Battery won't recharge on my Powerbook!

I saw a similar thread on here with the same title but my case is a little different. I'm running a 15" Titanium Powerbook G4, running 10.3.9 and my battery indicator says that I'm at 3% but when I plug in my power cable all I get is green. It's not a flicker, it doesn't go back and forth, it's sold. It's almost like it doesn't know there is a batter there at all.

Every once in a while I can get it to go orange by leaving it running and unplugged for a minute and then plugging it in but this is a rare occurrence, it usually just shows me the green. I've zapped the PR, I've done the "take the battery out and hold the power button" trick (I even did it for 10 seconds instead of 5). Nothing seems to work, it won't climb above 3%.

When I unplug the chord, the computer runs just fine until the 3% of power runs out, then I plug it back in. If it were a loose connection on the battery's side, I would imagine the computer wouldn't run while unplugged but it does. The battery is less than a year old. Anyone have any ideas?

 

If the battery is more than a few years old or has had a few bad procedures, there is a good chance it's junk. Leave it in place. power up via your wall wart and check how many cycles it has. If you are somewhere in the 160 or so cycles, you'll be happy to know you have a new(er) battery in your future...
If you decide to get one of the EBay offerings, note the size (abeit small) difference and trim the new one to make sure it can be removed from the case without having to pry it out of the case (been there, done that on several occasions). Nothing wrong with the battery only that they tend to be a touch tight, hey!. .. KY may help... :>).
pc

 

Welcome to the forums.

Have you been calibrating your battery regularly? That can have an effect on the battery's fuel gauge and how it communicates with your notebook.

Also, is it an off-brand generic battery? I personally don't recommend the usage of off-brand batteries for a few reasons.

All of this is discussed in detail in the battery guide. Please read through it for more information.

 

Take the battery out and try starting it on charger power only. If that doesn't work, it's the charger. If that works, it's trickier but I would wager the battery needs replacing.

Check http://support.apple.com - in the right column there are links to battery exchange programs and such, check if your battery qualifies for any of the Powerbook ones (there should be two). If it does, congrats on your free new battery. If not, at least you checked before buying a new one

 

Reset the Power Management Unit
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449#faq9

If that doesn't help, check the discussion boards for the TiBook, there's tons of battery problems there:
http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=1045

And let us know if you were able to fix it!

I had some weird issues in my TiBook that I believe were related to the latest software updates. Haven't had time to verify that the PMU reset fixed it - but a PMU reset is always the first thing one should do when faced with battery problems.

 

you guys do realize this thread is several months old right?

 

The thread may be old but people still read this stuff when they're doing Google searches. Anyway, I've tried a new battery and it won't read at all. I think I've got an issue with the actual battery interface, probably due to the fact that I've had to pry the battery out of its slot everytime I wanted to get it out. I think the design on these older Tibooks is poor at best. I hope the new ones are designed better.

Oh yeah, in case anyone has the problem I've had with the hinges pulling out of the screen casing, I've found that those spring loaded paper clips (the triangular shaped ones) do a good job of holding the whole thing together, sure it marks up the cpu a little but that's better than a flacid screen.

Cheers,

Celt.rock

 

well i figured with only one post, that you prolly weren't around still. so the responses to help you would have fallen on deaf ears if you weren't around is what my point was. some people have dug out some really old threads before and started answering with new things that wouldn't apply to the situation then.

 

Hey celt, so you are still here., heh , welcome back. Have you pressed the button on the bottom of your battery, does it light up all l.e.d's or just 1? I have a TiBook also, which needed a new battery, but it would literally go from 100 to 0 in about 60 seconds. With a new battery, i'm right back up to 4 hours, and followed the cycle procedure in it's first use. I like you hinge fix.. mine are ripping the case apart.