My 15" aluminium powerbook (1.67 GHz) has a serious power issue. Every unpredictable now and then, but at least once a day, the power drops, screen turns black and the machine is entirely unresponsive. At that time a light in the display release button starts to pulsate. The only way to get out of this situation is to remove the adapter and the battery and press the power button for five seconds. After that, the machine will boot again and behave for some time.
Does anyone have a similar experience? Better yet, does anyone know how to solve this? Thanks in advance!
Powerbook 15" 1.67 GHz (aluminium),
Mac OS X (10.5.5),
2 GB RAM installed, 1 GB RAM recognized.
Just a few encouraging words if you decide to change your own PRAM battery. I know the thought of cracking open your PB might make you cringe a little but really it is not that bad. To get to the PRAM battery you will only have to get as far as taking the top surface off. (where your track-pad and keyboard are) The steps are clearly laid out for you in the ifixit.com web pages, and if the pictures seem small you can click on them to make them bigger in a separate pop-up window. If that is still not close up enough you can press 'ctrl' and scroll up to zoom in and scroll down to zoom back out. (on a Mac not on Windows)
About the only tricky step you will have to go through is the clips in the front of the laptop above the latch button and the DVD slot. Oh, and by the way, the 2 screws on top (above the speaker grills) are Torx T6 screws, but if those little stars strips out, a 1/16th inch hex wrench will fit nice and snugly.
Study the ifitit.com web pages and they will describe in detail how to disconnect the two ribbon cables connected to the keyboard and track-pad. The small one will simply pop right out but the larger one you need to pop a flange up to release it. Just remember to push the flange back down when you put it back together. After you get the top off you will see the PRAM battery on top of the optical drive. (DVD Drive)
It is kept in place with a piece of double sided sticky tape. Just make sure you disconnect the cable to it before you try to pry it off the DVD drive because it is very sticky and if you jerk it too hard the plug might brake like I warned you about a few posts ago.
It sounds harder than it is, because by the time you put it all back together you will wonder if there was something more you needed to do. About the only other piece of advice I can offer is make sure you have and use the right tools.
This is a good excuse to get a set of precision screwdrivers with a few Torx screwdrivers included. The only one you should need this time is a T6 Torx,(a 1/16th inch hex if the stars strip out) a #1 Philips, #0 Philips, and a small straight tip. If you can, get a heavy duty plastic spudger for separating the top off the clips without scratching up you PB. Apple loves to design our products to snap together with as few visible screws as possible.
Good luck! Scott
P.S. I found this on ebay and ya might wanna take a look.
http://cgi.ebay.com/15-PowerBook-G4-1-67-GHz-PRAM-Battery-with-Connector
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My problem is that the battery will go from a charged state, say 50%, to 0% instantly. This results with the PB going to sleep. I can awaken it by plugging the power supply in.
You just need to recalibrate your battery. You can search around for better instructions but basically you allow it to go completely dead and go in to sleep mode. You might need to allow it to stay in sleep mode for couple hours if it is a newer model to calibrate correctly. After that, charge it back up all the way. By calibrating the battery once a month your Powerbook can better gauge how much power it has left and how long it will keep it running.
