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Powerbook just died!?

O

oldmanpants

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 23, 2006
13
0
HELP!

I was just using my powerbook G4 12" when it "clicked", the screen went black and it will not respond. the power cable light is on, and I've tried another battery, but it does not turn on! the little light on the latch button that glows usually, is not on. What has happened to my Powerbook????! I don't have applecare but I imagine I will be calling Apple this morning unless someone can help here

thanks
 
I know what you're going through. I have a TiBook that just up and quit on me about a week ago. I wasn't using it at the time of death, but the rest of the symptoms are the same and I'm still trying to find the root of the problem.
 
My TiBook's CD drive went wonky last night, making one hell of a racket in the process. It still reads discs, but something inside the drive is scratching the surface of the disc, leaving a thick circle around half way up the diameter. Whatever data was underneath the scratch is now unreadible :(
 
that's funny...

this happened to my g3 dual usb ibook last night. i had to force shutdown due to a finder and itunes crash. after shutdown no restart when pressing power button, but the sleep light every now and then would blink really fast, this happened twice during the half hour i tried to get it started. luckily the ibook as a little pmu reset button on the side, after i pressed it i was good to go again!!!
 
ok, i reset the pmu, and the power cable light went out for a second then green then back to orange (this battery is not charged)

but it still does not power up. the white light on the front is still not on either.
 
no power surges or anything recently... and it just happened very suddenly... "click"-off. I think the power is fine... it charges the battery and knows that the battery is not fully charged (orange light on cable). and because of the reaction when resetting the pmu so i think the PMU is alright, but some other hardware failure is likely, no?

I've removed all extra RAM and that did not help either... HDD or Mainboard? i hope my data is ok... very important, and no recent back up.. doh!
 
I doubt it's the hard drive but to check, you could try booting from the OSX discs. Even though the battery is charging, it may still be a busted power supply. :eek:

You may also have some luck retrieving your data with Target Disk Mode if you have another Mac + Firewire cable handy. :)
 
well i cannot boot from the OSX disks if the machine doesn't even turn on... there is absolutely no response to anything... it is just dead.
 
...Which is why it's not the hard drive that's to blame (unless it is also screwed up, but I'd say that's unlikely at this stage). That's a relief because it means your data should still be intact. Whether it's retrievable is another issue... :)

The symptoms you describe make me think it's either going to be a bad peripheral (everything's unplugged though), a bad power supply (despite battery charging), or a bad logic board. If it's either of these last two options then your only choice is really replacement. Sorry but I think a call to Apple may be in order.

Admittedly it does seem weird that it happened so suddenly though. You'd think it'd give some signs before throwing in the towel. :(
 
thanks mad.. i am getting a drive enclosure for the drive, i have removed it yesterday and will recover my work files to my pc for now then get a mac mini to work on while i save for a new macbook pro.

i will keep the pbook around and may order a new logic board in the future... $500 is pretty steep right now when i can get a more powerful mac mini for not much more. i do love my little 12" pbook tho.

thanks again for the help
 
data is ok. phew :)

I am thinking about getting a new logic board, even though it is rather expensive, i would rather get my 12" pbook going than just letting it sit,dead. Any suggestions on sources for teh logic board? ifixit.com has them for $449.95 and thats the lowest i've found em yet, and it comes with a 6mo warranty, which is good for a used, tested part imho. has anyone here ordered from ifixit or anywhere else i should consider??

thanks
 
yes i will be replacing it myself... I'm sure i'll need all the luck i can get just to get all those tiny screws back in the correct spots ;)

anyone else have any opinion/experience with ifixit.com ??
 
just thought I'd update this for anyone who may come accross this in the future...

I took a shot in the dark and ordered a new power board for $10. It got here today, i put the new power board in, put the drive back in, connected the trackpad, keyboard and powerbutton. I pressed the power button and heard the GLORIOUS sound of "dadiiiiing!!" IT'S ALIVE!!!

I am rather excited to get back on the mac ;)

thanks to everyone for your help

jb
 
oldmanpants said:
just thought I'd update this for anyone who may come accross this in the future...

I took a shot in the dark and ordered a new power board for $10. It got here today, i put the new power board in, put the drive back in, connected the trackpad, keyboard and powerbutton. I pressed the power button and heard the GLORIOUS sound of "dadiiiiing!!" IT'S ALIVE!!!

I am rather excited to get back on the mac ;)

thanks to everyone for your help

jb
Click to expand...

Where did you get it from?
 
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