Battery Questions with Laptop.

[DuroMentis]

Hey guys, I have a white Macbook from around 2007 I believe, its outdated in hardware but so is everything else in 2007, but it has served me well and is being used as a media player with my music and movies and such. The problem I've been facing for a while is the battery. I realize a lot of you guys are PC die-hards, so for one, please no fan boy answers, I'm asking a question I don't want answers like "Macs suck" or something like that. Honestly, I'm really not liking Apple to much but that's personal preference and besides the point, I still need to get it working. Here's a quick run down: I absolutely can not start my MacBook without plugging it in to the wall, and once it is started up and on the desktop the battery indicator shows that it is being charged for a brief few minutes and then says something to the effect of "Battery Not Detected." Its plugged in, everything has been checked to make sure it is in fact plugged properly, yet I still have to have the MacBook plugged in at all times. I have Googled this situation many times and I am not the only one either. Many have the exact same problem. Some people say resetting PRAM and such would fix it but it does literally nothing. Apparently its a Logic Board issue, which calls for a 500$ replacement part for a laptop I only paid 600$ for to begin with. I'm starting to wonder if by any chance that the perhaps the battery is fine, but the connector that leads from the battery to the Logic Board has failed, or glitched. Like I said, the battery appears as charging as soon as the mac is booted up but then displays as "Battery Not Detected" shortly after. Any ideas on how I would be able to check if its battery issues or logic board related? Thanks, any help would be great. Again, no annoying fanboy-ism please, its a piece of hardware, not anything worth fighting over.

[diluzio91]

use one of these http://www.nifty-stuff.com/images/battery-tester-1.jpg
to test if the battery is working. Im sure the guys on here have more indepth instructions

[DuroMentis]

use one of these http://www.nifty-stuff.com/images/battery-tester-1.jpg
to test if the battery is working. Im sure the guys on here have more indepth instructions

That's a funky looking setup there, I'm assuming that is/was a voltage meter right? I'm not too in to that portion of hardware, so pardon the ignorance that may occur. Also I forgot to ask in my previous post, lets say that this whole thing is a result of bad contact between the battery and the logic board, is there any way I could strengthen that contact? I'm asking this because I have a friend who is really in to vintage records and knows a thing or two about vinyls and record players, he said he puts Contact Lens Cleaner on the stereo cables to get a better connection (which he thinks results in better sound, but the ruling is still out on that), any ways, this bit of info sparked curiosity. Any other ideas if this is in fact the case? I know you guys probably don't have MacBooks to just open up and play around with, I'm just looking for general theories and potential remedies that maybe I've forgotten about. I really would hate it if I discovered that the only way was to get a new Logic Board from the thieves at the Apple store when all it took was a simple fix.

[Trace]

Check the pins in teh battery bay, make sure they are making contact, (ie not bent)
CHECK THE BATTERY VOLTAGE, using the volt meter like above. If it's not producing voltage, its a bad battery.
Maybe check continuity of the battery hookups in the macbook itself.

By the way, I am NOT a fan of apple; However, I will still try to assist to the best of my abilities.

[DuroMentis]

Check the pins in teh battery bay, make sure they are making contact, (ie not bent)
CHECK THE BATTERY VOLTAGE, using the volt meter like above. If it's not producing voltage, its a bad battery.
Maybe check continuity of the battery hookups in the macbook itself.

By the way, I am NOT a fan of apple; However, I will still try to assist to the best of my abilities.

Trace, I'll give those methods a try tomorrow and let you know how it goes here, its 3:15 AM and I'm tired as one would expect. And I'm not really a big fan of Apple either, It just happened to be holding my music, movies, pictures and such. I can still access them no problem, I just wish I wasn't limited to a wall outlet. I just didn't want to here anyone bashing Apple because PC is better or some crap, because they both have ups and downs, but thats a different thread topic which has only been covered yet not solved a million times by now. Thanks for sticking around to help it's greatly appreciated. I'll let you know what happens tomorrow, might end up doing open heart on the MacBook. Woohoo *Sarcasm*

[Trace]

Goodnight! Its only 12:30 here.