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Repair guides for the MacBook Air, Apple's current line of consumer laptops.

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NEW Battery with 1 cycle isn't taking any charge

Is there any way to 'revive' this 'brand new' battery? I have had it on charge for 4-5 hours straight, it was at 0% but now at 1%.. It is not accepting any charge at all and of course the units will shut down immediately when unplugged. It gives the same results on 3 separate units that are 100% without any faults with charging or function. My guess it's either a case of dead cells from prolonged storage drain or just a bad apple out of the bunch.

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I think we can pay no attention to the manufacture date as this can be unreliable especially if the 'data chip' has been 'recycled'. The supplier has already sent me a replacement for it which is charging normally in the unit. Please leave a comment if there are any tips if it can be revived, or the expected answer of 'no' if it is dead.

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I have tried with the 45w & 85w Chargers.... no different.

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@livfe "Cannot be as other batteries charged fine" you have tried to charge other batteries and it charges until you use this particular battery? ;-) In that case you want to check your battery control board. It is entirely possible that either a fuse on the board or the control board IC locked the battery. what voltage do you have just on the battery? these batteries are a PITa to teardown but if you have enough time, you can always give it a try. See what you come across once you have it disassembled.

Update (02/25/25)

@livfe looks like I am looking at the underside of the connector. Here is the connector pinout

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and here are the corresponding pins on the battery cable.

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1,2,3 will be positive and 7,8,9, will be ground. 5V maybe 1A and just a short duration. See what it gives you. Always check for excessive heat when trying this. I have never blown up a battery or set the shop on fire, just use common sense :-)

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It is only this one battery that I have had a problem with. The 3 test units involved are all functioning correctly with no issues anywhere with charging or other functions. The battery has no charge in it so no voltage readings can be provided.... I don't know how to check that anyway....

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@livfe if the battery has been discharged below it's charging threshold, it will not take a charge. That is where the controller IC will lock the battery down. You adventurous? You can try and bring up the charge on the battery by attaching something like a bench top power supply (positive to positive and negative to negative) and apply a trickle charge of a few volts and low amps to the battery directly. Sometimes this will "kickstart" the battery.

What MBA model is this?

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@oldturkey03 This is the kind of answer I was looking for :) MB Air A1466 (2017) Picture of battery connector added.

I do have some old batteries that I could steal any part from if that is an option..... I don't have any bench charger or other available.

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@oldturkey03 Am I testing them with a Multi Meter or by wiring them to some other type of charger? Is there anything in the battery that can be transplanted from say an old battery that would change things?

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@livfe connect your Benchtop power supply (or whatever you use to supply power to devices) to the battery with a pair of clips or wires. You did say the voltage was zero, so I took that as in you already checked the voltage. :-) I like the option of a power supply since I can regulate the voltage slowly vs. blasting the battery :-)

The only other way that I know off is to use a laptop battery analyzer which allow you to analyze the batteries EEPROM i.e unlock the battery etc. Now, here is the thing, I have only come across one that is pretty decent but cost a bit more (around $500 and it's from Europe) Check for NIP Embedded. Going to be my retirement project :-))

Just thought of something. I wonder if the EEPRom from the old battery could be transplanted to the new one. Could be a PITA but your fixer might be able to solder it under the microscope :-)

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Hello @livfe

I would say that the connector for the battery to the motherboard may be loose or damaged. Try disconnecting them and then assuring they are fully connected before recharging the MacBook.

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Cannot be as other batteries charged fine. No issues with the board at all. Battery connector looks fine, no visible damage.

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Maybe your cable is damaged?

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@connorfar7 Appears to be OK, no broken or exposed wires.....

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Before deleting things…

You are ignoring the obvious! As I stated the issue is not the Battery! You need to check the charging logic.

So instead of jumping to the obvious comment I put down at the end focus on checking the MOSFETs which control the charging.

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The board has no charging issues as it charges just fine with other batteries as stated, the same with 2 other units, all clear with boards. The issue lays with the battery itself. Please read the question a couple of times, everything is stated.

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Where did you state other batteries work in this system in your question?

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@danj It gives the same results on 3 separate units that are 100% without any faults with charging or function. The issue is solely with this battery on any unit.

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That’s fine, just don’t tear my head off as you knew, I clearly didn’t!

So that focuses the issue to the Battery microcontroller. Using a desk power supply carefully connect it to the battery you might get the voltage up a bit so the microcontroller breaks the lock. You do need a PS which you can set the current limit and voltage as you want to charge the battery slowly.

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