Over the weekend, I ran into an issue with my “ageing” MacBook Pro: The thing refused to charge and there was an “X” symbol over the battery icon. It appeared as if there was no battery installed, the notebook was operating just on the power supply. Removing the power cord turned off the MacBook and I was almost convinced the battery was dead already.
Knowing it was likely to be a damaged battery, I was already looking up how much I could get a replacement battery. After a while, I found a simple fix that solved this issue; the battery was still pretty much okay after all.
If you run into this kind of issue, removing and re-inserting the battery is likely to work. Unless you’re using one of the oldest models of the MacBook, you won’t be able to remove the battery unless you unscrew the base panel.
I pickup up my set of tools, unscrewed the base panel and I was staring at the internals.
Depending on your type of MacBook, you could either remove the battery completely or simply remove the connector that connects the battery with the motherboard.
After the battery is disconnected, plug in the charger, then re-insert the battery (or re-fix the connector). That’s all I did. I coupled it, turned it on, and the battery started charging.
Unless you have a dead battery that needs to be replaced, there’s a possibility this fix should work for you.