MacBook Pro 15" (Early 2011) charging slowly

[VeniVidiReliqui]

New Mac owner here:

I recently purchased a 15-inch MacBook Pro (early 2011) from a friend and have been trying to update everything on it so I can get a few more years of life out of it. It was in great condition and I swapped the HDD for a SSD but as with all old laptops, the battery was wearing out.

I have been to the apple store and they installed a new battery, reset the SMC, and also got me an 85W MagSafe charger to replace the original. The battery life is now what I expect it to be (~4-5 hours). I've been using the new battery for around 2 months without resetting the SMC, hoping it will be able to estimate battery life/charging better because originally it was estimating 20+ hours to charge from 1%.

But even with these new components, the battery seems to take an absurdly long time to charge. It's currently plugged in at 45% with only a few chrome tabs open, estimating 8+ hours to charge... I have also had it asleep and plugged in around 20%, and it takes 7+ hours for the charger LED to turn green.

--> Is this normal for these older laptops? Should I look into replacing the MagSafe power board inside the laptop too? (something I'll probably do myself with parts from amazon, because Apple is asking 5x the price for parts and labor)

Any help into clarifying this would be awesome.


Specs:

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Early 2011) - A1286

macOS Sierra 10.12.1

2.3 GHz Intel Core i7

16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3

AMD Radeon HD 6750M (1GB)

500GB Samsung 850 Evo SSD

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

It's currently plugged in at 45% with only a few chrome tabs open, estimating 8+ hours to charge

Is this normal for these older laptops?

No one of my Macbooks is a white late 2010 model with original battery and runs fine give about 6/7 hr constant use.Think mine takes about 2/3 hr to fully charge from 10%.

I would try the following.

1) Unplug from mains and let the battery drain down to 10% no lower.
2) Re plug the Mac and fully power down via the Apple menu.
3) Leave for I hr then reboot and post back the battery charge %

We can go from there.

I take it that the green and amber charge lights work?

 

[VeniVidiReliqui]

Yeah, the charge light on the charger works as it should. I followed your instructions and the battery is only at 17% after an hour of charging while shut off.

This doesn't seem like expected behavior.

 

[oldscribe]

So it would take 5hr to fully charge, yep seems a tad long.
Check your power in system preferences as my screen shot, this could well be a logic board issue.

 

[Cory Cooper]

Hello and welcome.

You stated you had a new battery installed and received a replacement 85W AC adapter from an actual Apple Store, correct? If so, have you taken it back to them to have them run full hardware diagnostics?

I would suggest performing an SMC reset and complete battery calibration to see if that corrects the problem.

C

 

[VeniVidiReliqui]

Here's the battery info at full, disconnected from power. I'm probably going to order the part today anyway, in the hopes it fixes this.

 

[VeniVidiReliqui]

Hello and welcome.

You stated you had a new battery installed and received a replacement 85W AC adapter from an actual Apple Store, correct? If so, have you taken it back to them to have them run full hardware diagnostics?

I would suggest performing an SMC reset and complete battery calibration to see if that corrects the problem.

C

This is actually the second battery they installed in my system, both times involved diagnostic checks and SMC resets with nothing abnormal showing up. The charger was purchased brand new from another retailer.

 

[Cory Cooper]

OK, thanks. Is the AC adapter a genuine Apple unit, or a third-party replacement model? If the latter, that is probably the issue, as almost all of the third-party units are not up to Apple spec and do not work properly.

C

 

[VeniVidiReliqui]

It's a genuine Apple charger. I took one look at those third party chargers and knew they would be a bad idea.

It seems all I can replace now is the MagSafe logic board, or I need to accept it's as a quirk of this machine since everything else works perfectly fine. Is the MagSafe board something you recommend Apple replace, or is something like this a viable DIY fix? Apple quoted me $50 USD to replace it and this is the part I've been looking at online:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B..._title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=AGMYHNNY0WM3B#Ask

 

[Cory Cooper]

It may/may not be the MagSafe board. I wouldn't replace it yourself, since it requires removing the entire logic board. In fact, I never recommend that folks do any internal hardware repairs on their Macs themselves, unless the have the proper training...it is VERY easy to damage internal components.

if Apple will do it for $50, that's definitely the way to go.

C