My iBook G4 won't charge or recognize AC input

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My iBook G4 won't charge or recognize AC input

I'm just going to tell what hapened.

-My iBook's battery was low, about 10 minutes left on it. I then plugged in the AC adapter into my iBook.

-The light on the connecter lit up orange, so I thought it was chraging, but the battery icon on the screen just stayed the same and didn't indicate that it was charging.

-Then a message popped up saying "Your computer is running on reserved battery power. If you don't plug in an AC adapter, your computer will power down automattically to preserve the contents of memory."

-I thought if I unplugged the charger and then plugged it back in it would fix the problem. It just made it worse.

-The second I unplugged it the screen went blank. I thought my computer died, but it just went to sleep.

-So I plugged it back in and it still wouldn't recognize AC input. Then my laptop just shut down, and it won't turn back on. Even while plugged in

I really need help, as I don't have any extra batteries, and I don't think Apple sells them anymore. HELP!

iBook, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 12.1" 1.33 GHz PowerPC G4 512MB

Posted on Feb 5, 2012 10:18 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 5, 2012 10:41 AM in response to timtom626

These are the four most common possibilities when the battery will not charge:

(1) there is something wrong with the battery

(2) there is something wrong with the power adapter

(3) there is something wrong with the power input board (the part that contains the port where you plug in the adapter)

(4) there is something wrong with the logic board

Have you tried http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449 resetting the PMU?

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431?viewlocale=en_US

Some people have reported reviving their battery by resetting the PRAM.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379?viewlocale=en_US

The power input (DC-in) board (the part of the computer which houses the adapter port) may be going bad if it sometimes will charge the battery and sometimes won’t. Sometimes it will work intermittently before quitting entirely. When a DC-in board quits working, the computer will run fine from the battery, but won't run from the adapter, and the adapter will no longer charge the battery. To diagnose a bad DC-in board, you need to make sure it isn't the battery or the adapter at fault by swapping out first one and then the other, If it runs from a known good charged battery okay, but won't run from a known good adapter, then you are going to have to replace the power input board.

Usually, if it is a logic board problem, the iBook simply will not run from the battery. This happened to mine. The battery showed up in the battery status indicator. It was recognized by the computer and charged by the adapter (as shown by the battery status indicator). However, when I unplugged the adapter from the iBook, it was just like pulling the power cord from the wall on a desktop. The iBook immediately shutdown. Dead.

My husband’s problem was quite obviously the power input board because the adapter tip had broken off in the port. Often (and, sadly, in our case), this damages the power input board so that it no longer functions, necessitating replacement of the board as well as the broken adapter.

New batteries are available. For the 12-inch model:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/powerbook/battery/ibook-g3-g4-12inch/

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