[joemit]

I hope someone can help as I'm really stuck. I need to know how to replace the battery latch spring on my PowerBook G4 12-inch.

My superdrive failed in my PowerBook G4 12-inch 800 and I decided to replace it myself as I had previously upgraded the hard drive. In the process of changing the drive the spring, which controls the battery latch, became detached. I put it back where it seemed as if it should go but when I reassembled the laptop the spring popped out when I twisted the latch to insert the battery. I stripped the laptop, tried a different position for the spring, reassembled, and it popped out again!

Anyone who has tried stripping one of these PowerBooks will know how time consuming it is so I don't want to try again without knowing exactly how it should go. I have searched every forum I can think of and Googled but I cannot find any instructions or diagram of how this simple mechanism is assembled.

If anyone can help to point me in the right direction I would be very grateful.

Thanks, Joe

[ibook_steve]

Nice. Well, I don't have a good picture of it and the best I could find were the ones at pbfixit.com:

http://www.pbfixit.com/Guide/53.21.23.html

Check page 24 of that guide as well. There's only one spring, IIRC, that stretches horizontally, and you can sort of see it in those pictures.

Steve

P.S. You don't have to completely reassemble the machine to test the battery latch. You could test it without any boards in, but it's more accurate if you drop in the main logic board (don't worry about cables, heat sink, or internal framework), plug in the DCDC board, and push down on the battery connector on the DCDC board as you push the battery up from underneath. If the spring is working, the battery will pop in and you can remove it again as you would normally using a coin.

[joemit]

Hi Steve,

Thank you for replying to my post so quickly. The pictures sort of look like how I tried to replace the spring. The end which attaches to the chassis is fairly straightforward; there is a small extension with a hole for the spring to be threaded through. The problem seems to be where the U shaped hook at the other end of the spring attaches to the lever. It looks as if it's obvious but having tried it several ways it still pops off under tension.

Your tip about trying the mechanism without reassembling the laptop is a good one, at least I can try as many permutations as I can think of until, hopefully, one of them works.

I can't believe that such an apparently simple device has caused me so much hassle!

Oh well, back to the drawing board.

Thanks again.

Joe