I was using my Macbook Pro and I was letting it discharge to about 30%; then I plugged it back in to charge.
It charged for a while (orange light) but after a few minutes, it changed to green. My laptop wasn't fully charged yet and my battery actually started to drain even on a green light. At first I thought my charger was defective so I borrowed a charger but it still showed a green light. Using my charger on another MBP showed expected behaviors (orange for charging).
I then turned my laptop off and tried to reset the SMC by holding down the left side shift control option and the power key, but to no avail. I have done SMC resets before, and I know that the LED Indicator light of the charger should change had I done it successfully. I am pretty sure I shut down my laptop properly.
Has anyone encountered this situation before? Any help is very much appreciated. I would post more technical information about my laptop, however, I don't think turning it on is a smart idea as I don't think the battery is functional at all.
Best Answer
Unless you have had the battery replaced in the last few years it’s most likely dead. You can use a couple of different apps(Battery Health, Coconut Battery), or even the built in System Info screen to see the charge cycles and condition of the MacBook's battery.
I helped a friend with almost the same identical problem on a system of the same vintage, and it was the battery that was dead. No matter how many times he reset the SMC, it never helped.
As a side note, Apple recommends that you cycle the battery fully at lest once a month to avoid potential problems that can occur form charging the battery to soon in a battery discharge cycle. So if you are always plugging into power when you have only 30% of your battery drained, you could be shortening the life of the battery.