Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Low Battery and a Broken Power Input

M

msb65

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 17, 2008
61
0
Hi Everyone,

I own a 15'' G4 Powerbook. I have noticed for a while that the AC adapter input appears slightly damaged, ie even when the adapter is plugged in it does not charge, and I must rotate the input within the socket until the green/orange light turns on. As you can imagine this has gotten progressively worse the past year or so. Last night I tried plugging it in and no matter how much I rotated the input it would not charge.

So I seem unable to charge my computer. What compounds the problem is that the battery is old, and only lasts ~10 minutes without power. I fully realize that I have brought this upon myself. But the computer is so old, and after paying ~$400 dollars for a new battery, AC adapter, RAM, and OS 10.5 in the past year or so I just couldn't throw any more money at it.

Obviously I need a new computer, which I will be getting soon. But the issue at hand is how I should transfer all my files off the old one when it will only last a few minutes. Does anyone have any suggestions? It seems like my options are:

1) Buy a new battery
2) Pay Apple to fix the socket (Note: 1 and 2 are a waste of money given the age of the computer, and may be impossible given Apple's recent announcements concerning their support for Power PC computers)
3) Somehow remove the harddrive and access it from a different computer (Is that even possible??)

Thanks for any help,
Mike
 
If you AC adapter is broken.... and plan on buying another computer... you can buy a 3rd party AC adapter from eBay. It shouldn't cost a lot anyway....
 
Hi,

Thank you for the reply. The problem is not with the AC adapter. I have two and neither will charge the computer. I believe the problem is with the input hole on the computer. It is damaged.

Therefore I have no way of charging the computer, and given the poor performance of the battery, limited time to transfer files before my computer dies forever.

Is there a way to access the harddrive even if the computer is off?

Mike
 
If you don't plan to use that computer anymore i suggest you remove the hard drive and install it in an external enclosure (you can find pretty cheap one).
That way you will be able to access all your data without problems and you will also have an external drive for backup.

You can find good guides on how to take the mac apart here.

http://www.ifixit.com/
 
Thank you very much for the suggestion! Does anyone know what kind of external casing I should get, and how to set up my Powerbook's HD inside of it? Thanks again.

Mike
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back