Powerbook will not start, no chimes no noises, no lights

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Level 1

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Powerbook will not start, no chimes no noises, no lights

Hi,

I have a 15" G4 Powerbook, which I think is 1.25GHz (can't remember and can't check because I can't get it to start up, but I'm almost 100% on that) and has 768Mb RAM. He is running Mac OSX 10.3.9.

The other day I was working on him (nothing too strenuous, a couple word docs) and put him to sleep while I went away for an hour or so. When I came back he would not wake so I finally managed to force him to turn off (thinking I would restart) by leaving the battery and power disconnected for a while.

He then would not power on. When I press the power button, there is no "clunk and whirr", no beeps, no lights, nothing. I am gutted. Now, buying a new laptop is not really an option for me. Not because of funds but because everything I use (software wise and equipment wise) for my job needs to be on a PPC processor mac and I need a laptop for portability.

Prior to this incident we were having a few charging issues where i'd have to wait until he'd charged sufficiently before he'd wake from sleep if he'd been asleep for a couple days but this was never really a problem (to me).

Any ideas what I can replace / repair on it to make him work? Video and music editing on an 800MHz iBook is killing me slowly...

Any help greatfully received!

iBook G4 800MHz, Mac Mini G4 1.3GHz, Mac OS X (10.3.x)

Posted on May 28, 2010 4:41 AM

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Answer 1

a brody

Level 10

85,366 points

May 28, 2010 12:07 PM in response to Lol Drake

Have the Powerbook's PRAM battery replaced if it is over 4 years old.
If it is under 4 years old, try zapping the PRAM:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238

Try powering on with and without the battery inserted.

Does the battery indicate with its indicator lights that it has any charge for the removable battery? If not, it may have died and you need only to replace the battery, or revamp it at a notebook battery specialist.

Does your power cord look excessively bent, or fraying? See my FAQ*:

http://www.macmaps.com/frayguide.html

This may prevent the notebook from getting charge, and if the battery is dead, it won't start up or recharge.

A diagnosis from one of these shops may be inexpensive compared to bringing it in to Apple, though sometimes you get a nice free diagnosis at Apple's Genius bar that will tell you what is going wrong:

http://www.dttservice.com/
http://www.powerbookresq.com/
http://www.microdocusa.com/
http://www.macspecialist.com/
http://www.techrestore.com/

- * Links to my pages may give me compensation.

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Answer 2

BGreg

Level 6

17,558 points

May 30, 2010 6:10 AM in response to Lol Drake

There are a couple of things you can do. However, if your current system speed isn't enough, have you considered getting a used 1.67Ghz machine and putting your hard drive in it? You probably also know that the Intel-based machines have Rosetta emulation, so they can run many PPC software.

If your battery is good and the power supply is good, replacing the PRAM battery might make a difference. If you take it to an Apple store, get the price for sending the system to the Apple depot for repair. We had a logic board go, and it cost $350, where they replaced the logic board and a failing battery. The price would go up if the case is banged up, as they'll do what they need to in order to put the system in as close to new shape as possible. 90 day warranty on the work, as I recall. If they do any work in the store, replacing the logic board, for example, would run around $750 give or take.

When you get your machine running, you might think about more memory, which might help with running some of the programs you have. After the system runs for a bit, you can check the memory paging activity to see if you're paging memory to disk too often due to not enough physical memory. And you probably know that you need 10%-15% free space on the hard drive, or performance can really slow down.

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Answer 3

Lol Drake Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2010 4:39 AM in response to BGreg

Well, you lovely people, thank you ever so much for your help. The problem is now resolved... I shall explain.

I bought another PowerBook, the zippy 1.67GHz model with 2Gb RAM, lovely (on eBay, of course). So I retrieve the new PowerBook from the Greenhouse where ParcelForce left it ahem and get it inside. Plug it in, press the on button. Quelle surprise, nothing. No tick and whirr, nothing at all. I go mental. I change chargers, maybe it's my charger? Nothing. Then I change power sockets. Now, I had done this with my other one and it had made no difference. This power socket was on the other side of the room though and it started up (although the new replacement battery doesn't seem to actually want to charge, or light up, or even fit in properly but I'm not so bothered about that)...

So I think "that's funny (funny weird not funny ha ha)" and go and get my old dead powerbook. Which, when plugged in to the other power socket, fires up like Hugh Heffner around an 18 year old blonde.

I am having the electrics in my house looked at now, but I find this very strange, as that "dud" power socket happily charges my iBook...

Thank you once again for all your suggestions, they were greatly appreciated in my hour of need, I cannot believe it is such a random non-computer related problem that seemed to cause my computer problem and apologise for wasting your time! At least the bad-boy is working now, that's the main thing...

Take care you wonderful people!

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Answer 4

Lol Drake Author

Level 1

0 points

Jun 6, 2010 4:39 AM in response to Lol Drake

My dodgy 1950s house electrics was apparently the problem...

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