I have a Powerbook I picked up (if you can believe it) at a yard sale. The seller knew it had a checkered past and made no guarantees of its functionality, and it had no power adapter, hard drive, or Airport card. But I bought it for $50, and it had a 1Ghz G4, 1GB ram, Superdrive, and 64MB VRAM, so -- worth the gamble, right?
I installed a new 80gb hard drive and installed 10.4.7, got a Motorola 802.11g PC card that the OS thinks is Airport Extreme, and got a used 50W AC adapter.
It boots and runs beautifully -- when plugged in. When I press power while unplugged, I get -- at best -- a momentary whirr of the fans, and nothing. System Profiler/the menubar tells me that the battery is A) installed, B) charging or charged, C) capable of 3600 mAh, and D) fairly new at 25 charge cycles. I've had it charging via the used adapter, the 65W adapter from another (aluminum) PB, and a 45W MacAlly adapter -- all with the same results (or lack thereof). I've also tried it with another (used, but apparently good) battery.
I followed the instructions on Apple.com to reset the PMU (pressing the little button under the top right of the keyboard and waiting 5 seconds). I've even unseated and reseated the connector for the battery itself under the left command key with the keyboard up.
I replaced the PRAM battery altogether. If I disconnect the PRAM battery -- no whirring fans. This leads me to believe that the computer was trying to boot using the power from the PRAM battery, and not from the main battery at all.
If the computer can see the battery, charge it, etc, why can't it try to boot from it? Is this something that can be bad on the logic board if all other functions seem to be working fine? What else can cause this? What could fix this?
Would an Apple Store diagnose it for free? I'm nearly 90 minutes from my closest Apple Store and have a 3 week old baby, so I'd rather not waste a trip if they could only recommend that I leave it with them and spend money just to have them tell me that I need to spend more money to fix it. I've managed to spend surprisingly little on the replacement parts thanks to eBay. I need to have this project not become a money pit for it to be worthwhile, and I'd really like to get this machine working for my wife.
I look forward to any thoughts anyone might care to share. Thanks!
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