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dead ibook G4 battery...under applecare?

kugino

kugino

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jul 10, 2003
1,170
183
yesterday my ibook's battery went dead...from 100% charge to 0% instantaneously. there is no charge at all. very strange.

so, i don't know if it's the battery or if it's the charging mechanism in the ibook...any way to check this other than to try another battery?

also, if it is the battery, is it serviceable under applecare? the only reason i ask is b/c it doesn't seem to be normal wear (like losing some percentage of its charge) but a faulty battery (holds no charge at all).

thanks.
 
should be, be firm that it's not of merchantable quality ect.

if they bitch allot make it out like if an ink cartridge had a hole in the side, sure it's a consumable, but it ran out way too fast and probably damaged your mac/printer by dumping the ink/electricity.
 
Batteries are not covered for normal were and tear.

But it can't hurt to call AppleCare and ask what the problem is.

"My computer won't turn on when it's disconnected. What's wrong?"

The batteries have processors and memory (not chemical memory, but actual flash ram). So perhaps the electronics are bad. That wouldn't be normal a normal usage issue.

The battery might also be "really hot" when you plug it into the computer. :eek: So tell them that and watch out for fire issues. :)
 
thanks for the tips...

i think something's wrong with the charger or the memory...when i run coconutbattery, it shows 0 battery charge...but the two things that strike me as strange are 0 Battery Load-cycles and Battery is Charging: No. methinks it's a serviceable issue...will take to apple store now. will post again with update.
 
A faulty power adaptor can also kill a battery.
Make sure that you ask them to check it.
They seem to run hotter with age.

Goodluck and if you have an iPod, load some music on it so while you are on hold, your at least enjoying some good music.
 
well, according to the apple genius guy (who was nice, btw...i've had mixed experiences w/them), it is normal wear and tear. at least it wasn't something wrong with the ibook itself...since my ibook is almost 2 years old, he said that it's not coverable under AC...apparently, going from 85%->0% instantaneously is "wear and tear"...so, it's a new battery for me. i decided to get a newertech battery...costs a little less and has a bit more mAh...i've been happy with tibook batteries from them, so that's that. oh well. thanks for all the tips, everyone.

on another note - the arden fair store in sacramento had some goodies in the "refreshed" table next to the registers...some deals:

$9.99 for mini DVI->DVI adapter
$79.99 for airport express (had about 4 of these)
$39 for radio remote
some tibook batteries and other misc. things...in case anyone here's from the sacramento area and needed any of the above...
 
dude, you should of said it's 2 years old, it died a bit early, but that's not covered.
 
Mine died recently too, and I currently can't afford to replace it. But I heard that a lot of the battery deaths/recharge problems are actually due to faulty power supplies, so I'm going to bring that up at the genius bar next week when I drop by. It's not a huge deal right now, as my laptop is essentially my home computer/dvd player, but I will be making a couple trips in a month or two, so the battery would of course be useful...

Mine is weird, though. It holds about five minutes of charge then sleeps, and if I plug it back in, it will charge, but it charges back up to 100% in about ten minutes. Weird.
 
Here's a long shot. Remove the battery, clean the contacts thoroughly, and reinsert the battery making sure it is in securely. It's a long shot, but it's better then no shot at all. Also, I have an even more super duper long shot that you should only try right before you're ready to toss your battery in the garbage anyway. Shake the battery up and put it in the freezer for a day or two. 99.99 % chance that it will do nothing good for your battery and might even hurt it, but like I said, it's worth the last ditch effort if the next stop is the landfill. BTW, if you do get it fixed be sure to update us and lets us know how you did it.
 
I feel I am lucky as my old TI PB (550 MHz) has the same OEM battery. It is holding up the juice well when I disconnect it from the power source for battery conditioning. Maybe this Ti PB has been the desk top queen for 99% of the time may be helping the longevity of the original battery.
 
UPDATE

since my request for a battery was denied at the genius bar yesterday, i had ordered a newertech battery and was using my ibook plugged in last night. well, i had a brain fart and unplugged it and it shut down. so i powered it up again and it didn't start up...the white screen with the apple logo stayed on for a looonng time...i ran a bunch of different disk utilities (external drive, original install disk, diskwarrior) and none worked, so i took my ibook back to the genius bar today. and guess what? the guy said he'd give me a new battery! it was a different guy (really nice, too) and he actually got my disk fixed...to add to that, my keyboard had the "A" and "L" rubbed off so he also ordered me a new keyboard...so next week i'm getting a new keyboard and new battery, all under applecare. sweet.

so disconap, if they don't give you a new battery, try another person and maybe they'll give you one. never hurts to ask.

i've been hit and miss with the guys at the genius bar, but today was a total hit...home run. makes me happy to own apple products when things like this happen...:)

lastly, i did try and get some insider info about new products on tuesday...he laughed when i asked and said he didn't know...they only find out when they go into work that morning and the manager tells them there are new products...he said they read all the same rumor sites and know about as much as we do. oh well...i tried.

in sum, there seems to be a lot of variance in terms of what you might get repaired under applecare...if at first you don't succeed, try a different guy...worked for me. thanks for all the tips, everyone!
 
Thanks for the advice, Kugino! I've had good luck with the genius bar people, but I'll definitely trial and error it (and also hit both Apple stores in my area if necessary). I think mine might be the power supply killing the battery, which I was told there was an actual lawsuit over last year, so I'm hoping they'll be really cool with me asking for a new battery (and possibly even a new power supply), but I'm not holding my breath for either.
 
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