While charging my iBook the charging process stops from time to time.
If I slightly push the power adaptor plug or port the charging continues for a while. To me it seems as if the power adoptor port doesn't have a firm contact with the motherboard. But I may be wrong.
The battery is also old, so that may be another possible source of the problems.
Any suggestion will be appretiated. Thanks.
Hello,
Over the life of the power adapter the 'barrel' becomes perforated and moves outward slightly. While connected to the iBook it looks to be a perfect contact, but its not. What I've done in the past to over come this problem is used some very fine pliers grips and pulled the circular rim around the barrel of the adapter into shape. Not by a lot mind you, Very small amount of movement. Once connected it has better contact with the DC in board and should work fine. Do try not to bend the barrel out of shape.
The battery shouldn't make a lot of differnce, unless it's a dead battery that just wont charge.
Best of luck
Hello,
Over the life of the power adapter the 'barrel' becomes perforated and moves outward slightly. While connected to the iBook it looks to be a perfect contact, but its not. What I've done in the past to over come this problem is used some very fine pliers grips and pulled the circular rim around the barrel of the adapter into shape. Not by a lot mind you, Very small amount of movement. Once connected it has better contact with the DC in board and should work fine. Do try not to bend the barrel out of shape.
The battery shouldn't make a lot of differnce, unless it's a dead battery that just wont charge.
Best of luck
The tip about the barrel rim did help in making a better contact between power adopter plug and board. But it didn't solved my problem.
Using System Profiler I noticed that the AC charger is showns as "Connected: Yes", but then it shows "Charging: No".
If I move slightly the power adaptor plug the status changes to "Charging: Yes".
What is the percentage of charge showing on the battery when you notice the adapter's condition fluctuating between "Charging: No" and "Charging: Yes"?
The percentage shows 99% (the battery itself is on 48% of original capacity).
I started the iBook without the battery and it worked fine until it suddenly stopped at some point. Probably because the power was disconnected, which is what also happens with the battery.
I guess the plug is not firmly connected to the connector or the connector is not well connected to the motherboard?
Jagoche wrote:
The percentage shows 99% (the battery itself is on 48% of original capacity).
I'm not sure what you mean by this.
If the percentage showing is 99%, then that is normal that it would not be charging. No problem there, so no need to jiggle the adapter plug to try to make it get to 100%
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1909?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
I assume you mean that the battery condition as shown in the System Profiler or by a third-party battery monitoring application shows that the battery's condition is at 48%?
Right.
The fluctuating between "Charging: No" and "Charging: Yes" happens all the time, regardless to the percentage of the battery that is full.
Have you tried resetting the PMU?
The PMU (Power Management Unit) controls the charging function, so resetting it may help.
If that doesn't help, it could be the fault of the adapter itself. I always keep an extra on hand in case mine fails. I've had half a dozen adapters, both Apple adapters and third-party adapters, fail.
It could also be a faulty DC-in board (the part of the iBook which contains the power adapter port).
Resetting PMU didn't change much.
I opened iBook and checked the DC-in board. No visible problems, the DC-conector seems to sit well on the board.
What I did was to bend the two small pins which are inside the DC-conector, which seems to help for now. DC-plug seems to sit more firmly in the connector and so far the charging works well.
I will get myself a new DC-in board ASAP. If that doesn't work, I'll also get a new adapter.
Thanks for help.
In case someone run into similar problems... replacing the old DC-board with a new one seems to have solved the problem.
I'm glad to read that you have found and corrected the problem.
Good luck with it from here on out.
I'm having a similar problem. iBook won't start, good power adapter, original battery (I think) showing 4 green lights (but I realize the battery is probablly too old). When I press the power on button a hear a very faint click and the screen changes for a millisecond. Not really a flash, but like it is trying to flash (if that makes sense!). With the power adapter plugged in and the battery removed, nothing when power button is pressed. I have changed the DC in board and have the exact same result. Any other ideas?
Thanks!
My battery can only be charged to the 48% of original capacity, yet it shows all 4 green lights. Check the battery again, 4 lights alone don't mean the battery is OK. Use another battery to see what happens.
If the battery was bad, shouldn't the iBook start up with the battery removed? I get nothing with the battery out.
Thanks!
Right. Without the battery I was able to start iBook, but it shot down the very moment the faulty DC board lost the contact.
Not sure, but to me the problem doesn't seem related to DC board, battery or adapter.
iBook G4 charging problems
