PowerBook G4 Problems

[asdfguy86]

I'm currently having problems with my Powerbook G4, such as:
It's very sluggish, it takes 2 minutes to boot, most sites don't open, or take a very long time to open. Another problem is, the battery. I have it's original Battery and everything, but it says " No battery installed", with an X inside a battery icon. if I take my plug out, it shuts off. When it boots, it says it is charging for half a second.

Here is it's specs:
Running Mac OS x 10.5.8 with PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz Processor
Bus speed: 167Mhz
250GB hard drive
Serial Number W85280EWSQ7
Identified as PowerBook G4 (1.2)

I can't name all the specs on it, as it would take forever.

 

[Altemose]

I'm currently having problems with my Powerbook G4, such as:
It's very sluggish, it takes 2 minutes to boot, most sites don't open, or take a very long time to open. Another problem is, the battery. I have it's original Battery and everything, but it says " No battery installed", with an X inside a battery icon. if I take my plug out, it shuts off. When it boots, it says it is charging for half a second.

Here is it's specs:
Running Mac OS x 10.5.8 with PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz Processor
Bus speed: 167Mhz
250GB hard drive
Serial Number W85280EWSQ7
Identified as PowerBook G4 (1.2)

I can't name all the specs on it, as it would take forever.

The fact that most sites don't open can most likely be resolved by upgrading your browser. Try Leopard WebKit or TenFourFox.

As for the charging, it is possible your battery is cooked! As a troubleshooting measure check here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1431

Also reset your PRAM and NVRAM with the instructions here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Let us know how it goes!

----------

I'm currently having problems with my Powerbook G4, such as:
It's very sluggish, it takes 2 minutes to boot, most sites don't open, or take a very long time to open. Another problem is, the battery. I have it's original Battery and everything, but it says " No battery installed", with an X inside a battery icon. if I take my plug out, it shuts off. When it boots, it says it is charging for half a second.

Here is it's specs:
Running Mac OS x 10.5.8 with PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz Processor
Bus speed: 167Mhz
250GB hard drive
Serial Number W85280EWSQ7
Identified as PowerBook G4 (1.2)

I can't name all the specs on it, as it would take forever.

Also you may want to remove your address from your location for privacy purposes. The city and State is perfectly fine though.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm currently having problems with my Powerbook G4, such as:
It's very sluggish, it takes 2 minutes to boot, most sites don't open, or take a very long time to open. Another problem is, the battery. I have it's original Battery and everything, but it says " No battery installed", with an X inside a battery icon. if I take my plug out, it shuts off. When it boots, it says it is charging for half a second.

Here is it's specs:
Running Mac OS x 10.5.8 with PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz Processor
Bus speed: 167Mhz
250GB hard drive
Serial Number W85280EWSQ7
Identified as PowerBook G4 (1.2)

I can't name all the specs on it, as it would take forever.

Have you ever done any form of maintenance on your Mac? I'd start with Onyx or Cocktail. Run the Daily, Weekly and Monthly scripts, clean caches, delete temp files, etc.

Be sure to download the version of Onyx for Leopard.

As to your browser not being able to load pages, that could be a result of poor maintenance or obsolesence. If you are using an older version of Safari try to update or use LeopardWebkit instead. If you are using Firefox, try TenFourFox. Mozilla cut support for Firefox on PowerPC at version 3. TenFourFox is at version 20 (stable) now which is the equivalent of Firefox 20.

Most websites don't care for older browsers much.

If all of this fails, then check your hard drive. Open Disk Utility and verify the SMART status. If it says "Failing" then you need a new hard drive.

As to the battery, you probably need a new one. They do not last forever and the circuitry inside has probably failed so your Mac won't charge it any more.

 

[asdfguy86]

I Cannot find disk utility! is " startup disk" and similair?

 

[eyoungren]

I Cannot find disk utility! is " startup disk" and similair?

Disk Utility is in the Utilities folder which is inside the Applications folder at the root of the hard drive. If it's not there, you probably have more problems than your Mac just being slow.

 

[asdfguy86]

The fact that most sites don't open can most likely be resolved by upgrading your browser. Try Leopard WebKit or TenFourFox.

As for the charging, it is possible your battery is cooked! As a troubleshooting measure check here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1431

Also reset your PRAM and NVRAM with the instructions here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

Let us know how it goes!

----------



Also you may want to remove your address from your location for privacy purposes. The city and State is perfectly fine though.

Address? Oh. That doesnt matter. I moved out of that house 8 months ago. Powerbook? Its running OK. On safari, you need to go to apple.com for anything to open.

 

[Altemose]

Address? Oh. That doesnt matter. I moved out of that house 8 months ago. Powerbook? Its running OK. On safari, you need to go to apple.com for anything to open.

So Safari is having issues displaying some sites?

 

[flyrod]

Here is it's specs:
Running Mac OS x 10.5.8 with PowerPC G4 1.67 GHz Processor
Bus speed: 167Mhz
250GB hard drive

How much ram? Ram is something like 10,000 times faster than a disk drive, so max out the ram.

The battery issue is probably an old battery. You could re-cell it or get a replacement.

 

[eyoungren]

I'm just wondering what's changed here. OP has finally replied to this thread over a year and three months gone.

 

[asdfguy86]

I'm just wondering what's changed here. OP has finally replied to this thread over a year and three months gone.

To update you (nearly 2 years later, lol) the PowerBook is running fine as of now. It's had no issues for a while now and it runs fine. It runs the latest version of TenFourFox and Disk Utility's SMART status said the drive was good. I don't use the machine that much so leaving it on the charger isn't the biggest concern to me. The only other upgrades/maintenance I plan to do with it is to upgrade the HDD to an SSD of some sort.