Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

RMXO · 01:02 AM

my PB wont power on anymore. while in school on battery, my PB 12" 1.33 SD shut off. i pressed & held on to the power button for a few secs & it didnt go on. when i got home, i plugged in the powersupply & the green light went on then off. i tried resetting the PRAM but to no avail. when holding down the power button i hear a clicking noise. is my PB dead? green light goes on when its plugged in.

any help would be appreciated.

vinster · Nov 25, 2004, 02:20 AM

Try resetting the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing ShiftControl-Option-power button. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes and waiting 5 seconds.

RMXO · Nov 25, 2004, 02:50 AM

Originally posted by vinster:
Try resetting the power manager by simultaneously pressing and then releasing ShiftControl-Option-power button. Do not press the fn (Function) key while using this combination of keystrokes and waiting 5 seconds.

i tried resetting my PMU many times over & no cigar.

wilsonng · Nov 25, 2004, 06:47 PM

i tried resetting VRAM and PMU. I took in for AppleCare. My case was that the PB was in permanent sleep mode. There is some kind of sensor under the keyboard that detects when to wake/sleep is the lid is opened/closed.

I had to have this little itty-bitty part replaced. Now I'm back to work.

Originally posted by RMXO:
i tried resetting my PMU many times over & no cigar.

RMXO · Nov 25, 2004, 09:39 PM

Originally posted by wilsonng:
i tried resetting VRAM and PMU. I took in for AppleCare. My case was that the PB was in permanent sleep mode. There is some kind of sensor under the keyboard that detects when to wake/sleep is the lid is opened/closed.

I had to have this little itty-bitty part replaced. Now I'm back to work.

Thanks for letting me know. im going to take my PB to a Apple Store tommorrow morning.

Was your sleep light on? the light on the latch release? mine is dead.

glad to hear your PB is working again.

wilsonng · Nov 25, 2004, 11:46 PM

Sleep light was on. But the latch release didn't always work.

But my PB would turn on for 10 seconds and then go straight to sleep. I also had a tough time waking it from sleep as well.....

You can get AppleCare anytime before your one year warranty is up. I'd suggest getting it.

As long as the PB doesn't show signs of damage to the outside, Apple will fix it.

The Power Management Unit is what controls the I/O and the power to the various parts of your PB. If that's busted, then the PB will not work. Replacing the PMU means replacing the logic board.

Let us know what Apple diagnosed, will ya? Thanks.

Originally posted by RMXO:
Thanks for letting me know. im going to take my PB to a Apple Store tommorrow morning.

Was your sleep light on? the light on the latch release? mine is dead.

glad to hear your PB is working again.

RMXO · Nov 26, 2004, 12:30 AM

Originally posted by wilsonng:
Sleep light was on. But the latch release didn't always work.

But my PB would turn on for 10 seconds and then go straight to sleep. I also had a tough time waking it from sleep as well.....

You can get AppleCare anytime before your one year warranty is up. I'd suggest getting it.

As long as the PB doesn't show signs of damage to the outside, Apple will fix it.

The Power Management Unit is what controls the I/O and the power to the various parts of your PB. If that's busted, then the PB will not work. Replacing the PMU means replacing the logic board.

Let us know what Apple diagnosed, will ya? Thanks.

yes, i know about Apple Care & I plan to get it down the road. i own a few Mac's so I understand the importance of getting AppleCare.

Even w/o the battery, my PB should be able to power up with the power plugged in right? I know my 800 DVI was able to do this w/o a battery.

I'm hoping i dont need a new Logic Board. since finals is coming up, i seriously need my PB. i hope its a battery or something non-serious.

I was having such a bad day on Weds, my PB dying on me was the icing on the cake for me.

wilsonng · Nov 26, 2004, 05:12 AM

Yes, I've had a few days like what you're having. If the PMU is shot, then it's gonna be a new logic board. Maybe the Apple shop can temporarily put your hard drive in a firewire enclosure and allow you to copy your files to CDR? Then you can use your files on your other Macs.

I also can't do any work with my PB dying. I have my wife's iBook G3 and a TiBook 400 as a backup but it takes awhile to get things done on those machines.

Good luck

Originally posted by RMXO:

Even w/o the battery, my PB should be able to power up with the power plugged in right? I know my 800 DVI was able to do this w/o a battery.

I'm hoping i dont need a new Logic Board. since finals is coming up, i seriously need my PB. i hope its a battery or something non-serious.

I was having such a bad day on Weds, my PB dying on me was the icing on the cake for me.

RMXO · Nov 26, 2004, 05:13 PM

Originally posted by wilsonng:
Yes, I've had a few days like what you're having. If the PMU is shot, then it's gonna be a new logic board. Maybe the Apple shop can temporarily put your hard drive in a firewire enclosure and allow you to copy your files to CDR? Then you can use your files on your other Macs.

I also can't do any work with my PB dying. I have my wife's iBook G3 and a TiBook 400 as a backup but it takes awhile to get things done on those machines.

Good luck

took my PB to Valley Fair Apple Store today, I should of taken it to the Oakridge store but the Apple Genuis guy there said it was my DC Invertor that is fried. there is this fried smell when the power plug is in. told me it will take 10 to 14 days to get it fixed & I will have to caLL back for info.

since I bought the PB from another person, Apple Care ppls wont give me any problems would they? i usually buy my Macs brand new but a got a good price for my barely used PB.

wilsonng · Nov 26, 2004, 09:07 PM

Ask the original owner if you could get the original sales receipt showing the date of purchase. Possibly get a letter from him/her as well stating that he/she sold PowerBook with serial number XXXX to you on whatever date paid in full. Keep the phone number handy as well in any event.

The PB 12" 1.33 is still new enough that they should recognize it as being under warranty.

They may match it to some kind of database that Apple may/may not have in regards to stolen PBs.

Originally posted by RMXO:

since I bought the PB from another person, Apple Care ppls wont give me any problems would they? i usually buy my Macs brand new but a got a good price for my barely used PB.

RMXO · Nov 27, 2004, 12:06 AM

Originally posted by wilsonng:
Ask the original owner if you could get the original sales receipt showing the date of purchase. Possibly get a letter from him/her as well stating that he/she sold PowerBook with serial number XXXX to you on whatever date paid in full. Keep the phone number handy as well in any event.

The PB 12" 1.33 is still new enough that they should recognize it as being under warranty.

They may match it to some kind of database that Apple may/may not have in regards to stolen PBs.

i got the original receipt. i called the original owner today to ask him to make another bill of sale for me. hopefully he does it & doesnt flake out since he got the $$$ already.

dennisbolt · Nov 29, 2004, 04:00 PM

I have a similar sounding problem. All of a sudden my plugged-in PB 17" (6months old) had a drained battery and the ac adapter light was blank.

By fiddling with the plug a bit I could get the light to come on orange. Taking battery out made the light go green. But starting up had no video, but caps lock light worked, fans and cd drive spun, but nothing else. Screen is black and ipod will not charge when connected.

Called Apple and they had me try the PMU reset but no luck. Local apple repair shop is taking my data off onto my firewire drive, but is having trouble with the HD shutting down after about 20 minutes, so they are doing it in chunks. The local guys think it is a bad power supply issue and also a bad HD (not sure if they are connected problems) The HD had been making the camera shutter click ever minute or so, which I "fixed" by using APM tuner to tell it to park the heads less frequently. So I am unsure if I was ignoring a problem that I thought was just a normal annoyance.

The PB will be shipped to apple this week, so hopefully it will be fixed.