12" Powerbook suddenly won't charge or turn on

[daniel_]

I have a 12" 1.5ghz Powerbook G4. I purchased this laptop several months ago; it came with an OEM battery and power adapter. The system has been working fine up until now, however the battery has steadily been getting worse, to the point where it doesn't seem to really hold a charge anymore. However, the system still ran fine with the power adapter connected.

Yesterday I go to plug in and turn on the machine. The power adapter connector did not light up any color (neither green or orange), which I thought was unusual. Pressing the power button seems to do nothing. Tried holding it for 10 seconds and starting again. I removed the battery, and then again attempted to start, but no luck. Attempted a PMU reset, but that didn't work either.

So then I disassembled the computer and inspected the dc to dc board. The board looks fine, no burn marks or anything. At this point, I'm a bit puzzled. Has the logic board suddenly died? Or has the charger suddenly died?

I've ordered a third-party power adapter from Amazon to see if it was the issue. I'm assuming that it is the issue, since I haven't seen any weird performance issues or crashing up until this point (which I presume would present themselves before a logic board totally died).

Does anyone have any advice or insight? Either way, it just seems a little odd that either the power adapter or logic board has suddenly died.

 

[DeltaMac]

If you don't get any response with a different power adapter, then likely a failed DC-in board (where the power adapter plugs in). That 12-inch PB is probably the worst model to replace the DC-in board.

You may not see any physical damage on the DC-to-DC board, but could still be faulty.

 

[dbdjre0143]

This sounds exactly like the behavior from my (dead) 17" DLSD Powerbook. However, mine was working fine until I inserted a "new unboxed" (yeah right...) battery from eBay.
See this old thread for that story:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...arging-or-power-with-charged-battery.2087654/

The TL;DR of it was that a combination of a 45W charger instead of 65W, with inserting a likely completely dead battery while the computer was on, killed something about the logic board. I tried replacing the DC-in board and getting a 65W charger, to no avail. Due to the cost of a replacement logic board, I ended up just getting my current 15" DLSD to replace it.

 

[daniel_]

This sounds exactly like the behavior from my (dead) 17" DLSD Powerbook. However, mine was working fine until I inserted a "new unboxed" (yeah right...) battery from eBay.
See this old thread for that story:
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...arging-or-power-with-charged-battery.2087654/

The TL;DR of it was that a combination of a 45W charger instead of 65W, with inserting a likely completely dead battery while the computer was on, killed something about the logic board. I tried replacing the DC-in board and getting a 65W charger, to no avail. Due to the cost of a replacement logic board, I ended up just getting my current 15" DLSD to replace it.

dbdjre0143, thanks for linking to that thread! Happy to report that I got my powerbook working. I left it unplugged, with the battery removed, for over a day as eyoungren suggested in your thread. Then, I performed another PMU reset and plugged the machine back in. The green light on the charging cable immediately came on, and I was able to boot the computer. What a relief that was! Though on the bright side, I'll have a spare DC-to-DC board, DC-in board, and power adapter coming my way now, so I'll be prepared when the time comes to replace those bits.

 

[dbdjre0143]

dbdjre0143, thanks for linking to that thread! Happy to report that I got my powerbook working. I left it unplugged, with the battery removed, for over a day as eyoungren suggested in your thread. Then, I performed another PMU reset and plugged the machine back in. The green light on the charging cable immediately came on, and I was able to boot the computer. What a relief that was! Though on the bright side, I'll have a spare DC-to-DC board, DC-in board, and power adapter coming my way now, so I'll be prepared when the time comes to replace those bits.

Awesome! Glad to hear you got your machine back in action!