[dealyb]

aluminum powerbook g4 15 inch 1.0Ghz running tiger

Hi, My wife dropped her pbook about a year and a half ago and it would no longer
charge, so i switched out the dc-sound board and all was well, but then about 6 months
ago it stopped charging, so thinking it had shorted out again, i bought yet another
dc board and swapped it in, but this time, no joy... (actually swapped it twice)

so i was hoping someone might
have another suggestion for me. if I charge the battery in another pbook and bring it
over, all is well while the battery lasts (I have a couple which are in good shape).

so the computer works on battery power, but will not start without the battery, and when
the battery runs down , thats it. the power cord turns green when I plug it in, then turns to
orange for a little bit (around 5-10 seconds max) the goes out and then I need to unplug
the power supply/adapter and plug it back in or it wont work even on the good 17inch pbook I have...

seems like it is shorting out from being plugged into the pbook.
the adapter is 65W. and works fine for my 1.33 GHZ 17 pbook...


But if I leave ot plugged into this 15 inch pbook, and replug it in, the light stays orange, but the battery
never charges....

any brilliant ideas welcomed...
thanks
Brian

[chipchen]

Sounds like there's a short. Probably on the logic board.

Either, send it into Apple for a flat rate repair (about $325), or sell it for parts and buy a new one, or get this:

Intelligent Battery Charger & Conditioner... (BATCAPL15AL) at OWC

You should be able to put the powerbook to sleep, and swap batteries without it dying.

[SierraDragon]

You seem to describe a problem I had with three different G4 PBs. What happens is the physical connection of the charging cord to the board in the laptop is failed or failing. No good solution except what chipchen suggests above. IMO the problem is probably what stimulated the elegantly designed new magnetic power connector.

-Allen Wicks

[truoc444]

i had the same problem. all i had to do was replace the a/c adapter and all was well. i paid $40 for an off brand one at my local mac store and i was up and going again.

[SierraDragon]

True, sometimes the flaw is in the a/c adapter. A friend had that problem and when I gave her one of my spare adapters all was fine.

-Allen Wicks