Newer 00165's need battery to turn on?

JohnB8812

New member
I don't know if anyone else has noticed this, but at least from my experience with several newer 00165's, the board will not get to an S4 state with no battery plugged in. Once you plug in the battery, the board turns on and functions properly (charges, sees, runs off battery) and passes internal diagnostics given that the board doesn't have other issues. I know on the 2015 15" Retinas you have to have a battery plugged in for it to fully boot, so I was curious if this seems like a common thing on the newer Airs as well?
 

JohnB8812

New member
I'm really starting to think this is a thing I just had two come in for blown caps on PPBUS and they would not start without the battery plugged in. The charger is recognized in OSX as 85 Watt and it charges and recognizes the battery! Weird af
 

JohnB8812

New member
I had 4 820-00165's today all for different issues and none of them worked without battery plugged in. It could be my charger, but it turns on all other model Airs and Retinas no problem. I think maybe it is a new design thing or something.
 

Paul Daniels

Super Moderator
I just spent too long fixing the same sort of issue (there were other issues, but that one stumped me). I was using an original Magsafe-1 85W + Magsafe-2 adaptor, and it would not work. PP5V_S4RS3 isn't present and on the daughter board itself it's not present either. If the flat flex between the MB and the DB is disconnected you'll get a fan spin and PP5V_S4RS3 will be present, but no green light (obviously, since the 1-wire is over the flat flex).

Anyhow, fortunately I had a 60W original Magsafe 2 brick around and as soon as I plugged it in, it worked fine.

I've used the 85W MS1 + MS2 adaptor combo without trouble previously, but definitely it wasn't agreeable to the 00165.

Might be coincidence, might be a correlation, I don't know.
 

JohnB8812

New member
I have had the same issues presented. With my known good Apple OEM 85 mag 2, it won't get PP5V_S4RS3 without the battery plugged in which is so weird. Without the flat flex I've seen that where it does turn on off just the charger with no light obvi because flex. It's a weird board I may even do what you did and get a different charger I do wonder if maybe my 85 watt is having issues, but it does identify in system profiler as an 85 watt and it's from the Apple Store, so I'm not sure. 00164/5's are weird :p
 

Inwerp

New member
I just spent too long fixing the same sort of issue (there were other issues, but that one stumped me). I was using an original Magsafe-1 85W + Magsafe-2 adaptor, and it would not work. PP5V_S4RS3 isn't present and on the daughter board itself it's not present either. If the flat flex between the MB and the DB is disconnected you'll get a fan spin and PP5V_S4RS3 will be present, but no green light (obviously, since the 1-wire is over the flat flex).

Anyhow, fortunately I had a 60W original Magsafe 2 brick around and as soon as I plugged it in, it worked fine.

I've used the 85W MS1 + MS2 adaptor combo without trouble previously, but definitely it wasn't agreeable to the 00165.

Might be coincidence, might be a correlation, I don't know.

have you tried with other IO board? i had similar problem with older 2011 model.
 

JohnB8812

New member
The only thing I have not tried yet is another 85 watt Mag 2 but mine is from the Apple store and doesn’t work, so maybe bad luck? But it’s happeneed on every 00164/5 I’ve had it starts any 15” Retina or any other MacBook Air I have. It’s the weirdest thing
 

SMMRepair

Member
We have repaired probably ~150 00165 boards the past ~3 years or so. I have not had a single case of one not powering on with just the AC adapter. Not one. Granted, we've only seen 10 or so of the 2016/2017 versions, but even those had no issue powering with just adapter. We use only 85w magsafe 2 chargers for testing...no converters or anything.
 

JohnB8812

New member
That’s really weird I never had the problem until this year around February with that board. I think it has to be something firmware related or something. That or maybe there are different adaptations of the OEM Mag 2’s?
 

JohnB8812

New member
I have a new charger on the way. I used a fake Chinese charger 85 watt and it works. I'm thinking there has to be SOME kind of nuance in the adapters causing this because the 85 watt I use works fine for everything BUT starting these 2015/17 Macs. I'm guessing has to be something with the chargers like a Rev 1 or 2 thing because I'm baffled.
 

JohnB8812

New member
New BRAND NEW OEM charger from the Apple Store working with 00165's and 00164's. I think there has to be some kind of nuance where some chargers work and others don't.
 
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