Running OS 10.7.5, about five days ago I noticed that my magsafe charger was blinking green and orange constantly (it has done this every second of the day since I noticed) and didn't think much of it. But then three days ago I noticed the status bar said the battery wasn't charging; I unplugged the charger and let it run to 12%, let it sit for a day then unplugged it and drained it to 9% where it's sat for the past two days.

Yesterday I received a replacement battery in the mail (the status says Condition: Replace Soon, so I did) and plugged it in only to find that while it had a 62% charge, it wasn't taking a charge either. Both batteries can be held at their respective percentages but neither can be charged.

I tried resetting the SMC using the hold power button for five seconds method but it didn't change anything. Has anyone else experienced this problem and has any tips? I tried several different forms of this issue/question and all of them led to flashing the SMC.

edit: I'd check to see if it says Replace Soon for the new battery as well but I'm currently using my laptop and about to go to sleep. If there's no concrete answer by the time I wake up I'll come back with info on that.

I've got an appointment for the Genius Bar tomorrow but figured I'd bump this in case anyone came along with some advice to try and avoid the half hour drive.

(I've forgotten to check if the new battery says it needs to be replaced too, but the charger's slipped out for a half-second a couple times and I've noticed the battery has fallen from 9% to 4% over the past two weeks while staying on the MagSafe.

Moved to the Mac platform board - have you tried a different charger?

@mb: yep, actually just before we were headed out to the store I tried my sister's charger and it worked, so then I was panicking over the fact I was going to have to spend $80 on a new charger unless I lucked into one on Craigslist or ebay until I noticed after popping my magsafe off the extension cord it had stopped blinking, and just now when I plugged it in it miraculously started charging as well.

Now I just have to hope I can flip this replacement battery on Craigslist for the $20 I bought it for otherwise it'll be a bummer to eat the $8.50 return shipping.

In my experience, MagSafe chargers are pretty frail overall. I've gone through two in the last year just from the cord getting crimped enough to cause a short. Another time the cord got caught in my recliner while closing it and sure enough, killed it and it had to be replaced.

Yet another MagSafe became so frayed just before the connector that it had bare wires showing through...replaced. Those things look cool and are soft but they sure aren't very durable.

Yours could have just been a bad connection or there could be a short in it somewhere. I'm sort of surprised you didn't check the charger before opting for a new battery, though.

Like I said, the computer said to replace the battery soon (to be fair, it still says that...) so I figured that was all I needed to do since the MagSafe had been flashing but charging for a week or so prior to the switch to not charging.

I used the same MagSafe for four years and only just recently had to swap to the one that came with my current laptop due to the fraying you talked about; one day about three months ago I noticed sparks constantly popping off the exposed wire and thought, nope! Time to retire! Still, this battery's less than a year old so I can't imagine it'd be wrecked already...