PowerBook Adapter Question

[Zacster98]

Hi all!

Long time reader, first time poster in the PowerPC section.

I have just purchased a PowerBook G4 17" (1.5ghz, 1.5gb RAM) for only £26 (bargain!) to add to my growing collection of Mac laptops, but it comes without a power adapter.

My question is this: can I use the power adapter from my 12" PowerBook with the 17"?

 

[Gav2k]

You can but it'll take longer to charge

 

[Zacster98]

Glad to hear it, it doesn't have a battery at the moment anyway but will bear that in mind in the future.

Thank you for the fast reply!

 

[California]

Glad to hear it, it doesn't have a battery at the moment anyway but will bear that in mind in the future.

Thank you for the fast reply!

I don't think you will be able to start up without a 65watt charger without a battery. But try it, I guess.

 

[eyoungren]

You cannot start up a 17" with a 45W adapter. You will only be able to maintain the current charge of the battery using a 45W adapter when using the Mac and it will only charge (and very slowly) when either off or sleeping with a 45W adapter.

You NEED a 65W adapter.

Also, note that as a temporary measure, using the 45W adapter is fine, but if you use it permanently it can, over time, result in some damage to the charging system. The system is essentially starved for power (it's not getting enough) and that can cause parts to fail prematurely.

My advice is to only use this charger until you can promptly secure a 65W adapter.

I have owned 3 17" 1.0Ghz PowerBook G4s and 1 17" PowerBook 1.67Ghz DLSD and have replaced multiple parts (including logicboards) on all four Macs. So, there's my background on this.

 

[Zacster98]

Right, seeing as though the general consensus is that I need a 65w adapter, I have purchased one for it. I had a feeling I might as I doubted an adapter designed for such a small notebook would also power a 17" Powerbook.

Thank you everybody for all of their help, and I will create a thread fully showing off the machine in due course