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PowerBook Battery wont charge

I

InsightsIE

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 29, 2008
673
43
I recently acquired a powerbook off of ebay, and the seller before ship confirmed that the battery held a good bit, when i got it the battery died, but heres the kicker, in OSX it says battery not charging but the cord goes orange for 10 minutes. Then when on sleep, it will do it again for another 10 minutes, but when i plug it out, the light on the latch remains to flash so it means that the batterys holding something, it just wont charge! is there a way to force it to charge? Also the led light on the battery doesn't show, so good news is DC board isn't dead right?:)

Also the mac doesn't make a chime at bootup but it works fine although ocassionally the screen muffles
 
You could try to calibrate the battery:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490


If your running 10.4 or later, click the :apple: in the menu bar>about this mac>more info and look for the "power" option below - or download CoconutBattery to see the same results.

If the cycles are over 300, then it's probably time to get a new battery and the person that sold you the powerbook lied.
 
NC MacGuy said:
What kind of PB is it?
Click to expand...
It's a 1.25Hz 15", It has 512MB of Memory, DVD-R, 64MB Radeon 9600, 60GB HDD,


killerrobot said:
You could try to calibrate the battery:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1490


If your running 10.4 or later, click the :apple: in the menu bar>about this mac>more info and look for the "power" option below - or download CoconutBattery to see the same results.

If the cycles are over 300, then it's probably time to get a new battery and the person that sold you the powerbook lied.
Click to expand...

it says battery information:

charge remaining (mAh) 0
Charging: No
Full charge capacity: 3073
Health information:
Cycle Count: 0
Condition: good
Battery installed: Yes
Amperage (mA) 0
Voltage (MV) 5627

Coconut battery:

Current Battery charge: 0 mAH
Maxium Battery charge 3073 mAh
0%

Current battery capacity: 3073mAh
Original Battery capacity: 4400mAh
69%

Additional info:
Battery-Load Cycles 0
Age of your Mac- 71 Months
Charger connected Yes
Battery is charging no
 
Looks like the battery isn't charging at all and something is definitely wrong with it because it's showing a 0 cycle count.

Looks like you need to buy a new battery.:(
 
killerrobot said:
Looks like the battery isn't charging at all and something is definitely wrong with it because it's showing a 0 cycle count.

Looks like you need to buy a new battery.:(
Click to expand...

so its only the battery.:D It wouldn't be the powercord or the DC Board in the powerbook :)
 
GeekOFComedy said:
so its only the battery.:D It wouldn't be the powercord or the DC Board in the powerbook :)
Click to expand...

I'm no Apple Certified Tech, but my bet would be on the Battery. The power cord could be a problem if it isn't pulling enough Watts. However, even if it's pulling low wattage, it should still be able to charge the battery a little and you should be getting some cycle count reading or some charge reading.

Do you know anyone else with a powerbook?
You could try their power cord or swap out batteries - just to double check it isn't the power cord

It doesn't sound like it's the DC board at all because CoconutBattery is showing that the charger is plugged in.
 
killerrobot said:
I'm no Apple Certified Tech, but my bet would be on the Battery. The power cord could be a problem if it isn't pulling enough Watts. However, even if it's pulling low wattage, it should still be able to charge the battery a little and you should be getting some cycle count reading or some charge reading.

Do you know anyone else with a powerbook?
You could try their power cord or swap out batteries - just to double check it isn't the power cord

It doesn't sound like it's the DC board at all because CoconutBattery is showing that the charger is plugged in.
Click to expand...
Could it be because i use a uk 210volt plug and the brick came from americas 110volt plug. basically i used my macbook pros extender with the powerbook brick and no one else i know has one. I will just get a new battery and see whats happens, Also are those apple powerbricks reliable or do they have a tendency to burn up etc?:)
 
NC MacGuy said:
If the powerbrick were bad, you wouldn't be able to operate the computer with it. Hopefully it's just a bad battery.

Have you gone through the Apple PMU reset?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431
Click to expand...

I tried it plenty of times. Basically mine is when it's turned off press those keys wait 5 secs etc. I done it when it's green and after the 5 seconds it goes orange for another 10 minutes or if i do it while it's orange it will just go green for 5 seconds then orange again for 10 minutes and etc. basically im afraid the power cable went on fire like my ibook 3rd party black one. I just hope those powerbricks are reliable if you get me drift;)
 
GeekOFComedy said:
I tried it plenty of times. Basically mine is when it's turned off press those keys wait 5 secs etc. I done it when it's green and after the 5 seconds it goes orange for another 10 minutes or if i do it while it's orange it will just go green for 5 seconds then orange again for 10 minutes and etc. basically im afraid the power cable went on fire like my ibook 3rd party black one. I just hope those powerbricks are reliable if you get me drift;)
Click to expand...

Then probably the battery. Too bad you can't find another to stick in and make sure before you spring for one.

I have a 15" PB battery that charges, lights light, shows 73% life left but when you try and operate the computer for longer than 4 minutes shuts off with no warning at all. Mr. :apple: Geniu-ass told me it was absolutely a bad logic board.:rolleyes: Swapped battery and it works fine. Well as fine as a PB works running Leopard anyway.
 
^^^^ As far as batteries go, who knows?;) You always take a chance. Be aware that very few of the non-Apple batteries will give light indication while charging. They have lights but you have to press the button to know approx. charge level.

As for startup chime, do you get tones when doing a pram reset or open firmware boot?
 
NC MacGuy said:
^^^^ As far as batteries go, who knows?;) You always take a chance. Be aware that very few of the non-Apple batteries will give light indication while charging. They have lights but you have to press the button to know approx. charge level.

As for startup chime, do you get tones when doing a pram reset or open firmware boot?
Click to expand...


Once the battery "works" its all good, also no chime on pram or firmware
 
Also, since the PB does not make a startup chime, there is a good chance that only one memory slot on that machine is functional and another one is fried.

It was a very common problem with those machines (mine had that too but was fixed under warranty) and absence of startup chime (when the system sound is not muted, of course) was a symptom of that.

Check one thing: go to system info -> memory: which 512MB module is shown as installed: UPPER or LOWER? If it is UPPER, then your computer is probably defective.
 
nsbio said:
Also, since the PB does not make a startup chime, there is a good chance that only one memory slot on that machine is functional and another one is fried.

It was a very common problem with those machines (mine had that too but was fixed under warranty) and absence of startup chime (when the system sound is not muted, of course) was a symptom of that.

Check one thing: go to system info -> memory: which 512MB module is shown as installed: UPPER or LOWER? If it is UPPER, then your computer is probably defective.
Click to expand...

Yea it said upper, so the battery problem could be because of a defective mainboard:mad: what happened to yours when yours went defective, do i just lose a ram slot and should open it up and take the lower out so i can hear the chime or will things go mad
 
NC MacGuy said:
Open her up and take a peek and see if you only have one stick in. Move it to the other slot if so and restart. See if it recognizes it's moved. You may be just fine.
Click to expand...

Since all PBs came with memory modules at least in the LOWER slot from the factory, the absence of one in this one means that either there are two modules installed with only the UPPER slot functioning, or there is only one module installed (UPPER), meaning that someone removed the lower module, most likely prior to sale. Both possibilities point to lower slot failure...

But, as NC MacGuy says, opening her up is the only sure way to see.
 
GeekOFComedy said:
Yea it said upper, so the battery problem could be because of a defective mainboard:mad: what happened to yours when yours went defective, do i just lose a ram slot and should open it up and take the lower out so i can hear the chime or will things go mad
Click to expand...

The memory slot failures were issues with a wide range of AL PBs, not only 1.5/1.67. The computer should work fine otherwise. The only problem is that you would be limited to 1Gb total ram. The battery might be a separate issue: with a computer of this age, it might be dead from natural causes. The ebay seller should have been more forthcoming on this issue though.
 
OK I'l open her up but the phillips screw head i use on my macbook pro wont work on the powerbook
 
I took an HP laptop and digital camera to the UK on vacation. Both were rated to work on UK power, so I charged them there. Big No-No. When I returned home, the batteries in both devices would no longer hold a charge longer than a few minutes.

Just be mindful or buying used (or even new) batteries from the US, as you might run into the same problem
 
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