ibook charge issue, no really...

[youngestchild]

I know there are a million posts about ibooks that wont charge correctly but I think this one is different.

I have an ibook G4 (2years old, a part of the battery swap program) that charges normally... for about twenty minutes. Then the light around the charger turns from it's normal "i'm charging" orange to nothing, the light goes out and the ibook switches to battery power.

I've just inspected the power chord and there are no strains or tears, the plug at both ends are in good condition and the ibook power socket is fine too.

I've turned the ibook off for a period of time (two days) and reset the power manager... still no difference.

The ibook looks and acts just like it should until about twenty minutes into the charge then the light turns off and it's like it's been disconnected. The chord is in correctly, i've even tried the apple extension chord = no joy.

If i reconnect the power chord at the wall it's fine, starts charging again... and yes i've tried different sockets on different circuits in the house!

any suggestions?

thanks.

 

[gavd]

Do you know anyone else with an iBook who's power cable you could borrow?

Much beyond that I can't think of anything else to try because you've done the other things I could think of to try!

 

[youngestchild]

thanks... nah, I don't know anyone with an ibook. Will have to take it in to the nearest nextbyte and get them to test it (or my dad, he use to be an electrian and has an electrical tester)... the white power brick thing (?!) is really hot to touch but cools down quite quickly once is turns itself off... i'm not sure if this is normal as the ibook is pretty desk bound these days. I've rarely need to touch the power brick in the past 12 months.

 

[youngestchild]

*bump*

no suggestions?

 

[Frankf300]

My iBook G3 is mostly on the desk these days also, not many times I need to move it. I believe the G4 and G3 iBook power bricks and sockets are the same. Mine doesn't seem to get very hot...maybe warm, but not hot. I'm not exactly sure what is actually contained inside that "power brick", but it almost sounds like a short in there somewhere. It doesn't sound like the connection between the cord and the iBook socket is bad because otherwise you wouldn't even get those 20 minutes out of it. If your father has electrical experience I'd see what he thinks also. The wires may look good from the outside, but anything could happen internally to make it short out. After those 20 minutes it may get so hot that it's causing something to short out. Without having another power brick to test it with you can't really do anything more than you've already tried.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

What happens if you try running it without the battery installed?