SSMMAC wrote:
Ok, the charger is not making a light but it is a off brand (not apple) charger, will it still work? I think the main battery is out of power completely, but, if the backup battery (internal) is drained will the powerbook still run with just the main (external) bat.?
If the power adapter is actually compatible, though you probably wouldn't have the charged/charging (green/amber) LED indication feedback. The Titanium adapters provide 24.5 volts DC and 2.65 amps of current.
With respect to the main battery, you should have the green four-LED array and test button and when pressing the button, four LEDS will light for a fully charged battery, fewer for partially charged batteries. If you are unable to charge the battery in the computer, then either the battery has completely failed (which will happen after several years, though I do have an eight-year-old Apple battery that still holds up pretty well), the DC-In board in the computer has failed, or the power adapter is not working.
The backup battery is there mainly to hold up the system time of day clock and parameter RAM contents, though it is supposed to be able to support a couple of minutes of "sleep" to enable battery changes with the computer on. If the backup battery is weak or gone, then what can happen is that data read from PRAM at boot can be bizarre and cause strange boot-time behavior, up to and including not being able to power the machine up.
That being said, you need to verify that you can charge the main battery, because even with a working backup, if the machine has no DC power available (which could be the case if the power adapter or DC-in board are not doing their things) then nothing is going to happen. Charging the main battery will more or less eliminate those two failure suspects and you can work from there.
Just as an aside, what is the acutal power adapter you are using? I guess I haven't acquainted myself with aftermarket power adapters for the TiBooks.
Message was edited by: old comm guy