Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

Dave N · Apr 20, 2005, 12:15 AM

Tonight I noticed that there was an "X" in my battery icon, meaning that my battery was dead or not installed. The power cord light was green, and I unplugged it just to test and see if the battery would run the computer -- it did, even though the "X" icon was still there.

After plugging to power cord back in, I removed the battery and put it back in. The battery icon reset itself to "0%" and the power cord light turned orange, but after about 30 minutes, it is still at 0%. Also, there is only one light lit up on the battery itself. I tried resetting the pram, but that made no difference.

I almost never use the battery, and I've had this iBook for about 2 years. I can't imagine that it would just crap out all at once. I updated to 10.3.9 the other day, so I'm wondering if that could be it. Does anyone have any ideas/suggestions?

ntt · Apr 20, 2005, 12:40 AM

The same thing happened to me about 2 months ago.
Sadly, the battery was dead... if you google around there are references to a battery power manager crash/corruption that can make the battery unusable. I believe that's what happened to mine. I was getting 4 hours out of it... then dead.
The local applestore just confirmed that the battery wouldn't charge when attached to a different iBook, and then sold me a new one.

Oh, and the wisdom about this problem that I found on google included short-circuiting the battery. While this made some pretty little sparks, it was unsuccessful. (note: i didn't try this until after I had the new battery)

I hope you find a different/cheaper solution to your problem.

Dave N · Apr 20, 2005, 08:11 AM

Thanks for the information, ntt. Sounds like I may need a new battery...

Dave N · Apr 20, 2005, 09:24 PM

It seems like I've (hopefully) fixed my battery problem. By googling "ibook power manager" I found some of the fixes previously mentioned. I did the PMU reset, and that got my battery back to 100% charge (which it actually had all the time, but just wasn't registering). I ran it off the battery for a while, but then when I plugged the power cord back in it wouldn't charge the battery for some reason. I messed around trying a few other things (including reinstalling the 10.3.9 combo update), but it still would not charge. Then I ran it off the battery for a little while longer, plugged it back in, and now it is charging normally.

Hopefully it is fixed, but I've read (from googling above) that this type of behavior can be a symptom of a hardware problem. Hopefully that's not the case. Just thought I'd post this in case anyone else ran across the same problem.

StonedRose · Apr 22, 2005, 02:48 PM

Originally Posted by Dave N

It seems like I've (hopefully) fixed my battery problem. By googling "ibook power manager" I found some of the fixes previously mentioned. I did the PMU reset, and that got my battery back to 100% charge (which it actually had all the time, but just wasn't registering). I ran it off the battery for a while, but then when I plugged the power cord back in it wouldn't charge the battery for some reason. I messed around trying a few other things (including reinstalling the 10.3.9 combo update), but it still would not charge. Then I ran it off the battery for a little while longer, plugged it back in, and now it is charging normally.

Hopefully it is fixed, but I've read (from googling above) that this type of behavior can be a symptom of a hardware problem. Hopefully that's not the case. Just thought I'd post this in case anyone else ran across the same problem.

Wow thanks for the update on that. I also heard that the batteries only go for about 200 cycles before they go out on ya. Was your battery recharged about that many times prior to this isse? Also, I heard that if you leave the iBook A/c plugged in all the time that this degrades the ions and your time will be shorter? Thanks.
Aloha.

Dave N · Apr 22, 2005, 03:24 PM

Check these links out -- lots of good information:

http://www.apple.com/batteries/
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

iREZ · Apr 22, 2005, 04:24 PM

this happened to my cousins 17" pb, after a few pmu resets and quirky behavior (working then not working) turned out he needed a new battery

.

Dave N · Apr 22, 2005, 06:09 PM

Originally Posted by iREZ

this happened to my cousins 17" pb, after a few pmu resets and quirky behavior (working then not working) turned out he needed a new battery

.

Yeah, I'm kind of thinking that's the way mine may end up. Yesterday my battery showed 96% but wouldn't charge -- I put it in a coworker's iBook and got the same result (showed 96% but wouldn't charge). I ran the battery all the way down and then it took a charge up to 100%.

I've had this iBook nearly 2 years and hardly ever used the battery. According to Apple's recommendations (above), the battery should be cycled at least once a month.