TiBook 500mhz Weird battery deal.

[Iamvery]

Ok here's the skinny. Monday I got an old Titanium Powerbook to play with. It initially would not turn on (even with AC), but after letting it rest for awhile it jumped to life and even seemed to be taking a charge. I let it charge for the day and tried out the battery that night. Amazingly it sait it had 3ish hours remaining and I used it for about an hour or so (with 70% or so still remaining after that time) then went back to AC. Used it on Tues and it was great. When I woke up on Wed morning the book would not turn on and when I booted it on AC the date/time was reset and it showed the main battery as 0%. Long story short, I got a new PRAM battery and put it in today. Date/Time stay after an unplug BUT the battery is still just saying "Calculating...". I checked out the battery info via terminal and using Battorox (see pic). This all leads me to believe that somehow the battery is still ok, but is seriously confused after loosing its good friend the PRAM batt. Does anyone have any idea on how to knock some sense back into her? I was thinking that simply leaving it plugged in for AWHILE might correct the problem... Or do you guys think that for some crazy reason by plugging and charging after such a long rest resulted in a temporary working stage before it completely kaput?

Thanks,
Jay

 

[wangahrah]

Now, I'm not a doctor, but I played around with batteries for awhile hoping to revive dead ibook batteries. Try fully charging it (overnight, even if it doesnt ttink its charged) and then letting it run til it dies a few times. Seemed to help
the ibook batter for a little.

Also http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449
has information on resetting the PMU: you can use that as a last ditch effort. You'll need to find the trick for your specific model, it varies slightly.

Good luck!

 

[Iamvery]

Thanks for the speedy reply (as you can tell I'm hovering for them ). I did try the PMU reset.. and it didn't seem to do anything other than reset my time/date (along with whatever other pmu settings there are). As for the charging thing, yeah I will deffinitely do that (I only got the pram in ther this evening). But I do find it strange that even Battorox is showing the charge % @ 0.39 even though the Volts and Capacity are showing well w/n a reasonable range. Thanks a ton for the reply!

 

[ibilly]

would a PMU reset help a Pb battery that holds a good charge, but occasionally dies between 20-50% (into sleep), and does not become more accurate the next time around?

 

[Iamvery]

I just relized another thing... The battery icon just shows AC connected not charging (I'm pretty sure it would show a little bolt on there if it was charging, correct?)

Edit: I was thinking.. Anyone think it could be a software issue? Like somehow with all the changes (pram batt dying), etc.. the software became corupted. Could it do that in such a way the it will literally refuse to charge the battery? Can the software even manage the power in that way?

 

[California]

look up coconutbattery.com and see if there is life left in the battery or what.
You worrying so much about it because you need a portable or you just want the old thing to work? I would also clean the connectors inside the bottom case and on the battery. Getting a new or even used but working Ti battery is pretty easy.

 

[faintember]

I just relized another thing... The battery icon just shows AC connected not charging (I'm pretty sure it would show a little bolt on there if it was charging, correct?)

Depends on your settings. Click on the battery icon, select Show, then select percentage or time. It looks like you currently have "icon only" selected.

 

[Iamvery]

I tried the coconutBattery program and apparently when it released the latest version it only works with 10.4.x (at least I can say it doesnt open on my 10.3.9). You say getting a new/used battery is pretty easy, but how much would it cost? This is a work/company computer and since it is so old I don't think they care enough to invest anything in it, but at the same time I don't want to invest any more money in a computer that doesn't belong to me. I will try the connectors suggestion. The weird thing is it does know that it has a battery plugged in because I will show the "x" when I take it out. Possibly when I was taking this thing appart initially a wiggled something out of place with the other battery. I will look into that as well. Anyone know of an older version of coconut I could try? Anyold have a working/old battery and live in north alabama? haha

 

[Iamvery]

Well I thought I would post an update. I went home for the weekend (about an hour drive). Upon arrival I pulled out the Powerbook and used it (AC connected obviously) for about an hour. Then I packed it up and took it to a friends house. When I got there I puller her out and set her up. The laptop would not power on. I tried multiple jacks and nothing would happen. Has the PMU died and all the other symptoms been trying to warn me?

 

[California]

There is a motherboard battery on my Tibook 400mhz that went out.

It was about 69 dollars for a new one. it went out after the 10.3.9 update, btw.

You can get a new long life battery for the Ti for like 130- 150 bucks.

So, tell your work that for 200 bucks you have basically a GREAT laptop.

Which you do. Im not sure if the motherboard battery is the same as a PMU battery but it is the thing that is under the optical drive, I believe. So, if you feel like it, when they open it up to put in the new pmu battery they can also drop in a superdrive or combo drive -- can't remember if the Ti500s came with combo drives. I'd try my darndest to get my boss to spring for this. In fact, when I put the new battery in the Ti400, I had them drop in a combo drive at the same time. Also a good time to put in a new hard drive, while the machine is all apart.

One last thing Tibooks are probably the easiest laptops towork on ever.
You could probably do all this work yoruself, if you were careful.

 

[Iamvery]

...when I booted it on AC the date/time was reset and it showed the main battery as 0%. Long story short, I got a new PRAM battery and put it in today...

Yeah I fixed that problem. It died again after that.

 

[California]

Yeah I fixed that problem. It died again after that.

Okay, final thing that you can do. If the pb is still oem stock, they have a program for 350 to 400 to fix your old pb that is out of warranty. It puts it back under warranty again, too. Had it done on a 1ghz Ti I had.