How to diagnose dead battery vs. something more serious?

I'm in the 11th month of ownership of an MBA, purchased brand new last year. 128MB model.
My battery, I believe, is dead but I'm not sure how to diagnose the matter.
Here's what's lead me to this conclusion:
MBA charger light stays off when plugged in (not dim, but off).   I've had the dim light issue as well, earlier this year, and Apple replaced the charger. This time, however, the light stays completely off.
Battery icon in top right corner tells me that no charger is plugged in. The icon is in battery mode.
Battery charge keeps decreasing steadily in % value despite charger being plugged in, indicating that battery is continually discharging.
My wife has an MBP, and I've used her 85W charger on my MBA with the same result... i.e charger light stays off.   I know that the MBP charger is in good health as it charges the MBP with no issues (orange light).
I've used my MBA charger on her MBP, and it charges the MBP just fine!!! (orange light)
I've done an SMC and NVRAM reset on the MBA, which hasn't affected the situation.
Since I'm on 15% charge on the MBA, I've shut it down and have booked an appointment with Apple to have it looked at.
In the mean-time, I'm hoping to get some clues from fellow MacBook users on this forum.
I've read somewhere that if it is indeed the battery that's faulty, then once the charger is unplugged, the MBA should turn off immediately. This isn't the case for me... I'm able to run off battery (whatever tiny amount of charge I have left) with the charger unplugged.
Hence, I've ruled out the charger being faulty. I'm not so sure that the battery is faulty. I'm thinking the issue might lie elsewhere... maybe the magsafe connector on the MBA?
I should also mention that when I opened the lid on the MBA earlier this evening, before noticing this charging issue, the screen flickered brightly once. The screen looked and operated normally after the flicker. Not sure if there's a connection. I'm beginning to think there is.
I should also add that, even though the MBA has been a pleasure to use, the past 11 months haven't been trouble-free... which adds to the suspicion that the issue might indeed be somewhere deeper.
A brief history of "issues":
About a month or so into ownership... my fan, one day, decided to suddenly spin up to full RPMs and stayed at that speed for an eternity. I'm used to the fan speed steadily going up in direct relation to the CPU temp.   However, the CPU temp this time was 35C the entire time (according to iStat Menus)... i.e. the MBA was "stone cold". It made no sense for the fan to be on full-blast. In addition, I had nothing running. No intensive software. Not even Safari. Just "Finder".   Turning the MBA off naturally caused the fan to stop. However, the moment I powered it back on again, the fan came back on at full speed again.
An SMC reset fixed the issue, and I was good to go. This issue occurred again a few months later, but I solved it right away with the SMC reset.
After another month or so I noticed, while listening to music via headphones that were plugged into the MBA, that I could hear an electric "hum" in the headphones. Then all of a sudden the hum went away. I discovered that the hum was present only when I physically touched the metal case of the MBA and went away as soon as I removed my hand.   I mentioned this to a Genius bar... err... genius and he seemed perplexed. He wasn't able to offer an answer.
I've also noticed that when the MBA is charging, and I run my finger-tips over the MBA's metal surface that I feel static. When the charger is unplugged, I no longer feel the static.   Again the genius didn't have an answer. He probably thought I was weird.
I'm thinking my MBA might have "grounding" issues, but am no expert in this field.   With the latest charging issues, however, I'm leaning towards this theory again.
Thoughts are welcome.
Regards
MrAir

No clues, it is very apparent you have a hardware problem and it is not the battery. If it was the battery the computer would not be running as you say the charger is not charging the battery.
There is a charging curcuit that has more then likely failed. You have done the correct thing, take it in and get it fixed before your warranty runs out.

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Hi,
No, in such case you cant repair the battery and you need a replacement battery because battery is not repairable.
>or is there any method of converting the PC for mains-only use?
Hmm I dont know what you mean but you dont need a battery. You can also use the notebook with AC/DC adapter only. Thats no problem. :)

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Hi everyone,
My 3.75 years of computing bliss have finally ended. My 2006 MacBook Pro (15.4", 2.16ghz, 2gb RAM) has suddenly begun freezing, crashing and restarting seemingly irratically.
Sometimes it will just freeze. Sometimes it will crash (the dreaded "shut down" instrucions and generate a crash report on restart--which I save). Sometimes it will restart itself. And, strangest of all, sometimes the optical drive will make noise as if it's starting up, then the screen will go off--but there are still things running and power to the USB devices.
I know for certain that my left fan does not work. It hasn't for over a year. I've always kept an eye on my temps and elevated the computer. Since I am legally blind, I cannot use a computer that hasn't been set up specifically for me so I can't afford to send it in for repair unless absolutely necessary. I use my computer for almost everything; shopping, banking, paying bills, scanning (or photographing) and then enlarging stuff I couldn't otherwise read, etc, not to mention the occasional paying job.
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I knew this day would come eventually; I just hoped it would come before the warranty was up!
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-- Stephanie

In case you do have a dying hard drive, make your first priority to do a good backup if you haven't already and keep it up to date.
You can do a comprehensive check of the physical health of your hard drive with SMART Utility:
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/32454
You can download the demo and run it several times for free. It is more sensitive than Disk Utility, and may sense impending drive failure before Disk Utility does.
Laptop hard drives have an average useful life of 3-5 years, and yours is well into this range.
If you do end up having to have your hard drive replaced, be sure to have them replace the left fan, or even better, both fans, since the right one has been doing the work of both for a year.
At one time, I believe that if a thermal sensor didn't work, then the fan wouldn't work either. Later things were changed so that if a sensor didn't work, the fan would run at full speed by default to protect the computer from overheating. I'm not sure which system you have.
If you can, boot from your original gray system disc and run the extended version of the Apple Hardware Test. It might give you a clue as to what is wrong in the form of one or more error codes.
Also, there might be an AASP that is closer to you than the Apple Store. If so, they could run some diagnostic tests. There would probably be a fee for this.
Are you in the US? Apple has a flat fee repair program for some Macs, but I'm not entirely certain which ones. It would be worth asking Apple about this.
Also, if you are in the US and end up sending your Mac off to the repair depot, be aware that turnaround can be very fast. My niece sent hers off on a Tuesday evening at 6:00 PM, and had it back the next Thursday morning.
Also, if you do end up needing to replace your hard drive, make a bootable clone on an external drive using Super Duper or Carbon Copy Cloner:
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html
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Good luck!

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Thanks for the reply.
Seems the problem was a third party power adapter I was using. I bought a new Apple-branded 65W adapter and everything seems back to normal now.
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Is this just a dead battery...?

…or is it something more serious?
Here's the situation: I keep my 5-year-old 13" white Macbook (macbook2,1) plugged in most of the time, so the battery doesn't get a lot of exercise, and consistently reports fully charged. Lately, when I use it on battery, it starts up OK, or seems to — and reports fully charged — but as soon as I do anything interesting (e.g., open Safari) it just shuts off. Cold. And won't restart (it'll chime, but that's all), until I plug it in; the battery still reports full charged, however. If I leave it plugged in awhile, it'll start on battery, but as soon as I load a web page...
I've tried taking out the battery, starting up plugged in and then replacing it, hoping that might reset something. No luck.
Is this simply a dead battery? It acts like it's "not holding a charge", but the system, suspiciously enough, still reports fully charged, or nearly so. Before I bounce for a buck and a quarter for a replacement battery only to find I still have a problem, I thought I'd put the question up before the real geniuses...
Is this simply a matter of a failed battery, or is there more to this than meets the ocular organ?
TIA, points will be awarded...
Jeff

OK, the above was the report after the MacBook had been plugged in for a few days. I decided to see what came up when I started on the battery, but the first time I tried it, as soon as Safari launched (it's a login item) it went down. So I let the battery get back up to 100%, and restarted, bypassing login items. System Info reported this:
Battery Information:
Model Information:
Manufacturer:          DP
Device Name:          ASMB013
Pack Lot Code:          1
PCB Lot Code:          0
Firmware Version:          102
Hardware Revision:          300
Cell Revision:          200
Charge Information:
Charge Remaining (mAh):          4120
Fully Charged:          Yes
Charging:          No
Full Charge Capacity (mAh):          4273
Health Information:
Cycle Count:          37
Condition:          Normal
Battery Installed:          Yes
Amperage (mA):          -2054
Voltage (mV):          10705
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How should I tackle battery drain issues?? I'm fed up

I'm fed up a bit for my Z3 C battery life. This is my second query regarding battery life.
Does keeping Mobile data and Whatsapp running ON even in standby mode drains the battery??
I usually get just 1 or 2 whatsapp messages in an hour or two.
My phone settings-
Always turned off my wifi/ bt/ nfc/ gps/ location tracking/ autoupdates etc. & everything you can think and suggest.
I use only stock custom wallpaper and no live stuff. No widgets. No sd card inserted. With only two homescreens with just 2 shortcuts on each screen.
Have disabled apps which I dont use.
Stopped services of apps which are no longer needed.
No auto sync enabled for any app.
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Whatsapp
Greenify
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Manually Force stop apps which are on. Use Greenify to exit/stop apps.
When I wake up the next day battery is down by 4-5%.
During day, phone runs in normal mode without any stamina activated. (10am - 12:30am)
The Low-battery mode seems useless as it does literally nothing.
Also, as soon as the battery is 100% charged and if I use phone for even 5 mins the battery immediately drops to 99%, so is this normal??
Even if I capture 5 photos in stock auto mode the battery drops by 1% or 2.
I reboot my phone once a week or in 10 days or when need arises.
Ram utilised is always 1gb. But I dont feel any slowness for any app or my phone usage.
So inspite of all this STRICT following what I get at the end of the day is just 1.2 days battery life.
Again I dont watch any movies or play games fearing my battery will deplete in no time.
So basically I'm using my Z3 as a battery monitoring unit and is 85% on standby mode. So when shall I use my phone the way it is designed for???
I have read people using it for occasionally playing games and watching movies, light surfing, calling and camear and it still lasts a good 2 days. So where I'm going wrong here?
I use 2G/edge network as 3G isnt available for my operator in the city I reside.
Charging the phone to 100% from 14% takes 3 to 3.5 hours.
I have already repaired my phone using Sony pc companion and also did a factory reset as well but this issue has been haunting me.
Sony center says the battery doesnt need any replacement as its still healthy and so is my device.
The phones service menu also reports battery status as Good.
I dont know when is Lollipop gonna be out for Z3 but I fear updating to Lollipop as it may pose more serious issues than doing any good apart from usual GUI tweaks & updates.
But just wish that lollipop brings in more relief to Z3 batteries and operations.
-------- If my Post or Answer helped you out, Please KUDOS me

Hi all,
I dont know what topic to choose Got them all:
I was looking around and tried a lot of tips concerning the battery drainage, no luck ,
but then I noticed other issues as well
I tried to send a mail to support but, some how it is not working today: tried different browsers, even different computers.
NOT here to talk bad, complain or talk down on this product, I know the phone in working condition,
from my house mate and it is what they promise. I just dont know what to do and a bit frustrated and lauged at by my house mate.
I am posting, may be you guys have some answers, solutions or experiences.
But I think I am just unlucky to have a black sheep of the production.
My Firmware : 23.0.1.A.5.77
My issues.
- Battery Drain
- Screen isseus
- And reception issues
**Battery Drain**
I wake up 06:00 get it from the charger got to work when I come home 18:00 i got 15% left.
I actually can see the percentages going down while scrolling my emails.
ow beginning I work in support myself, I waited for an
- Waited for Updates
- Installed the update
- Un installed apps.
- Configured stamina almost so tight that most of the apps except email where online
- Did a factory reset twice
1) First time start using it as normal, with less apps, still same performance maybe
3% better, but that might be because i didn't used it so much of the less apps
2) Second time Factory reset - I got a 2, full days out of it:
- No Apps Installed
- No Wifi
- Didn't use it at al left it on my nightstand
- No data traffic
- 3/4 screenshots
- No Phone Calls
Well what is the use for a (premium) smartphone if you leave it on your nightstand?
When I start using it at the minimum installed:
- 2 email accounts (Gmail and company one)
- Facebook
- Spotify
Check it out:
!!This after the 2nd FACTORY RESET Yesterday!!!
Screenshot from this morning on my way to work
(to be fair left it with 100% unused at home and still 2 days and 3 hours)
Ok the next picture is on my way home , didnt use it since no apps installed and busy at work (this is about 12 hrs later)
Installed Spotify listened about 30minutes over 4g
18 hours left ? Quick calculation dat is 21 hours missing (33 hours in total)
Next installed facebook , some mail accounts, whatsapp, apped a couple of people that I am available again
45 Minutes later: 8 hours gone.
What do you think? Is it me? Or is there something wrong?
** SCREEN PROBLEMS **
I tought I noticed a couple of glitches with the screen, like little flashes,
but was not sure, I kind of found the use of the screen suspicious while monitoring the battery (50%)
al the time even if it was home doing nothing the whole day.
The the Bouncing touch, i experienced that also but not constant, there is another topic about that here.
Things I didnt worried about untill : I was looking around the battery menu,
and descover the usage graph screen, when I went in to it i noticed a little falsh and a lag.
and then I had a little heart attack: screen broken , dead pixels what is it.?! BUT ONLY on yhis screen,
no problem with it BEFORE the factory reset:
TAKE A LOOK, AND ALSO NOTICE THE GRAPH GOING DOWN ALMOST IN A STRAIGHT LINE,
screen shot a minute later as the 3rd screen shot of battery drain.
CHECK THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN , IT LOOKS CRACKED RIGHT? IT ISNT!!
** CONNECTION/RECEPTION PROBLEMS **
I kind of noticed , isseus , but wasnt bothered that much, only while analyzing the battery that was my main concern.
I noticed I had always less reception than others same room/place same provider (VODAFONE IRELAND),
maybe that was an factor draining the battery, but it was not like there was really low signal just one bar less then other
people an the other Z3 here in the house.
What did noticed , and I was willing to wait for an firmware update for it, It kept losing 4G connectivity;
it flipped to 3g for a bit and the stays hanging around H and Edge.
WORKAROUND restart the fone and with no problem back on 4g but after a while and not moving;
4g drops again to either H or Edge. (Mind Vodafone has the biggest and strongest 4g network at the moment here in Dublin)
So now I dont know what to do, I kinda bought the fone for my holiday (in 3 weeks).
- Is it serious enough that Sony will replace it? Since opening it up an closing it, will lose waterproofing
- What else will they expect from me to do / trouble shoot?
- How long will a solution take? Sending the fone back etc.
And finally other people reconize these isseus, and especially like me at the same time?
Thanks in advance For your Feedback (if Any).
I will try to mail support again now, and hope the website works now.
Eddy.

How to increase the battery life of your N series ...

What I am about to post here is valid for any 3G phone or device regardless of model but it is particularly focused towards the N series devices and their power hogging features.
Your battery life is dependant on many many things. How often you take calls on the device, the condition of your battery, the features you use on the device and so on and on. Therefore it is impossible to say that by following the information in this post you will get x amount of days battery life, but it will get you more time out of the battery than you otherwise would have got.
So with that out the way, if your looking to increase your battery life then follow these tips and your battery should start looking a lot healthier.
First of all lets start with THE big one. The one that is going to save you the most juice. Switching 3G off.
Yep, you heard me right. Just by switching the 3G capability of your phone off you will add hours and hours to your battery life. How is this so? Allow me to explain...
Due to the rather poor delivery of 3G in the UK by the network operators, it is rare for any 3G phone to maintain a constant 3G signal. Instead you will find that the phone constantly flips between 3G and GSM mode (Keep an eye on your signal one day). Even those of you on Vodafone who probably have the best 3G network coverage will find this is the case.
Unfortunately, this constant flipping between the two modes sucks power from the battery like a vampire as it alters its reception state for the different modes and the constant flipping is..well...causing it do this constantly! It can sometimes even make your phone unavailable for calls for very brief periods as it trips from GSM to 3G and vice versa.
If you need to use 3G for video calls or whatever then I'm afraid your just going to have to live with this but if you don't (And lets face it few of us do) then you can switch 3G off and increase your battery life considerably.
To do this, go into the "Settings" application (Found in the menu somewhere, by default Nokia normally stick it in "Tools"), and then to the "Phone" tab. In there you will see an option that says "Network mode" and you have a choice of "GSM" or "Dual Mode" (I.e. UMTS and GSM). Set it to GSM and your phone will restart. Once it restarts it will be working in GSM with GPRS speeds only but really for most purposes this is fine.
You have now just extended your battery capability considerably. You can further extend it by going to the "Connection" tab, going into "Packet data" and changing it to "When needed" so it is not constantly checking for a data connection.
The second big change you can make is to turn your phones wifi scanning capability off. The last time I looked not all Nokia's phones that have wifi capability can have their wifi cards switched off entirely but if you can, turn it off except for when you need to use it. Wifi is a power hog.
The next big change you can make is to lower the screen brightness settings on your phone. The less bright your screen is the less power is being used to light it up. Nokia by default leave the screen brightness at something like 50%. Lowering this a bit more will conserve more juice. Before you do this though please consider the fact that lowering the brightness setting will have a big impact on your ability to see the screen clearly in sunny conditions although you will be fine in the dark as you can't lower the brightness that far.
To lower the brightness, go to the settings tool in your phone and into the display option (Hidden in a subcategory called "Personalisation" on the N95). It won't hurt to set the power saving time out to 1 minute and the backlight time out to 10 seconds while your here (Although these are the Nokia default so they should already be set to this).
Finally in regards to the screen, although they may look pretty, animated screensavers use more battery power than the standard blank screen with time and date so avoid them if you can.
It also helps to keep Bluetooth switched off until you need it although the power savings are minimal in comparison to the other changes but every little milliamp counts!
Using the above methods I generally get about 3 to 4 days with about 3 hours talktime on my N95 without using Bluetooth, GPS or anything like that (I might be able to get more but so far I have not paid attention to the battery state before I put it on charge). If I am on a long train journey I can get about 4 hours worth of full screen video and about 2 hours talktime over the period of about 24 hours before it needs a recharge. As I said at the start of the post your mileage will vary greatly depending on how you use your device.
Hope this helps.
Useful links: Phone firmware update | Nokia support site

02-May-200701:14 PM
bixby wrote:
no keffa it is a cop out from nokia
its not unfai as its a premium device with a premium price
the n95 battery is atrocious
dont change the post content as the title is 'How to increase the battery life of your N series device'
your talking about nokia phones specifically
the networks are not to blame
they do not make the handsets : Nokia do !!!!!!!!!!
I'm going to choose my words carefully here...
I would never deny the battery on the N95 is not really up to the job of powering the N95 with its power hungry features. To put the same battery into a phone that has WiFi, GPS and a large 320x240 screen, the same one that goes into the E65 which has comparatively nothing compared to it is a bit pants.
However at no point was I criticising them for the band hopping problem. I labelled the post as how to increase the battery life of your N series device because this is a board for the N series devices. It was a simple choice of wording and not intended to be cutting in any way and I did make a remark that the details would be true of any 3G device at the top of the post.
What I was trying to point out in my second post is that the constant band hopping the phone is being forced to do that is draining its battery so much more quicker than it would if it had a constant signal of one kind or another isn't quite Nokia's fault.
They build it to conform to a laid out specification for 3G. However if the network operators cannot be bothered to roll out their 3G infrastructure adequately enough that the phone can find and remain locked onto a 3G signal that is usable then what are Nokia to do other than offer you the capability to turn 3G off until you need it (Although note to Nokia: That **bleep** reboot the phone does when you do this is entirely unneeded and you know it).
Blaming Nokia for this would be like blaming the manufacturer of your radio for failing to pick up radio because the radio station does not have any transmitters within range of your radio's receiver.
Finally...this band hopping is exhibited by all 3G phones built by Samsung, Nokia, Sony Ericsson, etc, from their most budget 3G model to their priciest piece and is the reason that all phones with 3G capabilities have batteries that do not last for any respectable length of time because these phones are also having to band hop between 3G and GSM.
Finally the proof is in the pudding. Turn 3G off for a few days. See your battery improve. Then (Although admittedly this will be harder to do...mcuh harder) find an area where you get a fairly decent 3G signal constantly. Again, see your battery improve. Try it with a different 3G phone...different manufacturer even. The same will be true.
So I stand by my comment, the network operators and their woeful 3G rollout are the villains costing you a fair chunk of your battery and Nokia cannot be expected to mitigate this....but a better battery would be nice all the same...
Useful links: Phone firmware update | Nokia support site

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