New battery, PowerBook still won't charge

alanwoollcombealanwoollcombe
Posted:
in Genius Bar edited January 2014
Hi.



The header says it all: I bought a new (new new, not secondhand) battery for my G3 (Wall Street) PowerBook as the old one wasn't charging.



The new battery came with instructions to press Shift+Function+Control+Power to reset the Power Manager, which I did before charging it overnight. No charge, however, and the icon on the ruler bar refused to show anything other than a battery crossed out.



I repeated the process, without effect.



Then I tried Battery Reset 2.0: still no change to the icon. (The old battery, though not charging, at least showed the battery icon uncrossed.)



Have I bought a duff battery, or is there anything else I can try?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 5
    altivec_2.0altivec_2.0 Posts: 995member
    Where are you charging your battery? In an external Charger or inside your computer. If it's external it may be in not definte the charger. If it's inside your computer the connectors inside the bay is bent torn, or just plain dont work at all.





    "Master" of the Mac :cool:
  • Reply 2 of 5
    alanwoollcombealanwoollcombe Posts: 54member
    The battery is the module sort, so it's being charged - or not - inside the computer.



    The A/C adapter is working OK - the computer starts up without any problems with no battery in.



    Someone mentioned something about a faulty charge card - is that what you mean?
  • Reply 3 of 5
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    There's a board in your powerbook under your trackpad/palmrest called the PMU board. It does stuff like battery charging, etc. It sounds like it is either loose or defunct.



    If you are feeling gutsy, grab a repair manual for your particular PBG3 and take it apart. To get to this board, you will have to completely dismantle the 'book.



    DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WITHOUT A MANUAL!!!! You would have to be insane to try this without the proper manual telling you how to take apart the book.



    You can do it all with two screw drivers.



    Check to see that the board and cables are properly seated. If they are, and you still have problems charging, get a replacement board from <a href="http://www.pbparts.com"; target="_blank">www.pbparts.com</a>
  • Reply 4 of 5
    stimulistimuli Posts: 564member
    My guess is that it is loose, as the board is of course solid-state. These things generally either work, or don't. They don't usually fail over time.
  • Reply 5 of 5
    alanwoollcombealanwoollcombe Posts: 54member
    Thanks for your charge card suggestion - it was spot on. I've just got my PowerBook back and the dealer confirmed that the charge card had indeed become disconnected.
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