Chosen Solution
Apple MacBook Pro “Core 2 Duo” 2.8 17" Mid-2009 Specs Identifiers: Mid-2009 17" - MC226LL/A* - MacBookPro5,2 - A1297 - 2329* Thanks to forgive my approximate English, I’m French. My Mbp 17" mid 2009 (A1297) doesn’t start, the magsafe has the green light or orange when the battery is a bit empty, the lights on the battery say that it’s charged, it had no accident like liquid spill and it didn’t fall. Those last months it started with some difficulty, I had to reset the SMC a few times before it would start, but it worked. And this time it didn’t start up, it seems that there is no power. I’ve tried every trick I found on the net and on Ifixit : reset the SMC, by-pass the SMC, tried to startup with the pads. When I reset the SMC, the magsafe which is orange before becomes green for a few seconds and goes back to orange, so it seems that the SMC works ! I tried 2 magsafe, they both work. Unfortunately I have no other battery to check and I’de like to avoid to buy a new one just to check and find that the problem is in the motherboard, because this battery seems to work, the leds light up when I push the button, and if I leave it connected after 1 day or 2 there are less leds working. I don’t know what else to try, anyone would have an idea ? Thanks for your answers.
It is most likely the Tantallon capacitor on the logic board. It will need to be replaced by someone who knows how to remove the old one and solder on a more capable one . All the 2009/2010 17”machines have this weak spot, and will eventually pack it in. But the fix is easy, if you know how to solder and read the schematics.
Power Issues, Power Adapter Dead, No Power 1 Check for damaged pins or magnetic debris on the MagSafe power adapter. If the pins are okay, reseat the power adapter connector and make sure it is fully inserted. NOTE Refer to Knowledge Base documents 303566,“MacBook Pro: Troubleshooting MagSafe power adapters with stuck pins,” and 302461, “Troubleshooting iBook, PowerBook G4, and MacBook Pro power adapters.” 2 Remove any connected peripherals. 3 Try a known-good power outlet. 4 Remove the battery and AC power. 5 Press the Caps Lock key to see if the light on the key comes on. If it does, hold the power button down for 6 seconds to shut down the computer and restart. 6 Reset parameter random-access memory (PRAM) by pressing the power button, then holding down the Option-Command-P-R keys until you hear the startup chime at least one additional time after the initial startup chime. 7 Reset the Power Manager. NOTE Refer to Knowledge Base document 303319, “Resetting MacBook and MacBook Pro System Management Controller (SMC).” WARNING Make sure you do not hold down the Fn key when resetting the Power Manager. Resetting the Power Manager means you will also need to reset the date and time in Date & Time preferences. 8 Test each RAM slot individually with known-good RAM. The computer should still start with only one known-good dual inline memory module (DIMM). 9 Remove the AirPort Extreme Card. 10 If the computer starts on battery power only, try replacing the MagSafe board with a known-good MagSafe DC-in board. 11 Verify cable connections and check cables for damage 12 Verify that the power button is connected properly to the logic board. If the power button is not functioning correctly or damaged, replace the top case. 13 Replace the logic board.
A potentIal solution is to just buy a brand new battery. I had the same issue before, ran through all the tests, hard drive … but once the battery is completely dead even with power charged plugged in it will go into a boot loop so purchasing a new replaceable battery should resolve the issue.
