15" Powerbook sudden unexpected shutdown(s)

[zknower]

Hey all:

I've had my 15" Powerbook for about 1.5 years now. It's a 1.67 GHz processor with 1GB of SDRAM, running Tiger 10.4.6.

This machine has been blissful until this past month: Suddenly, it's not warning me when the battery is low. It just takes a nosedive and shuts down unexpectedly. This has happened five or six times now; the most recent time, when I plugged the machine back in, the battery was at 44%! So it's not even that low.

Also, when I plug it back in and startup, the date/time clock has lost its info, resetting to Dec 1969.

Has anyone else encountered similar issues? I wouldn't think this is the main battery, as the unit is still pretty young. I can take it in to Tekserve and/or the Genius Bar, but I thought I'd get opinions here first.

Thanks for any and all input

zsk

 

[brucebilotti]

I don't know if its the same issue, but my 1.67 powerbook does the same thing sometimes. It'll be running on the battery and it'll just shutdown. I think it might be a battery fit issue on my computer, because it seems to happen when moving it. I never did anything to try to fix the problem because it doesn't happen that often, but if you think its a similar issue and you find a solution let me know.

 

[Chone]

Odd that you mention it, something like that happens on my 15" 1.5ghz G4/512mb ram running Tiger Powerbook from 2003 I have... it doesn't bother me much since I use the computer on AC power mostly but its still a weird issue.

 

[RiseAgainst]

I would check your system log if there are any over temperature readings. You could have a faulty sensor on your logic board that is causing the machine to shut off.

Go to Applications>Utilities>Console, click the logs button on the top left, highlight 'system.log', then search for temp in the filter field in the top right.

You can also look though it manually by date if you know when it is happening, this could give you an indication of what is happening even if it is not the temp sensor.

 

[RiseAgainst]

Sorry, I did not read your whole post. I would also try resetting your PMU first.

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

Make sure you look up your correct computer.