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richard83 · Apr 2, 2007, 08:10 AM

Hello, my powerbook 15" of about 1 and half years old has died. The green light on the adaptor still glows, the battery readout reads one bar, there is no sound from inside the machine and no picture. It will not fire up even with the battery removed which makes me think it's not the battery. The adaptor has been bent through triping over it but it worked fine until the other day. I have heard of issues regarding the pmu but I have not found any cases with the same symptoms as mine. All my course work is on there and I'm nearly at the end of my degree so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thankyou, Richard.

mfbernstein · Apr 2, 2007, 08:37 AM

Have you changed anything recently on the machine? Upgraded anything (RAM)? Sounds like you're suffering a power supply (or logic board) failure, though you should try resetting the PMU.

Most likely your hard drive is fine, so your data shouldn't be in jeopardy. If you have another Mac (or a PC with MacDrive), you can extract the hard drive from the PowerBook, put it in an external enclosure, and copy your data off of it.

If you have AppleCare, take it in to an Apple Store (or authorized repair center) to be looked at first (removing your hard drive may void your warranty). If not, you may be looking at a rather pricey repair job, which may or may not be justified given the age of the machine and the price of a newer replacement.

In the future, I would strongly recommend keeping an up-to-date backup of your important data on an external drive, or failing that, backing up at least weekly to CDs. If you don't have AppleCare, this incident is an unfortunate demonstration of why an extended warranty, particularly on laptops, is a very good idea.

richard83 · Apr 2, 2007, 09:13 AM

Thankyou for your reply, I've not added any ram or the like, tried reseting the pmu with no joy. Is there anyway of confirming that it's the logic board before I look into buying a new one? Cheers.

mfbernstein · Apr 2, 2007, 09:52 AM

Short of finding a known good logic board and swapping them out? Not that I'm aware of.

It's a very long shot, but you could try removing one or the other of the memory modules, and seeing if that helps. Bad RAM can have odd results sometimes, though I doubt it would extend that far. Similarly, if certain cabling inside is disconnected (the main IDE controller, the power switch), the machine may not do anything, but I've no idea how that could happen in a machine unless somebody opened it up.

peeb · Apr 2, 2007, 01:19 PM

Have you tried booting from your OSX install CD? That will basically tell you whether you have a hardware or a software issue, and let you reinstall OSX.

mfbernstein · Apr 2, 2007, 01:41 PM

Did you read his original comment. The machine is dead. It won't even power up.

peeb · Apr 2, 2007, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by mfbernstein

Did you read his original comment. The machine is dead. It won't even power up.

I read it - it was not clear to me from that whether it 'would not fire up' because the machine was dead, or the hard-drive had given out.

mfbernstein · Apr 2, 2007, 03:35 PM

Not quite sure I follow. Are you saying that a Mac with a dead (but not disconnected) hard drive won't even power up? No fans, startup boing, optical drive spinup, LCD turning on, or in short, any signs of activity? I certainly haven't seen such a scenario, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.

peeb · Apr 2, 2007, 03:51 PM

I didn't see any mention of fans in the OP - I am not interested in 'proving you wrong', but I have seen machines that would not start from their hard-drives start from a DVD. I think that this is worth a try, at least.

applgeek · Apr 2, 2007, 04:20 PM

have you tried using a different power adapter? Also, could you tell us what it says on the adapter?
__W is important (wattage)

you could have a power adapter that is giving you less power than you need. if your battery just has one bar, you will want to charge it. When you plug in the power adapter (with the battery in) Does the second battery light flash?

richard83 · Apr 3, 2007, 08:42 AM

Thankyou all, I am using the standard powerbook issue adaptor, but it could well be that that is the issue as recently the cable was tripped over, the powerbook went flying and the connection was all bent out of shape. The pin in the centre came loose and is currently stuck inside the port. Although this sounds like an obvious start, it worked just fine upon bending the connection back to fit the hole. I will be able to travel into town to try the adaptor at the college, although with the pin stuck inside I do not know if this will be of any effect. would the adaptor still light up green if insufficient power was flowing?I suspect they wont be too impressed if I start taking the inards of their computer out to test though. As far as the hard drive being the issue, i take it replacing it(or the other options) would be the only way to find that out? Think I'll start with the adaptor and go from there. Thankyou once again, I'll keep you posted on my findings. Oh, is it possible a wire would have come loose from it's little flying expedition?? Cheers, Richard.

mfbernstein · Apr 3, 2007, 08:51 AM

Green light doesn't necessarily mean the machine's getting current. But as long as your battery had some juice, that shouldn't matter. If you can borrow someone's charged battery temporarily, that'd be a good way to rule out both as possible causes.

Dropping the machine could certainly have jarred something important. The hard drive is a more remote possibility.

Sherman Homan · Apr 3, 2007, 08:57 AM

Ouch! You can either yank the battery and charge it in another machine or swap a fully charged battery. Hopefully nothing else got knocked loose. You might want to try taking a very small pair of needle nosed pliers and pulling that pin out. I can't imagine that the power adapter will ever work like that. Makes you wish for a MagSafe...!

romeosc · Apr 3, 2007, 08:58 AM

Originally Posted by richard83

The pin in the centre came loose and is currently stuck inside the port. Although this sounds like an obvious start, it worked just fine upon bending the connection back to fit the hole. I will be able to travel into town to try the adaptor at the college, although with the pin stuck inside I do not know if this will be of any effect. would the adaptor still light up green if insufficient power was flowing?I suspect they wont be too impressed if I start taking the inards of their computer out to test though. As far as the hard drive being the issue, i take it replacing it(or the other options) would be the only way to find that out? Think I'll start with the adaptor and go from there. Thankyou once again, I'll keep you posted on my findings. Oh, is it possible a wire would have come loose from it's little flying expedition?? Cheers, Richard.

The center pin carries the current, the outside is ground! To prove this touch the shield (outer side of adapter to the case of PB) it will light green! You need to remove center pin and get a new adapter or solder a new connector on old one! If youy haven't shorted out the PB it should work!

wubrew · Apr 4, 2007, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by richard83

the powerbook went flying and the connection was all bent out of shape. The pin in the centre came loose and is currently stuck inside the port.

Whao, That's quite a big JAR the PB took. Big enough to loosen connecting cables inside! Check the connecting cable to the key board. That can explain not booting with sufficient battery power.

daystartech · Apr 4, 2007, 07:55 AM

After you do a PMU reset, then hit the power button... does the CapLock key work (lighting up). If so, then you know you motherboard is powering... and you have a hardware failure on the logic board, or inside the hard drive. If not, then it could be a broken DC-in connector, which is very common.

Bad DC-in: although the power adapter is burning green, the power may not be getting to the logic board. The battery has one light, which may not be enough to power it.

If you have AppleCare, then it is covered. They will change out the bad part and get you going. Unless this is a severe short inside the hard drive itself (rare), all of your data is intact.

If you don't have AppleCare, then send it to a good shop (like Daystar). Cost of replacing the DC-in is under $200. Daystar also has the ability to change out motherboard components, such as a blown power controller.