14" iBook G4 Battery / Charger Issue

[Rasmussen]

Hi , Long time lurker, 1st time poster.
I just bought an old iBook G4 14" 1.42 GHz off eBay, and I'm looking for some help. I know the battery is no good (knew that when I bought it - it has a maximum capacity of 474 mAh) and will maybe run for 15-30 minutes. But I am now wondering if there is an issue with the charger as well.
The light around the power plug cycles between green and orange about every 20 seconds or so - it can stay green for longer periods before it switches back to orange for another 20 seconds, then again back to green.

The battery does seem to be slowly charging, but is it normal for the charger to do this? Or is this slow charging normal for a basically dead battery? I guess I am trying to figure out if I need to get a new charger as well as a new battery?

This was supposed to be a inexpensive "project" so I'm not looking to spend more money than I have to to get a functional laptop.
By the way, this laptop is a replacement for an old G4 PowerMac tower (876 MHz, circa 2001) so I can run some old powerPC software. The old tower still works, but is currently in storage as it was taking up too much space. Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[CAINuKe]

Hi , Long time lurker, 1st time poster.
I just bought an old iBook G4 14" 1.42 GHz off eBay, and I'm looking for some help. I know the battery is no good (knew that when I bought it - it has a maximum capacity of 474 mAh) and will maybe run for 15-30 minutes. But I am now wondering if there is an issue with the charger as well.
The light around the power plug cycles between green and orange about every 20 seconds or so - it can stay green for longer periods before it switches back to orange for another 20 seconds, then again back to green.

The battery does seem to be slowly charging, but is it normal for the charger to do this? Or is this slow charging normal for a basically dead battery? I guess I am trying to figure out if I need to get a new charger as well as a new battery?

This was supposed to be a inexpensive "project" so I'm not looking to spend more money than I have to to get a functional laptop.
By the way, this laptop is a replacement for an old G4 PowerMac tower (876 MHz, circa 2001) so I can run some old powerPC software. The old tower still works, but is currently in storage as it was taking up too much space. Thanks in advance for any help!

I think it is an issue with the batter, at 474 MAH there is hardly anything left in the battery to charge, I would find a cheap non-OEM batter on the bay' and I think that would fix your issue. I had the same problem with my PowerBook (in my sig) and that fixed my problem.

 

[Rasmussen]

Thanks

Thanks for the advice CaiNuKe - will try a new (non-oem) battery as suggested.

 

[Rasmussen]

Issue Resolved

Just an update - I did end up buying a non-OEM battery via eBay and that seems to have solved the problem. The charger doesn't cycle between green and orange any more, just charges the battery. So it seems like the charger is okay.

Thanks for the advice CAINuKe.