Chosen Solution
Recently my MacBook Pro 13” Retina Early 2015 stopped charging, no green or amber lights on Magsafe. I tried with a friend’s known working charger, still doesn’t charge. I reset the SMC, both with and without charger plugged in, without any luck. I then ordered a new Magsafe DC-In Board (took parts number off the old one, replaced it with the exact same model; 820-3584-a), installed it, checked for any muck or debris keeping it from connecting to the socket properly, but everything seems to be in order, though it still won’t charge, after resetting SMC a couple of times again - again both with and without adapter plugged in. I tried resetting my PRAM, that didn’t fix it either. When I turn the laptop on (it still has some 10% charge left), the battery doesn’t indicate any problems as in “replace soon” or “replace now”. Battery isn’t swollen either. Since the charger doesn’t light up at all, I’m assuming there is a problem with the SMC/DC-In/Motherboard, rather than the battery itself, since there seems to be no communication. Under the ‘Hardware’ tab my laptop doesn’t indicate to sense the presence of the charger. When I installed the new Magsafe DC-In Board, I measured the voltage coming into the motherboard when plugged in, measured about 1V DC. Has anyone got an idea of what I could try next? The motherboard was replaced under warranty some 3 years ago, but by now that seems to be the only thing left I can imagine keeping the battery from charging. Thanks a lot!
I disassembled the logic board, flipped it around and saw an oxidized contact on a clock crystal that is on the other side of the DC-In Board socket. (you can see this in the first two pictures of the logic board) Cleaned said contact with contact cleaner and now my laptop is charging again! Thanks a lot to Dan for sharing his time and expertise, without whom I probably would have ended up paying for a new logic board…
Time to trace the connections from the MagSafe to the logic board. The middle pin is the one wire sense line to the SMC and the MagSafe LED and charger logic. See if the MagSafe cable pin is not jammed up and the socket on your system contact is clean. The replacement part could have been bad as well as they often are from parts systems. Apple Portables: Troubleshooting MagSafe adapters
An example of a damaged MagSafe connector from knockoff charger use. Lacking safety features, cheap MacBook chargers create big sparks If that doesn’t look like the issue then your SMC logic on the logic board has been damaged by the knockoff charger.
