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A friend asked me to look into his MacBook Air because it didn't want to power on anymore. Took a look at it, opened it, took the battery out and connected the charger cable and it worked every single time without issues.

When I connect the battery, it powers up only when it wants (random moments without a specific pattern). I tried with his old battery and a newly bought one as well and the same issue occurs. All connections seems to be in order and didn't see anything that can cause a short circuit from the battery.

If anyone else went through similar issues, can you advise on where to look or what the issue might be?

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  • maybe a bad power supply
    – jsotola
    Commented May 4, 2023 at 16:04

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Likely causes are:

  • A weak battery - both replacement and original. Some batteries are available for ~US$32, but check the battery status, or better, check it under load to see if it's good.
  • Intermittent connection in the battery branch of the power circuit. Look for loose connectors, a break inside a wire that was pinched by the case or bent, a break in the solder joint between connector and printed circuit board (PCB), or a broken trace on the PCB.
  • A bad voltage-equalizer in the PC for the battery (i.e., the part that connects to each cell of the battery to make sure it's not over- or under-charged.

If repairs are expensive, a workaround to make it portable again would be to use a small 12 V battery with a small inverter, such as this. Yes, it would be somewhat clunky, but at least affordable, and potentially able to last far longer than the Mac internal battery.

See this site for more ideas.

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  • Thank you for the detailed reply. As just a small update: a behavior I saw recently is: when only on battery, it does not power on, but the moment I connect the power adapter it turns on without touching the power on button. Does it help narrowing it down?
    – Andy Gix
    Commented May 6, 2023 at 11:30
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    @AndyGix, Not much... you've established it's a battery-power issue, but you knew that already.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Commented May 7, 2023 at 1:06

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