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TICKET ARCHIVE -> Powerbook G4 Ti Battery Won't Charge

gfalconar - Jun 30, 2005 - 1:59 pm

I have a PowerBook G4 Titanium 667 MHz Gigabit Ethernet. About a year and a half ago, I bought a new battery from the Apple store. It will not accept a charge.

The other day, suddently my PowerBook went dead while un-plugged. I plugged in AC and it started O.K., but the battery will not charge. It just runs off AC without charging the battery.

I use it regularly, and it gets well drained and re-charged. It worked great - running my PowerBook well over 2 hours!

I re-set the Power Manager, no difference.

The battery is NOT eligible for the recall.

On the battery, when I press the charge status button, the first of the four LED's flashed green. That's it.

Connectors are all excellent.

My other battery works fine (but it's an older one and only lasts about 40 minute - I really want my newer battery to work!).

I suspect something in the battery's own software went weird. Does anyone know what the flashing charge light means? Is there a way to re-set the battery software?

Thanks.

DevilRocks - Jul 1, 2005 - 1:48 am

Ouch, i am worried about your battery. You say you bought it a year and a half ago, They usually last longer than that, but anything can break early. From your symptoms it sounds damaged! Batteries can become damaged if you completely drain them all the way i know it can cause serious damage. In my experience with batteries, i bought my powerbookG4 400MHz, they took $200 of the price cuz the battery was supposobly "bad" and it didnt have an AC adaptor. But when i charged it, i still get 3.5 to 4.0hrs out of it? Weird huh?

I would try plugging the battery in and charging it for a full 24 hours straight. I know thats good for the battery, who knows, maybe you'll get luckey and that will fix it? Have you tried that?

gfalconar - Jul 1, 2005 - 1:57 am

Thanks. I believe it did go fully dead, but this was not the first time for that by far. I have tried leaving it plugged in for a couple hours. It just never starts to charge. I'll try leaving it plugged in overnight and see if that gets it going, as you suggested.

I'd really like to know what the single flashing green indicator means. Apple has nothing on their site about it, and the dealer says there's nothing in the service manuals. Odd that they would program that in but not tell anyone about it.

I'm shopping around for batteries and shocked to see they have gone up about $75 in the last year! Apple dealers seem confused as to what replacement to use, but many aftermarket suppliers offer 4000 and 4400 mAh batteries, which Apple dealers say don't exist. Hmmm, maybe it's time for Apple to kick up the dealer training a notch!

DevilRocks - Jul 1, 2005 - 3:42 pm

Lol, thats funny that they dont go into detail. I am sorry to have to inform you of this but i think your battery is gone. I cant beleive they never told you that you should NEVER let it go fully dead. And even though it may not break the first time that you did that it might take a few times but somehow i think thats what happend.

That sucks about how apples prices went up in the past year, They have been doing better, i just wish they werent so pricey! I would say this, just go ahead and try to charge it for a full 24 hours, if nothing happends, just buy a new one. But atleast this time you know, dont ever let it go fully dead, what i would do is, start charging it when it gets to 15-20% left. It is also good for it to charge it for a full 24 hours once in a while.

-Good Luck