I have this nice MacBook Pro (3,1) from 2007. It has Intel’s Core 2 Duo running 2.2 GHz. Unfortunately the battery is dead or electronics reponsible for charging it. It arrived fully charged and was working for like 2 hours or so. In case the battery runs our of any kind of charge and it is not recognized by the system, then the computer will not start at all. This was like a shock to me, but it’s the Apple hardware.

To start MacBook without the battery you need to:

• press and hold power button for 10 seconds with power cord unplugged
• without releasing power button, but with power cord plugged in, keep power button for another 10 seconds
• release power button for a second
• press power button one more time
• computer should start

Then buy new battery or replace charging electronics.