Battery not detected - cable snapped in half

Question

MacBook Pro 13" Two Thunderbolt Ports Late 2020

Released in November 2020, the 13" MacBook Pro features Apple's Arm-based M1 SoC with both an 8-core CPU and 8-core GPU. (Model A2338 / EMC 3578 with two Thunderbolt 3 ports)

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in_sympathy @insympathy

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: Sun 10, 2025

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Battery not detected - cable snapped in half

Hi all. Bought a new battery for a MacBook Pro that I got as faulty - it works great without the battery. Thought a new battery will get it back to normal, but seems like I found why it is not detected - this cable is seemingly snapped.

There is no continuity between plus pin and any other parts on the motherboard. And it feels really loose - absolutely not the way it should be.

Also there is no 12V on the pins when laptop is on but there used to be.

Seems like it is possible to replace it with hot air - is that so?

What is the name of that part? Can it be purchased?

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UPDATE:

So of course I soldered a replacement nicely and it works, but MacBook still won’t detect battery data. It won’t start on the battery, but if I start it with power plugged in and then remove it - it keeps on working from the battery.

However it won’t show any battery data or charge level.

Also I noticed that this chip on the flex cable is getting hot to around 50º C when Mac works. Checked nearby caps - no short. Maybe normal, but who knows.

Any idea what it does?

One more thing: trackpad is disconnected can this fact somehow influence battery operation?

And in general any good ideas are greatly appreciated 🙌🏻.

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There shouldn’t be any heat that implies there is a short some where.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 14, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

I checked on those caps - 5V and no short

crwdns2934271:0Sun 14, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 in_sympathy crwdne2934271:0

And as for Coconut Battery - it also doesn’t detect any battery at all

crwdns2934271:0Sun 14, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 in_sympathy crwdne2934271:0

@insympathy - Then I suspect the MacBook Pro 13" Retina (A1708, A2159, A2338) Battery Daughter Board Cable is either not matting fully or is bad.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 14, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

@danj yeah, thanks, gonna buy a new one and see. Seems like either it’s the cable or some mysterious relation to trackpad not being plugged in. We'll see.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 14, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 in_sympathy crwdne2934271:0

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There shouldn’t be any heat that implies there is a short some where. — Dan
And as for Coconut Battery - it also doesn’t detect any battery at all — in_sympathy
@insympathy - Then I suspect the MacBook Pro 13" Retina (A1708, A2159, A2338) Battery Daughter Board Cable is either not matting fully or is bad. — Dan
@danj yeah, thanks, gonna buy a new one and see. Seems like either it’s the cable or some mysterious relation to trackpad not being plugged in. We'll see. — in_sympathy

score 0 · Answer 1 · 2025-01-10T15:53:24-07:00

Dan @danj

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Self employed contract worker

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crwdns2931729:0crwdne2931729:0: Sun 10, 2025

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Ouch! Not good 😡

Sadly this is not offered as a spare part. The only solution which I had to do is salvage the part from a junker board. Over bending the clip is the issue, Apple did a terrible design here.

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True, because surely no one has been fooling around with it for any significant amount of time. It was only disconnected a couple of times reeeeeally gently. By me. It was also at some local repair shop - maybe that’s a whole different story, but anyways I’ll have to try to salvage it somewhere. Maybe I’ll try to solder a wire from a connector to the nearby pin where we have 12V with a plugged in power and see if that will work. Then it’ll make sense to replace this connector. If not - maybe I’ll just sell it for parts.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 10, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 in_sympathy crwdne2934271:0

@insympathy - These are main power lines which is high current, the gage of the wire needed is quite large.

Just be careful as a short can both create sparks as well as cause the battery to run wild overheating quite quickly if it’s a full short or not.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 10, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

I found this part for purchase, so I'll just replace it

crwdns2934271:0Sun 11, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 in_sympathy crwdne2934271:0

@insympathy - Where did you find it I could use a few to fix a few systems.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 11, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 Dan crwdne2934271:0

@danj found it here in Kyiv, but try eBay - found it in the US there as well for like 13$ each.

crwdns2934271:0Sun 11, 2025crwdnd2934271:0 in_sympathy crwdne2934271:0

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