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User profile for user: MariefromTN
MariefromTN Author
User level: Level 1
0 points

g4 power issues

I just bought a g4. This is my first apple laptop, second apple, so I am new to mac.

On arrival, it powered up just fine. Then it went to sleep and would not wake up. After visiting these forums, I tried hard resetting by pressing power button 10 seconds, then 15 seconds with no result. I removed the battery for about 10 minutes, reinserted, no result. I removed the battery again, and noticed a button on the bottom center of the computer (if this isn't really a functional button, don't laugh at me...newbie, remember?) and I pushed it in with a pen after replacing the battery and it powered up just fine.

After a few hours of working fine, with several times waking from sleep, I went to move to another chair. When it was sleeping, there was a light indicator near the clasp. I was holding it in my left hand by the front corner of the laptop (don't know if significant, so just throwing that in there) and it immediately went black again with no sleep indicator. I have tried hard reset, battery removal (even overnight) and the little button. Nothing is working. I had just loaded Office for Mac so my CD is in the drive as well.


I am wondering what to do to fix it. I didn't pay a lot for it, so it would be a good machine for me to learn to repair, I think. I'm not worried about taking it apart if it needs something internal, but I am new to electronics. Can someone help me out?

Posted on Apr 3, 2012 8:53 AM

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User profile for user: sandyc954
sandyc954
User level: Level 1
4 points

Apr 3, 2012 1:11 PM in response to MariefromTN

I am also a novice, but I just came here in search of answers to my iBook G4 power issue (or so I thought). I followed some advice given here and my iBook is back up.


I removed power cord, removed battery, pressed battery button got 4 lights, indicated battery charged. Blew off contacts on battery and where they contact battery receptacle (yes, I said novice, too).


I then did this:


For most situations, a restart is sufficient. If the computer has stopped responding, try these steps, in order, until the computer responds:

  1. Force Quit (Option-Command-Escape)
  2. Restart (Control-Command-Power)
  3. Force Shut Down (press the power button for 10 seconds)

(my iBook has no reset button)


I put it all back together and pressed power button and it sounded normal again. The original issue was that it went dark suddenly, no response to removing battery or pressing some commands randomly.

There was absolutely nothing, no lights, no noise, no screen... seemingly dead.

I believe it crashed after I tried to do some video editing on iMovie that took too much memory... scratch disk full it said. So, I abandoned that project and another user was using it fine for awhile, but it just went dead.

I think it froze and needed to Force Quit the application, but the thing was completely dark. Doing the procedure above was the beginning of the road to recovery.

I had to reset date and time immediately also.


I forgot to mention that the numbered instructions are pressing the three buttons simultaneously. You mentioned new to Mac, so I thought it might be best to add that.


I did those steps in order 2 or 3 times, then tried the battery and it started up.

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g4 power issues

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