Facebook, the reserve power warning came up. Even after plugging the computer in, the battery would not charge.

This is a fairly common situation and there are several components involved. The flow of power in a MacBook goes from the MagSafe adapter, into the MagSafe-in clip, to the logic board, to the battery transfer board, to the battery. Of course, the easiest thing to do is test the MagSafe adapter itself with a known-good one. If that does not resolve the issue, the next component to test is the battery. If neither of these resolve the issue, it’s time for a visit to your local repair shop.

Knowing that the spill was concentrated in the area around the arrow keys, right above the battery transfer board, the first step was to swap that part out. No luck there. Not having a spare logic board to test, I went to the MagSafe-in board and swapped that with no luck. At that point, I had to order up the logic board for diagnostic purposes, and it did resolve the issue. While I could not find any sign of liquid on the logic board, I did very plainly see liquid damage on the battery transfer board, so the outcome was a bit surprising. In the end, though, the customer elected not to repair the damage due to the very high cost of logic boards. In this case, the best thing to do was simply use the computer while plugged in.