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ibook G4 shuts down when put in sleep

J

j.burris

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 21, 2010
33
1
I have an ibook G4 14" 1.42ghz.
I have it plugged into a power adapter almost always. It has been plugged in in both instances/
I recently put it to sleep and when I return anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours it is shut down. :confused:
I have a heck of a time getting it to power on. It took me several times, anywhere from 3-6 times to get it to turn on.

When I turn it on it goes through the usual loading procedures and after loading a window pops up saying the date and time are wrong and could cause applications to act erratically. The date ends up being 1969 and sometimes the time is wrong.
I have fixed the date and it still happens. :eek:

I don't know if this has affected or led to this but my battery has been shot for a couple months now and occasionally (probably 1-2 times a day) the power adapter (a cheap copy of apple's) would become unplugged from the laptop prompting the message stating you are on reserve battery and that the computer will go to sleep soon.

Does anyone know what is causing this?
How much would it cost to fix it?

All help is greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
 
J

j.burris

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 21, 2010
33
1
PS My battery doesn't really hold much if any charge. I was going to get a new one but I wanted to see if there is a big problem going on before investing $100.

Is there another small battery in the computer?
Is that what they are referring to on the reserve power?
 
quantum003

quantum003

macrumors 6502a
Apr 27, 2009
542
0
Superposition
Don't spend $100 for a new battery at the Apple store... buy an aftermarket battery on eBay for $30-40. They actually live longer than Apple OEM and they're definitely more affordable. ;)
 
666sheep

666sheep

macrumors 68040
Dec 7, 2009
3,686
291
Poland
j.burris said:
Is there another small battery in the computer?
Is that what they are referring to on the reserve power?
Click to expand...

No, there is no battery except main one. For clock and date hold up, there is a small capacitor soldered into the board: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA25911?viewlocale=en_US
If your sleep problem will persist after PMU reset, it could be power adapter related (but i can't tell for sure). Also you can try to test sleep without battery installed and see if problem will occur.

Edit: flopticalcube was quicker ;)
 
J

j.burris

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 21, 2010
33
1
Should I take it in to an apple reseller to look at it and do the pmu?

Or should I get the new battery from OWC?
 
quantum003

quantum003

macrumors 6502a
Apr 27, 2009
542
0
Superposition
j.burris said:
Should I take it in to an apple reseller to look at it and do the pmu?

Or should I get the new battery from OWC?
Click to expand...

You can reset the PMU yourself. And I vote yes on the new battery from OWC.

Also, I see your problem now. Your battery is a brick. When your power adapter is removed from the laptop even temporarily, your battery does not have the juice to shoulder the load for a single second and your iBook totally loses power, dropping the time and date as a result. The power adapter being loose is a cause for future concern, but for now a battery that actually holds a charge will keep this from happening so frequently.
 
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