My iBook G4 just won't charge the battery. System Profiler and coconutBattery both report that it should work, but it doesn't. The menu bar says that it's at 0%, and displays a plug. The power jack turns amber for a second, and then goes to green. I've tried resetting the NVRAM, the PRAM, and the PMU, but that hasn't fixed anything. What I want to know is, what went wrong, and is there any way to fix it without paying money?
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iBook G4 won't charge
- Thread starter G4TheWin
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Most likely the battery has crapped out on you. Had the same symptoms on my PBG4. New battery and it was good to go.
But the battery only has about 80 cycles on it! Aren't they supposed to be good for 400 cycles or something? Also, after reseating the battery it appears to be charging. More info will be added as it's received by my eyes.
Could be the DC In board. They have funny symptoms. I've had multiple issues with that with my 1.67Ghz Mac. It shows the same thing right now as your's does. I just haven't gotten around to swapping the other DC In board I have for it back in.
The battery is good too and yes, around 400 cycles is about what you should expect.
The battery is good too and yes, around 400 cycles is about what you should expect.
I remember reading somewhere that if you pull out a battery for 12 seconds, put it in for five, and repeat, you'd be able to revive the battery. I did this, and now it's creeped up to 1%. Stay tuned for more updates.
You have to take the battery's age into account also. Lets face it, the iBook is no spring chicken by any stretch of the imagination. Even it it was barely used, (80 cycles is nothing after all), the cells will degrade with age, internal circuitry will degrade also. A laptop battery is dying from the day it leaves the factory.
I'm surprised it lasted this long.
there might be some broken resistor/transistor in the main logic board or dc in board (like eyoungren said)...see if anything looks burnt or broken. The resistors are quite small so look carefully.
A new logic or DC-in board costs more than the computer usually, but transistors a few bucks
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I got it from eBay a few months ago. It should work fine! Also, to the people who think that the DC in board is at fault, it has charged up to 2%, before stopping, so it's not that.
Your battery is dead. The charging to ~2-4% then stop charging is a sign that the battery's internal circuit can no longer read the battery's condition. You have to replace the battery or fix the internal circuitry.
Well in that case.... You battery is still dead. Clones are notoriously unreliable. Its a hit or miss when you buy batteries on ebay. The clone battery in my powerbook has worked fine for over a year, where the one in my macbook and thinkpad lasted 2 and 1 months, respectively.
I also found an Apple OEM battery that came with the machine, and appears to have only 36 cycles in it. It was obtained by the original owner in November 2008, according to the sticker on it. However, it seems to discharge as well as charge extremely quickly. Anything I can do with that?
DC in board most likely. Unplug it without battery for a few minutes. Then do the PRAM reset, see what happens, holding down the power button until you get the beeps.
Actually not a big deal to get a new dc in. Upgrade hard drive and optical drive to while you have it open.
Actually not a big deal to get a new dc in. Upgrade hard drive and optical drive to while you have it open.