MacBook Pro Will Not Turn On. Charger light flashing

Question

Hi there all. I am having a problem with my late 2011 MacBook Pro, and I have tried everything. I was wondering if you might be able to help. I will describe the problem in detail:
This morning when I woke up and went to use my macbook, it said the battery was 50%, even though it was plugged in. I use it like a desktop, plugged in to a monitor and plugged in to power most of the time. I usually allow it to drain the battery every few days. Anyway, I rebooted it, and the battery was still going down. I tried various things, like unplugging it completely etc. I remembered that my friend had this problem last year, with her exact same model macbook, and she came to me, and I was able to fix it. So, I thought if I followed all those steps I would be fine. I reset the SMC and PRAM. At this point the battery was showing at 0% when the OS (mavericks) loaded, and then after a few minutes the computer switched itself off completely and with no warning.  The light on the charger was sometimes showing orange but didn't appear to be charging after several hours. The battery indicator was flashing 3 times on the first light then fading. It was not turning on at all now.
So, I decided to do what I did to my friend's macbook to fix it.  I unscrewed and removed the back cover, then i carefully unplugged to battery from the motherboard, and left it unplugged for about 20 mins.  I also pressed the power button for 5 seconds while it was unplugged. I then plugged it back in, and made sure the plug was correctly seated, put the cover back on, and plugged in the adaptor. to my horror, this did not fix the problem, as it did with friend's MB. Now the light on the charger was flashing from green to orange, and there was a sound like a hard drive spinning, also the status light on the front of the computer was flashing white. So, I opened it up again and plugged in the power adapter to see what it was. Actually, it is the fan. Whenever the light in charger is orange, the fan spins, then when it turns green, the fan stops! This is with the computer completely powered off. I tried removing the RAM and reseating it. I have tried unplugging the battery, and plugging the power adaptor in. It still does the same thing. There no response to the power button at all. I tried a number of different key combinations that I found on various web sites, it will not respond to and key combos with the power button. It seems to just be stuck turning the fan on and off for over an hour now. I will unplug it, so it doesn't cause any further damage.
does anyone know of anything else I can do? I cannot afford to call Apple or have it fixed. Usually, I am able to fix these problems in my own.. But I'm not sure what to do now.
Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Can you borrow a power adapter from someone and try that adapter with your machine? That would, at least, solve the problem or eliminate the power adapter as the problem.
If you have an Apple Store nearby, you should be able to get a free test and estimate for repair. It may be something simple, it may be something more complex. But if changing the adapter doesn't work, that's what I would recommend. If it is the adapter you're just going to need to buy a new one - and if you must do that make certain that you order a GENUINE Apple adapter.
Good luck,
Clinton
MacBook Pro (15-inch Late 2011), OS X 10.??, 16GB Crucial RAM, Crucial M500 960GB SSD, 27” Apple Thunderbolt Display