[eroy]

I have had this Powerbook for 8 years and has always worked like a charm. It is my computer I use at work and the school I work at doesn't have the money to replace it, so I am trying to get the most life out of this workhorse.

This problem started 2 weeks ago. When working on the machine periodically it will shut off(with no warning) and lose its time setting. After resetting time the machine works fine. This has happened 5-6 times in the last 2 weeks.

I ran disk utility and verified disk. The following errors were shown: Volume Bit Map needs minor repair and invalid volume free block count (It should be 1080788 instead of 1077820).

The repair disk button is greyed out so I can't click that.

I don't know if these errors are the reason for the problem I am having or it they are some other more minor problem.

It seems as though the computer shutting off happens were I am not connected to a power source. The battery is never below 75% were it does shut off. This is not the original battery, I replace it about 1 1/2 ago.

Any help is appreciated for this teacher who is just trying to make it through a day of changing the future one kid at a time.

[ibook_steve]

Bad battery. A replacement might fix it. You don't mention exactly which machine you have, but losing the time is either because you are letting the machine sit without power too long ("Supercap" internal battery that maintains time is running down) or the Supercap itself is dead. If the Supercap is really dead, it may cause other problems, but the machine should still work. Basically, you either need to leave your machine connected to power or keep a good charged battery in it at all times.

As for the disk errors, they are unrelated (though they may have occurred because the machine shut off suddenly instead of being properly shut down), but you should boot up from a CD or external disk and repair the disk with Disk Utility. You can't repair a the boot disk, which is why repair is grayed out.

Steve

[reader50]

A further comment on those disk errors. Those ones are non-fatal. A few fragments on your disk are marked as in use when they really aren't - probably temp files that didn't get properly deleted when the machine shut down. You can certainly fix them as ibook_steve says, but that particular problem isn't anything to worry about.

I'd fix them since I'm a drive freak. Not everyone needs to be.

Edit: on further thought, I recall reading about an issue like this. Look at your PowerBook, see if any warping has developed in the frame, especially around the battery. Also, if the battery is still snapping in flush. If the battery is making marginal contact with the pickup springs in the battery bay, then losing contact will cause an immediate shutdown.

[eroy]

I have a Powerbook G4 with 1.67 GHZ 512 MB ram using version 10.5.8

I have this shut down problem occur after being disconnected from power source less than 15 minutes. Battery indicator shows no less than 75%. I guess I will try to replace battery and see if that fixes it.

[olePigeon]

I think he means the internal PRAM battery (aka CMOS battery), not the battery for your laptop.

Mine does the same thing, it'll lose track of the time. If you've ever let your laptop completely drain, then you take out the battery, the laptop will use the PRAM battery as a temporary power source so you can switch batteries. If you're not careful, it'll drain that, too. They all run out eventually. The PRAM battery just needs to be replaced.

Shop around, I've found them for about $30 for the whole USB/PRAM board. I don't know if it's possible to just replace the battery, which only be about $7. I'm uncertain if it's soldered in, though.