Pbook Shutting Down

[PbookYO]

Hey guys,
This started happening about 6 months after I bought the 1ghz Pbook g4 12". I brought it into a service center and it was shipped off to apple to be serviced under warranty. That was about a year ago.

The issue was with the pbook shutting off randomly when the power cord isn't plugged in. Occasionally the laptop will stay on for a few minutes without the power cord, but once it shuts off I can't turn it back on at all unless I plug the power cord in. With the power cord in the computer works perfectly fine. When I set it in to apple they said I had dropped the computer. Which omg, I can't even explain made me so pissed. So basically they did nothing to it. Once it was brought back to the service shop in my area they tried a new battery in the pbook and supposedly it worked, but I don't know how long he tried it. It's to the point now though, that I want the pbook fixed so I can use it on my lap or places where there is no plug.

Anyone have any fixes or similar or same issues as this? What route did you take to fix it? I do have my pbook insured with state farm so worst case I'll just make them pay for it, but as an apple customer I feel I shouldn't have to as it did brake during warranty period. But I know that won't happen so I'd like to see if I can fix it myself or know for sure that I need a new battery. Thanks in advance for any help with this issue.

I called my local apple tech (not an apple store) and he believes it's either the battery, or the logic board. He said 85 an hour to repair it and estimated hour to one and a half hours. Or it's the battery which is 150 bucks. Is there a way to do this myself though? Either way it's sort of lame since it's not my fault and it was broken under warranty and they didn't fix it then even though I shipped it. So I guess I have to bite the bullet and pay to get it fixed which isn't to much, or I'd be glad to take suggestions from you guys who know powerbooks better.

 

[chaos86]

sounds like the battery is telling the computer to go to sleep because it thinks its dead. that would be a defective battery. it is going to sleep right? not shutting down? if its sleep then i think its the above problem, if its shutting dow nthen i dont know

 

[PbookYO]

Ya it fully shuts down, anyone else have a similar problem?

 

[williamsonrg]

Just today my girlfriend had a similar problem.

Last night she shut her computer down, and set it to turn itself on at 8 a.m. (such a cool feature, by the way). Anyway, she woke up this morning, and it wasn't on like it should've been. She pressed the power button, nothing happened. She held it for a few seconds, still nothing. She read in the user manual something about resetting it, so she flipped it over, saw that the battery was fully charged (it was plugged in too), and before she could do anything else, the screen came on and there was a dialog asking "Are you sure you want to shut your computer down?"

Unfortunately, I wasn't there, so I don't have any more details. Any ideas what happened? Was the computer on the whole time, but not the screen? I know it's a vague description, but I figured it can't hurt to share it.

 

[williamsonrg]

I totally forgot, her Dell laptop she just got rid of had a problem even more similar to yours, where it would randomly shut off. It mostly did it when running off batteries, but then it started doing it while plugged in as well.

 

[wide]

This happened to my Pismo...I think I actually dropped it though ..

Do you think they'd replace it with a new PowerBook if I brought it in?

 

[chaos86]

Just today my girlfriend had a similar problem.

Last night she shut her computer down, and set it to turn itself on at 8 a.m. (such a cool feature, by the way). Anyway, she woke up this morning, and it wasn't on like it should've been. She pressed the power button, nothing happened. She held it for a few seconds, still nothing. She read in the user manual something about resetting it, so she flipped it over, saw that the battery was fully charged (it was plugged in too), and before she could do anything else, the screen came on and there was a dialog asking "Are you sure you want to shut your computer down?"

Unfortunately, I wasn't there, so I don't have any more details. Any ideas what happened? Was the computer on the whole time, but not the screen? I know it's a vague description, but I figured it can't hurt to share it.

it probably was on the whole time with the screen off (energy settings), and she hit a key on the keyboard and it woke up. i dont know if the screen-turned-off thing responds to the power button.

 

[williamsonrg]

it probably was on the whole time with the screen off (energy settings), and she hit a key on the keyboard and it woke up. i dont know if the screen-turned-off thing responds to the power button.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, but she doesn't remember what she did exactly... Since you said that the power button may not do it, that makes it all the more likely that she just neglected to hit a button on the keyboard (this is our first Mac, but I assume any button or movement of the mouse would work, right?)

 

[PbookYO]

Sounds like similar problems. Anyone ever fix a problem like this or do I just need to go to get it repaired?