Ok, this is an interesting case. For the four years i've had this laptop (which i love) it has gone through 6 chargers. They tend to overheat and eventually fry out. Apple always replaces them. It is also the third battery. The original battery was recalled. The second one died after 2.5 years (and declared out of warranty by virtue of the number of cycles recharged). One time there was a short and a small fire where the wire attaches to the tip of the cable. Apple knows this was a design flaw, which is why they always replace the charger free and redesigned the cable for the newer powerbooks.
In terms of hardware, I did add 512 mb of ram to the original configuration at the time of purchase. So it's running 1gb of memory on two chips, the second one being aftermarket but from the same supplier.
The OS is 10.4.9.
Two years ago, I moved to China. That may be of note because they are running on 220 volts. For the last year and with the last two chargers, the brick and/or the computer will get so hot that they eventually stop charging. This happens whether I'm plugged into a 220 volt source or a 110 volt source (through a step-down transformer I have in the apartment.)
Basically, things heat up and the indicator ring goes dead. If I unplug and let them cool down, they will eventually charge again. Sometimes I have to switch to a different outlet. Clearly there is some software preventing overheating either in the brick or in the computer itself. I can live with that.
But now, when the computer shuts down, it won't restart, not even into safe mode. It will chime, the dvd drive will spin, I can hear the hard drive spin up, but then it stops trying after about fifteen minutes.
This started to happen the reboot after trying to install safari 3 beta, though the install failed. Probably just a coincidence.
In any event, if I reset the PMU enough times, hold various combinations of keys, and say a couple of prayers, it will start up again. From that point on, i can put the computer to sleep and wake up without fail, but if I reboot, it's the same problem.
The reboot problem happens whether it is running on battery or charging, so the boot problem seems to be distinct from the heating problem. The heating problem definitely occurs with multiple packs, but only intermittently (I do live in a sub-tropical clime).
As for the computer, the DC socket does not wiggle much, and the ring never changes while wiggling the plug.
So, is this a software or hardware problem? I have backed everything up, so i could reinstall if that would help, though I'd certainly rather not (lots of photos/music I don't want to mess with).
Alternately, it could be an internal power chip with a loose/bad connection. Or, it could be a power chip that is getting fried. Those are just (fairly uneducated guesses).
Anyone out there experience this before or have a concrete suggestion? I'm out of warranty (by 3 months, of course). I'll do what it takes, but want to be sure i'm doing the right thing first!
Any/all suggestions will be most appreciated!!!!
Cheers,
Dave
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