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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > My 12" powerbook has suddenly started dying on me.

My 12" powerbook has suddenly started dying on me.
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aquaslave
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Jan 29, 2004, 09:47 PM
 
Hi All

I bought my 12" powerbook last month and it has been running fine. Since yesterday, I have had it totally die on me twice. Both times was when I closed the lid and expected to see the throbbing white light to indicate sleep. It did not happen ... when i opened the lid again, the powerbook was dead. Nothing I did worked. I finally had to remove the battery and snap it back.

Today instead of pulling out the battery, I connected the powercord and the 'book came back to life on pressing the power button.

Anyone have any idea how/why ? The only thing that happened just prior to this is :

1. Installed the security update
2. Installed iLife '04

Thanks in advance
     
ibook_steve
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Jan 29, 2004, 10:02 PM
 
Is your battery charged? When you plug back in, how charged is your battery? Perhaps you have bad contact between the battery and its connector. Or perhaps you have a bad battery that can't hold a charge. Or your power brick is not actually charging your battery. Check the battery icon in your menubar for all this information.

Steve
     
dodo_nutter
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Jan 29, 2004, 10:22 PM
 
If your PB is only a month old phone up the Applecare people and see what they say....if theres a simple solution then they may no it otherwise they can sort out getting it fixed.

May be a pain not having you're PB but if it fixes the problem!! cos it definitely shouldn't do that! If ure in the States (im not so no apple stores for me ) pop along to a store and see if you can try a new battery and see if thats causing it.

Hope you sort the problem... good luck!
     
aquaslave  (op)
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Jan 29, 2004, 11:09 PM
 
thanks for the replies. my first thought was also about the battery but i know that it holds a full charge and when these incidents occurred, it was more than 90% charged.

it could be that the connector is not seated properly or something ... i am going to give it one more chance and if it happens again, it is time to call Applecare.

dodo_nutter: thanks for the suggestion on the apple store. luckily i am in the US of A so I can pop over to a store and see if that helps.

Thanks
     
dodo_nutter
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Jan 30, 2004, 06:41 AM
 
No problem, get back to us on how it goes.
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jan 30, 2004, 09:06 AM
 
I've seen this once on my 12" Rev A since the security update, as well.
     
aquaslave  (op)
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Jan 30, 2004, 02:10 PM
 
i assume it has happened only once so far for you ? please let us know if it recurs or if you find out something about it.

thanks
     
Spheric Harlot
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Jan 30, 2004, 03:22 PM
 
Only once, yes.

unplugged my USB audio interface, unplugged power supply, carried the laptop to my bedroom, where I put it to sleep by closing it.

five minutes later, I returned, to find the sleep light off. The battery check button on the underside showed a hastily flashing single LED when I pressed it.

I reset the PMU and restarted.

-s*
     
Phat Bastard
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Jan 31, 2004, 12:13 PM
 
This "sleep coma" is a common problem with many different Macs. I suggest you reset the PMU as has been suggested here.

Also, if you have a USB device attached, try removing it before going to sleep, waiting about 5 seconds, and then activating sleep. USB devices have a tendency to wake up/prevent Macs from going to sleep.
The world needs more Canada.
PB 12" 867 MHz, 640 MB RAM, AE, OS 10.4.2
Black iPod nano 4GB
     
aquaslave  (op)
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Feb 1, 2004, 05:42 PM
 
this should finally show me up as a switcher !! what is a pmu and how do i reset it?

i do not have any usb devices attached to the powerbook.

thanks for your help guys. apple rocks.
     
Simon
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Feb 2, 2004, 04:41 AM
 
Originally posted by aquaslave:
!! what is a pmu and how do i reset it?
PMU = power management unit

this page is your friend: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

(This must be one of the most requested KB pages on this forum, maybe I should put it in my sig...)
     
aquaslave  (op)
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Feb 2, 2004, 01:16 PM
 
Simon : thanks for the link. will keep that bookmarked from now on :-)
do you have any other useful links like that one for newbie switchers ? would love to keep all these handy so i can browse them before i come to the forum with doubts.

thanks again.
     
Simon
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Feb 3, 2004, 06:32 AM
 
Originally posted by aquaslave:
do you have any other useful links like that one for newbie switchers ? would love to keep all these handy so i can browse them before i come to the forum with doubts.
Glad I could help.

I don't really have a collection of links myself. Actually, I just search the KB when I need something.

If you go to this page http://www.info.apple.com/ you can find a search field. Enter any term and select "Search Articles". Normally that leads right to some interesting info.

For instance, when I went there yesterday after your question, I typed "reset PMU" and the first hit was what I was looking for.

P.S. If you're new to the Mac, I suggest getting familiar with key combos here: http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=75459.

P.S.S. Another good thing for people new to the Mac is to take a look at the Mac Help in the Finder. It has some stuff for you to poke around: Finder > Help > Mac Help > New to Mac OS X

Have fun!
     
aquaslave  (op)
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Feb 4, 2004, 12:02 PM
 
Simon :

Thanks again for the links. Hopefully I will be able to pass on something in a year or so to other newbies :-)
     
Simon
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Feb 5, 2004, 04:31 AM
 
Originally posted by aquaslave:
Simon :

Thanks again for the links. Hopefully I will be able to pass on something in a year or so to other newbies :-)
No problem.

And yeah, help newbies! Every happy switcher can generate new switchers and get Apple closer to a "MS-safe" market share.
     
   
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