Macbook Air recognizes battery while starting, but later says “no battery available” (battery icon X)

batterymacbook promagsafepower

I spilled a full glass of water on the keyboard of my Macbook Air 11" mid-2011 (running OS X Mavericks).

After drying everything out, etc., here's what happens when I start the laptop:

  1. It has to be plugged in to start. The green LED on the magsafe plug doesn't light up any more.

  2. As it starts, I can pull out the magsafe plug, and it continues to start.

  3. If I leave the magsafe plug unplugged, then just before it reaches the main login screen, the screen goes totally blank (and I can dimly see the cover's apple logo behind it, indicating that the screen is off), but the keyboard stays lighted up. If I plug the magsafe back in, nothing changes.

  4. If I don't pull out the magsafe plug in (2.), then the laptop reaches the login screen just fine, and after I log in, there's an X on the battery icon with the message "no battery found".

I've tried SMC, PRAM resets.

It's clear that the battery is being recognized for a while, so it's not some mechanical connection issue.

If this might be some firmware issue, is there some way to update the Macbook's firmware?

Best Answer

Unfortunately, intermittent battery connection failures can also be a result of spilling water on the computer. It's not just a case of either it works or not.

You'll need to take the computer in to a service center. The technician will likely try swapping out the battery first to see if that does the trick. Otherwise, you might be looking at a full logic board replacement.

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