Can battery cause MBP 15" mid 2010 to NOT boot up WITH power cord?
Somebody handed down a Macbook Pro 15" Unibody Mid 2010 to me. This machine has not been used for more than TWO YEARS.
It didn't have a power cable so I brought it to the Apple store. At the Apple store, it powered up and it got all the way to the login screen. So I bought the power cable.
But when I got home, it would not turn on anymore. So I did some research and tried all the potential solutions I could find online. Here are the things I've tried:
- Power cycle
Unplug power
Press power button 10 secs
Reconnect power, while still pressing down power button for another 10 secs
Release power button, then press it again. - Reset NVRAM
While power cord is attached, simultaneously press Cmd, Option, P, R
Wait for it to turn on. It never turned on, so I could not even do the next steps, which is to...
Release keys when you hear the "reboot chime" - Reset SMC
Unplug, then connect power
Simultaneously press Shift, Ctrl, Option/Alt, power button
Release all button at the same time
IF power button flickers, it indicates SMC has been reset (it never flickered)
I tried each of these 5 or six times, but none of these worked.
But I also found out that the "no boot up" could be resolved by removing the battery.
I didn't have a proper tool kit for all the different types of screws, so I bought the iFixIt Mako set (because I needed it for other laptops anyway) and once I removed then reconnected the battery, IT POWERED UP. So far, so good.
INITIALLY, the MacOS Battery Health Information showed:
Cycle Count: 334
Condition: Normal
I failed to note down the initial State of Charge (%), but it must have been really low because it took several hours (probably more than 4 hours) to charge.
In any case, this looked like good news, so I installed MacOS 10.13.6, which is the latest supported version for this specific hardware. After the OS upgrade, I started to put some load into it by running the initial network sync of a Bitcoin Full Node, and everything runs fine.
But then every time I shutdown the machine, it would NOT turn on again, even after I do the 3 things I mentioned above (power cycle, reset NVRAM & SMC). The ONLY thing that fixes the problem is if I disconnect then reconnect the battery.
At one time, MacOS reported the battery condition as needing service, so I thought that maybe, because the machine has not been used for more than TWO years and the fact that the State of Charge during this long period is unknown, then maybe the battery is now bad and need to be replaced.
But then I saw this "needing service" Battery Condition only once, and I have disconnected/reconnected the battery several times, and the Battery Condition has been reported as normal ever since. I also tried charging to 100% and then draining it all the way until it turns off by itself; and I did it several times.
The battery cycle count is now 340, and it is showing as normal, but the machine just won't power up after it is shut down, even if the power cable is connected. It is only when I disconnect/reconnect the battery that it powers up. It is impractical to keep on disconnecting/reconnecting the battery every time I power off the machine, so now I'm just running it without the battery.
I don't mind buying a new battery if this really fixes the problem, but I also don't want to spend unnecessary money if it does not.
Is there a way to know for sure?
Another question I have is this: What should be the normal behaviour of this machine if the battery is needing service or even totally dead? Shouldn't the machine still function even if the battery is totally dead, as long as the power cord is connected?
Thanks in advance.
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