Need help in making old MBPs usable for indigent kids for online classes

[MacDadad07]

A pleasant good morning (or evening wherever you guys are). I hope you're all in the best of health during this time.
A little backgrounder: I had 3 13" MBPs unibodies which I thought had bitten the dust: a 2012, a 2011, a 2010. B/c of the virus and forced WFH, and online schools, I thought of the possibility of reviving them and repurposing them to lend them to some of the indigent kids in our place that need a working machine.

Please note that I am not in anyway a tech or computer geek. Most of what I learned I learned in youtube or in online forums (plus a little daring-do) to get these Macs working oh and this is my first time to formally register and join a Mac-specific forum.

• I was able to revive the 2012 (this one had the least problems). I changed the drive cable, replaced the HDD w/ an SSD, replaced the battery and it's now working fine (except for a few minor issues w/c I can overlook for now)
• For the 2011, I tested the internal HDD, reformatted it installed High Sierra, changed the battery and I was able to get it working again (albeit a little slow but I had planned to replace the HDD w/ an SDD if all went well. I then I noticed that when I plugged in the adapter, I noticed that the light was green, the upper bar showed it charging (w/ the lightning symbol) but the charge percentage was going down and the light never changed to amber. It was always green. I checked online and saw that it might be the DC-In Board. So I replaced that (scariest time of my life as I had to move the logic board and they said that the trackpad cable was dicey to work with) but I was able to change it and it booted up ok...but the light still stayed green and the battery percentage still kept going down in spite of the lightning symbol). I changed adapters, even swapped batteries, but it stayed green w/ diminishing percentages on the 2011. I've tried resetting PRAM and SMC. No luck.

I was kinda hoping someone can show me another alternative (other than changing the whole logic board). Me and the kids will be immensely grateful.

A million thanks in advance.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

You may have tried this already,

1) Unplug the charger for a few minutes and let the battery run down maybe 20%.
2) Now re plug, does light finally turned orange and began charging.

Also under system report > power is the battery stat normal? I would also try booting without the battery if you have never done this have a look at the link below, then if all goes well shut down, replace battery and connect MagSafe to see if you now have a orange charging light.

Link:
https://osxdaily.com/2019/06/14/how-boot-macbook-pro-without-battery-older-models/

 

[MacDadad07]

Dear oldscribe,

My apologies for the late reply. It's exam week over here so I was kinda tied-up a bit to check out my emails.

Thanks for the tips, yes I was able to do #1) and #2 previously. What I haven't done yet was was to boot it w/o the battery. I might be able to try it out this coming week. Thanks for the heads up. I'll update you the results as soon as I'm able to do the procedure. Again, thank you.

 

[oldscribe]

Hi,

Hope it works, keep us informed on how things go

 

[MacDadad07]

Hi oldscribe apologies for the late reply. Yes I've done those that you suggested and even running it w/o the battery. Unfortunately nothing worked. W/o the battery it was dead as a doornail
I think I'll have to bite the bullet and admit it must have something to do w/ the logic board already. Funny thing is, almost everything essential seems to be working EXCEPT charging the battery. The only workarounds/solutions I can think of right now are to change the whole logic board OR, wait until the battery goes down 15%, take the battery out and charge it on the other MBP. It's the 2010 one I mentioned that still need a lot of work but it's charging function still works. Hehe very tedious I know but at least it gives that MacBook
some functionality.
Thank you for your trouble oldscribe.