[Ambassadeur]

Maybe this sounds familiar to someone? I searched at apple and here and didn't find conclusive answers...

12-inch ibook won't work and won't shut down. The apple is lit up, but the screen is essentially blank (maybe a faint glow but nothing on it), and the sleep light is on but solid (it doesn't pulse like it's supposed to). When the battery was taken out, the computer shut off, sort of - when the battery is put back in, the sleep light came back on and was still solid.

From what i read this sounds like a bad logic board, but maybe there are some other, less severe reasons that could cause this behaviour?

I'm looking for any first steps I could take to narrow down the problem. Addtl problem: the iBook is not with me but with my sister 3 hours away and I should sort of make a diagnosis from the distance.

Any help is highly appreciated!
Tim

[Ambassadeur]

Interesting and good news: As I didn't receive any encouraging news or read anything optimistic about this kind of situation, my sister decided to get a new macbook. She sent me her old iBook to take the disk out and save her data. (As the iBook wouldn't run/start, there wasn't any way to get to the data by herself.)

I just received the laptop and out of curiosity, I turned it on - and voilà, it's runnig like a charm.

My sister told me she left the battery out after the battery-out/battery-in game and obviously this has solved the problem. The battery must have been out for nearly 3 weeks. PMU reset? Some backup power left in some capacitor? Anyhow, the iBook is back and in working order. How do I check for any potential hardware troubles? My sister told me that she can't find the Apple hardware test CDs...