[mattk]

I've searched the web until I reached the end and I have had very little luck with my situation. I have a 12" Rev. A (867 G4) Powerbook. It won't turn on. The power adapter glows amber when plugged in. I have attempted to reset the PMU about 14 different times and ways. I've held the power button down, removed the battery and tried to boot, removed the battery and power adapter tried a few key strokes, plugged stuff back in, still no go. A few simple questions.

If the battery is bad or shot, I would still be able to boot up right?

Could the power adapter be bad if it is glowing amber?

I get no sound of anything turning on, whirring up etc.

It started having some similar problems, a couple months ago, but i was always able to revive it by doing some PMU dancing and i figured my battery was just bad. I left it alone for a couple months (I was student teaching and had to use paper and pencil). I now have an actual teaching job that I start in August and I want to use my Mac, rather than some crappy old Dell (there is irony involved with when i went to school, we had to use macs and i hated it - now i'm going back to school -teaching- and there are no macs and I hate that). If it's the logic board, then i will simply buy a new Macbook, as the logic board prices i have seen tend to be over $300. There is stuff I need on the hard drive, but i can always pull that out and hook it up to my iMac later to pull the stuff i need.

I let it "charge" overnight to see if that would help, and nothing. Any thoughts, comments, or pearls of knowledge that anyone can contribute - I would greatly appreciate. Thanks for taking your time to read!

[amazing]

Have you tried starting up off the MacOS install disk? Does disk utility show that it can see the HD? If it can see the HD, do an archive-and-install.

If it can't see the HD, do you (or a friend) have an external firewire drive? You could install a System on the external firewire drive (USB won't work) and startup off that. If you can startup off an external drive, then the logic board is OK, you'll just have to replace the HD.

[mattk]

Thanks for your reply, but the computer will not even turn on at all, so the cd-rom drive won't even accept a disk and I can't scan the hard drive, because it won't even turn on. It is acting dead.

[amazing]

sorry that didn't help...
Did you reset the PRAM? You startup and immediately hold down Command(Apple)-Option-P-R thru at least 4 chimes. But it sounds like you're not getting a chime...still, I've seen this revive a Mac that seemed to be dead in the water, that wouldn't even chime. Worth a try?

Reaching for straws: check if your 12" battery is subject to the recall, because that would let you take it to an Apple Store and have the Genius look at it:
12-inch PowerBook G4 battery model A1079 serial # ZZ411 - ZZ427
and serial # 3K428 - 3K611
https://support.apple.com/ibook_powe...tteryexchange/

Was the laptop unplugged during the student teaching? Here's the very last suggestion. Unplug it, remove the battery, hit the power button once, leave it overnight, reassemble and plug it in, see if it starts.

[mattk]

No recall on my battery unfortunately...

The laptop was unplugged with the battery in during the long alone time...

I will try your last suggestion tonight, unless anyone else comes along with an idea or 2.

I made an appt. at the genius bar, but do they charge to check it out - i was hoping they only charge for repairs...

Thanks again.