[katie]

Help! My iBook G4 crashed. The power shut off and I when I push the power button, nothing happens - no light, no sound, nothing. I've had trouble with the battery charging in the past. In fact, I thought the dc inboard was toast, but when I took it in, I was told that I only needed a new power cord. I am pretty sure I was fully charged when it crashed. I've tried a range of things, reseting the PRAM and PMU and holding down C when trying to reboot, along with taking the battery out and putting it back in. I got nothing - zippo, nada! Not a peep, not a blip of light, nothing. I changed power cords and wall sockets, hoping that would help.

Any ideas?

[katie]

Ok, I got it to work! The second time I took the battery out, I left it out for about 5-10 minutes before putting it back in. And for whatever reason, it started back up again. Battery shows a 99% charge - seems strange to me.

Oh, and it's probably clear to those of you in the know, that I don't know what I am doing, but to clarify for others like me:

Holding down c only helps if you have a CD/DVD in.
Pressing "option" leads to the computer showing all boot options.
Holding cmd+s will give you a command line allowing you to use fsck.

But none of this matters if the computer isn't bonging.

[Doc HM]

A failed PRAM battery will produce these symptoms. In the iBook this battery is actually part of the battery itself (it's on the motherboard of most Macs), so you may need to look at replacing the battery, even if it still holds a charge.