G3 Wallstreet battery charge issues

Question

troy1974 Author

Level 1

8 points

G3 Wallstreet battery charge issues

Hi there I wondered if anyone had advice for this issue

I have a 233/G3 Wallstreet PB (series 2) running OSX 10.2.8 - when I got the wallstreet recently it wasnt charging the battery and would only run off the AC. i decided to buy a new replacement battery which when installed the PB recognised and displayed a 14% charge which in half hour has climbed to 16% which tells me it is charging albeit slow.

However if i pull the AC adapter out the PB cuts out and I can only restart with the AC in? it seems the PB wont run off the battery even with 16% charge. The manufacture of the battery told me I need to do a discharge and charge cycle to get the best from the battery but if the PB wont run off the battery I cant do this.
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I have tried all the usual tricks - restarts, PMU reset etc, like I say the battery seems to be charging and as Im writing this has climbed to 17% charge

when I hold the battery button in I get the one green light illuminating

any advice?

thanks

PowerBook G3, Mac OS X (10.2.x)

Posted on Mar 18, 2008 5:10 AM

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Answer 1

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Mar 18, 2008 9:32 AM in response to troy1974

troy,

Technically, a powerbook will run with one solid LED. Since you have reset the power manager and the battery is charging, I would let it charge overnight and see what the charge is in the morning. Your battery will charge more slowly when the 'book is running but I am a little surprised the battery arrived with such a low charge. The difficulty is knowing how long a battery has been sitting on the shelf.

Please be sure you properly reset the power manager: With the powerbook turned off, press down/hold the 'shift-fn-control' keys and then press the power button. You should see the sleep light flash and possibly hear a brief runup of the fan.

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Answer 2

troy1974 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 18, 2008 12:54 PM in response to jpl

Many thanks for you reply and advice - the battery is brand new and comes with a year warranty - at first I thought the issue might be there but since my original post the battery charged up to 70% and stayed there - I pull the AC adapter out and the mac stayed on so it was working off the battery. i thought i shouldnt push my luck so I put the adapter back in and then put PB to sleep while i went to work to allow to keep charging, however when I returned the computer wouldnt wake from sleep - I did a restart and now the battery indicator is showing the X like it did with the old one? Yet i get three full green lights from the battery itself. It seems the PB is not seeing the battery. I did the reset you suggested but nothing changed. I dont really know what to do now. Any ideas

Many thanks

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Answer 3

troy1974 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 18, 2008 12:58 PM in response to troy1974

just to confirm the PB is not charging the battery at all now??

thanks

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Answer 4

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Mar 18, 2008 2:07 PM in response to troy1974

troy,

It is not good when you see the 'X'; for some reason the powerbook is not seeing the battery, at least intermittently so. Since your old battery behaved in the same manner, it appears to be a hardware issue with the powerbook. However, the battery does charge and will run the powerbook, so I am not convinced the powerbook is at fault.

Have you tried the battery in the right media bay?

You also said:

"i thought i shouldnt push my luck so I put the adapter back in and then put PB to sleep while i went to work to allow to keep charging, however when I returned the computer wouldnt wake from sleep - I did a restart and now the battery indicator is showing the X like it did with the old one?"

When you tried to wake from sleep, was the power adapter connected? If connected, the 'book would have been running off the power adapter and so should not have involved the battery.

I don't know if I had recommended Battery Reset 2.0 in a previous reply, but if you have 9.x installed, boot to 9.x and run this utility...see if it helps.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60655

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Answer 5

troy1974 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 18, 2008 4:54 PM in response to jpl

Hi Again

no when I woke the PB from sleep the adapter wasnt in - I took out just before as i thought the battery would have been fully charged but i got nothing and had to do a restart.

Its very strange because when I put the PB to sleep I got up to 70% of charge and it would run without the Power adapter - now all I've got is the 'X' in the battery indicator , no green lights on the battery itself and no matter what i do the PB wont recognise the battery.

I tried the right bay slot but got the same result, when i tried the battery fix download you forwarded I got a message that read' this computer doesnt need the battery reset software'

I'm baffled - what would cause the PB not to see the battery?

Troy

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Answer 6

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Mar 18, 2008 7:28 PM in response to troy1974

troy,

If the battery charged to 70% and you had three green LEDs, but none now, this does not look good for the battery.

If you can boot to 9.x, install Battery Reset 2.0 even if it says you don't need it; this different article explains why:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60665

Be sure to follow the instructions to the letter from the other link I provided. After installing, you may have to go to the Utilities folder, find Battery Reset, then run it.

The lithium ion battery has an onboard electronic controller that sets charging parameters, prevents overcharging (and overheating) and other tasks...this is what you are resetting and why the battery has five posts when only two are required for charging and running. If this controller is damaged, you can see odd behavior.

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Answer 7

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,050 points

Mar 19, 2008 8:16 AM in response to troy1974

In this lengthy thread, I had a similar problem with a friend's Wallstreet. The battery would not charge in that WS but would in two others he owned.

He asked me to replace the PRAM battery (another WS he owned had earlier benefited from my installing a new PRAM batt). I told him that I did not see how a dead PRAM battery could affect charging, and that he likely had a bad power card or logic board in that machine. Still he wanted me to try it and I did. I was leaving town and did not have time to let the new PRAM batt charge before I left, so I returned the computer to him with instructions to leave the WS on AC for a good 48 hours.

I saw him yesterday and he said that WS is now charging batteries as well as the others. I still see no reason this would help, but my friend is sold on installing new PRAM batteries.

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Answer 8

troy1974 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 20, 2008 3:33 AM in response to Allan Jones

I would like to run the battery reset but in OS9 it tells me this computer doesnt need the battery reset and this application will now quit?

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Answer 9

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Mar 20, 2008 11:25 AM in response to troy1974

troy,

I have Battery Reset 2.0 installed on my Wallstreet running 9.2.2; I can launch it and run the reset.

Are you booted to 9.x or running Classic when booted to 10.x? If the latter, it will not run.

My reset utility has an icon of a vertical battery in the Utilities folder; I double-click it to open and have the option to reset. Did you run the Battery Reset installer, then restart? If it says you do not need it, see if you can continue to install it anyway.

Message was edited by: jpl

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Answer 10

troy1974 Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 21, 2008 3:48 AM in response to troy1974

Thankyou - I have now managed to run the battery reset but it didnt cure the problem im afraid. Im still getting the X in the battery icon with both the original and the new battery.

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Answer 11

emfdb

Level 1

0 points

Apr 12, 2008 2:57 PM in response to troy1974

troy1974,

If you are still around, do you recognise your symptoms as being similar to [mine|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1390427&tstart=0&start= 15]? From what you write, I think so. Any news from your side? Probably I will ask to return the third battery and to be refunded...

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Answer 12

Apr 13, 2008 12:31 PM in response to troy1974

Hey Troy,
Sorry to hear about your battery issues. I had the same thing with my Wallstreet 300mhz. I had purchased a new battery for it and it wouldn't recognize it at all, just the ominous X. So, I gave up and continued to use the machine and keep it plugged in all the time. One day I just happened to notice that the battery symbol was full and showed 99% ! I was flabbergasted. It still works to this day and I don't know why. I suppose you could try leaving it plugged in for a couple of days and see what happens. Oh, I replaced the PRAM battery in mine as well and it didn't help at first but maybe after it had had a chance to charge it did the trick. I'm sure I'll never know.
cheers,
j

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