Powering MacBook Pro with Dell USB-C charger

[Techo238]

Has anyone tried to power a MacBook Pro with a dell 130W USB C charger that comes with an XPS 15? I have a 2017 MacBook Pro without a battery but supposedly works while plugged in but I don’t have an apple USB C charger, only my dell XPS one, and the machine does not power up with that connected.

I kinda suspect this is intentional behaviour since the dell charger supports both 20 volt charging and regular 5v 1A charging for use with phones or whatever and I imagine there is some handshake between my XPS laptop and the charger so it initiates 20v charging which I’m assuming isn’t working for the MacBook and therefore isn’t powering it. I’m not certain though.

[BondiBlue]

I don't know for certain how the 2017 MBP should behave, but some MacBooks don't like to power on without a battery installed. In theory they're supposed to be able to power on just fine and run at a lower clock speed, but I've dealt with plenty of MacBooks that simply won't turn on without a battery connected. 

 

Does the trackpad on the MBP click when you plug the Dell charger in? It only clicks when the machine is powered on, so it's a good way to tell if it is on or not. 

[Roswell]

Modern MacBooks won't run without a functional battery.

[Techo238]

11 hours ago, BondiBlue said:

I don't know for certain how the 2017 MBP should behave, but some MacBooks don't like to power on without a battery installed. In theory they're supposed to be able to power on just fine and run at a lower clock speed, but I've dealt with plenty of MacBooks that simply won't turn on without a battery connected. 

 

Does the trackpad on the MBP click when you plug the Dell charger in? It only clicks when the machine is powered on, so it's a good way to tell if it is on or not. 

nah, its absolutely dead to the world, no signs of life at all. I also read the same thing about it booting but just throttling back to "protect" itself on an ifixit thread for the exact machine I have (A1708):  https://www.ifixit.com/Answers/View/550979/Will+this+MacBook+Pro+boot+without+a+battery so apparently it should work. And according to the person i bought it from it booted fine enough for them to tell me the spec of the machine and it said that it had a "battery not detected" fault. I really only needed this machine to run Apple configurator 2 so i can recover another MBP i have that had a failed macOS/BridgeOS update and has itself stuck in DFU mode  (this laptop also doesn't react to the dell charger and it has its battery, FYI). I was just assuming the dell charger wasnt working as i thought it would have some form of communication with the device it is connected to so that it doesnt accidentally supply 20v to a device that is only designed for 5v. I'm gonna try it with an official macbook charger on monday so we'll see how that goes.

[Techo238]

well, put a battery in the machine and it now works as expected.