battery swapping?

[fjs08]

I have a Titanium Powerbook. My original battery seemed to be running out of power quicker than I recalled, so I bought a new battery. I've had the new one now for a few weeks and it's all charged up. Went on a trip recently. Had the new one in and it ran out of power, seemingly going from 50% to nothing almost instantaneously, same as the old battery-humm. Anyway, I pulled that battery, and inserted my old one that I know was charged up as it was in the night before, charging. Checked both before I left and there were 4 green lights glowing on the bottom after I pushed the check button. So I put the fresh battery in and nothing happened. My Mac was essentially dead until I could get it back to AC. Is this normal?? I would have expected it to click back on when I inserted the fresh battery.
Thanks.

Frank

[EMKoper]

My Mac was essentially dead until I could get it back to AC. Is this normal?? I would have expected it to click back on when I inserted the fresh battery.
No "first hand" experience with such a problem, but resetting the Power Management Unit (PMU) seems to help others with odd power-related quirks...

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

[gman71882]

You might have a DUD :confused:
Try putting the new battery in and Just leaving it Charging for a while.

if you can get it back on, condition the battery a few times:
Charge it all the way up to 100% then drain it down to absolute nothing.

[fjs08]

>>f you can get it back on, condition the battery a few times:
Charge it all the way up to 100% then drain it down to absolute nothing.<,

Actually, I did that for about a week. I did the charge-drain-recharge about 5-6x.

Happened again yesterday. I was going to shut the Mac down around 50% battery life, then change batteries. The original got to 50% in about an hour of regular e-mail use and it just shut down tighter than a drum. Couldn't get it to work again until I plugged it in.

Frank