12-inch PowerBook G4 charging issue

[pdafreak]

Hi,
New to the forum, did a search but didn't find exactly what my problem is.
Original charger went bad, smoked at the plug were it plugs into the unit. Bought a replacement charger but now having charging issues. The unit will charge when in sleep mode or turned off but will not charge with the unit running. The charger is aftermarket but is the correct rating. When I check the power status everything looks normal except for the current which is a negative number. I reset the PRAM but still have the same problem. I thought maybe the new charger is not putting out enough watts but it shows up on the power status page as 50 watts. Could the DC in board or the DC battery board be bad? Also when it is plugged in with the battery partially drained the screen will dim then brighten back and forth until it is done calculating battery condition at which point it states not charging, but will run fine on the adapter.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

 

[California]

Hi,
New to the forum, did a search but didn't find exactly what my problem is.
Original charger went bad, smoked at the plug were it plugs into the unit. Bought a replacement charger but now having charging issues. The unit will charge when in sleep mode or turned off but will not charge with the unit running. The charger is aftermarket but is the correct rating. When I check the power status everything looks normal except for the current which is a negative number. I reset the PRAM but still have the same problem. I thought maybe the new charger is not putting out enough watts but it shows up on the power status page as 50 watts. Could the DC in board or the DC battery board be bad? Also when it is plugged in with the battery partially drained the screen will dim then brighten back and forth until it is done calculating battery condition at which point it states not charging, but will run fine on the adapter.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

I've owned three of these 12" Powerbooks... well four actually, the 1st 867mhz, and three 1.5ghz's.

Sell your third party adapter and get the correct 65watt (if you have the 1.33 or 1.5ghz) made by Apple.

You may have damaged the dc in part. If so, you can swap this out.

Check your battery for replacement, apple has a recall on them. You may have a bad battery. I replaced two of my 12' PB batteries on recall.

 

[pdafreak]

Thanks for the quick reply, I checked the battery and it is not one on the recall list, it still works fine but won't charge with the unit powered up. The PowerBook says its rated for a 45 watt power supply. I thought about getting a 65 watt supply but was not sure if I could.

 

[CompanionCube]

Buy the correct model AC adapter and all will be good.

http://www.ifixit.com/Products/AC-Adapters/13