[flame12]

I'm hoping some people might have some insight towards this problem.

My sister has an iBook 700Mhz. I was running some udpates on the computer without the AC adapter plugged in, and the battery had gone down to 74% charged. All of the a sudden the comptuer went to sleep, however it could not be woken up. A few minutes later the computer had turned completely off. I plugged it into power and booted up and it read 1% battery full.... Since then I have zapped the PRAM. However, I have not tested it again yet.

My sister said that this type of power failure has happened on multiple occassions. What does everyone think it could be?

[milhouse]

Try resetting the NVRAM.

Boot into open firmware by holding down the command + option +O+F keys at boot.

When you get to the command line type the following:

reset-nvram (hit enter)
reset-all (hit enter)

the computer should reboot.

Sometimes the power manager gets corrupted and that effects the battery.

YMMV

[chabig]

Yes. You probably need to reset the power manager. Resetting the NVRAM as milhouse described is not a bad idea, but it is not the same thing as resetting the power manager.

To reset the power manager, follow the instructions specific to your iBook in this Apple article.

Chris

[milhouse]

chabig is correct.

I meant the settings that "manage" the battery charge levels.

If you reset the PMU, follow the instructions for your iBook specifically.

good luck