Macbook Pro wont power-up troubleshooting

So you were working with your almost brand new Macbook Pro and suddenly you see the battery getting lower and lower and the charger not charging it. It is not the end of the world, but is an annoying situation to go through.

I have learned some things today, after my charger went sky high, and I’m sharing here all the info learned.

Symptons:

• Battery wont charge
• Light on the charger is off

Possible issues:

• Battery is bad
• Charger is bad
• Motherboard is dead

Troubleshooting (do this before you run out of battery):

1. Try changing to another plug
2. Try changing the extension cord to the normal plug or vice-versa
3. If both above didn’t work (don’t be surprised), follow the next steps
4. Go to the Apple Menu and hit about this Mac
   1. Take note of the version
   2. Click on the version label; it will show the macbook serial number: take note
5. Shut down the Mac (power off)
6. After it is powered off, hold left control + left shift + left option
7. When the 3 keys above are pressed down, hold the power button for 1 second (it will not power on the Mac – it is supposed to be like this)
8. Release all and Power on the Mac
9. Time to check if it is the battery
   1. Go to the Apple Menu and About this Mac
   2. Click on More Options
   3. Locate the power option and check for:
      1. Full charge capacity
      2. Cycle count
      3. Condition

Take note on the 3 last items. If the condition is normal and the Full Charge Capacity is high, this means that the battery is ok, so the problem is really the charger (good news, worst case scenario, cheap fix).

Handling things with Apple goes from one to one, but in my case calling Apple Support and confirming all of this above got me a free brand new charger (newer model too).

Just a note for all folks out there that, like me, don’t have a Apple Care and the Warranty is about to expire: get one! It is cheaper than getting some new parts.

Note: If your Macbook Pro get’s to 180F -> it is normal. Your Mac will shut down whenever the temperature get’s too hot. Meanwhile you can get a cooler or burn your leg 🙂

MacBook Pro Charging Meltdown

Today while using my Macbook Pro I noticed that it was hot as a volcano core and for the first time I heard it turning on the fan.

No need to mention that I’m a hard core user when it comes to computers in general. With PC’s (notebooks or not), I usually have huge cooler fans so it can stay cool, but on a Mac, it was a surprise to see the temperature going up to 150F.

After a little search and talking to some peers I have found out that on Macbook’s that have the internal battery heating up bad when charging is something very common. Sad it is true (they don’t do Mac’s as they did  before).

Anyway, after a small search I have found out a good post with a great tool that will help you control the fan settings and monitor the temperature.

Check it out: http://blog.ziggytek.com/2010/01/06/why-your-macbook-macbook-pro-is-overheating/

You can also download the application directly at: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/23049

Hackbook Pro

Weekend Fun 😉

My 1st impressions of a MAC

I have been always working with Windows and recently I have changed to Linux so it would be possible to boost my Desktop performance without much investment.

Working with Xubuntu for the past months has been wonderful, but now a major performance was need for necessary work. Talking with colleagues and friends, I have choosen a MacBook Pro, a extremly light weight notebook with a lot of power for the size.

Going to the Apple Store was fun. I had come to a store employee and told him that I needed a MacBook Pro that could hold a couple of Virtual Machines running at time and one of them was Linux. He got spooked, but actually helped a ton on choosing the correct one.

Easy setup, beautiful opening and yes, it is impressive. The first steps where easy, installing Skype, MSN Messenger Live, configuring email, installing the Eclipse PDT, VPN and installing VirtualBox, my main reason for using a Mac. I got pretty part of the setup of my environment done until I got stuck into some small problems.

Getting Apache working, configuring the httpd.conf and setting up some other development stuff. It took time, but most is done, now is just fine tunning.

There are some tricks that are usefull on a Mac and those I have learned today. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a confessed newbie on Mac’s, even knowing that I have already used Linux for a long time (believe me, it’s very similar, including commands, but is not the same).

The best trick: Use sudo nano to edit files that you wouldn’t normally do with a text editor because you don’t have permissions or the system don’t have permissions to it.

A very useful trick: Hit command + space to open the Spotlight. A mix of finder with run that allows you to execute command that is being searched and open documents.

There is much to learn with a Mac. Feels like that I’m on a Linux that was transformed into a “good guy” that can play cool games. Well, maybe we can change it back to a “bad boy” (Linux) and still play cool games 😉

So far, working with it has been wonderful, let’s see how it goes when I push it to the limit…