crispage
Level 1 (0 points)

Q: G4 iBook will not recognise battery charger or charge battery

Have exhausted my fixit knowledge on this one!  Help please if possible

 

Recently acquired G4 iBook A1055 M9388LL/A 933MHz operates perfectly on battery but will not recognise battery charger or charge battery

 

Actions so far

1. All usual resets (PMU, PRAM, VRAM etc)

2. Apple Extended Hardware Test: passed

3. Disk Utility from external disk: no HD errors detected

4. Substitution of known working battery, charger & DC-In board: still no effect

5. Erase HD & clean install of OS X 10.5 (just in case ...): no change

 

iBook still does not recognise battery charger or charge battery whilst continuing to working perfectly under battery power

 

Presumably some kind of hardware fault. Are there any other fixable elements to the charging circuit apart from the DC-In board? Connector and socket on logic board both seem in good order

Posted on May 10, 2014 4:51 AM

Close
crispage

Q: G4 iBook will not recognise battery charger or charge battery

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Lyssa,Helpful

    Lyssa Lyssa May 10, 2014 7:07 PM in response to crispage
    Level 6 (17,892 points)
    May 10, 2014 7:07 PM in response to crispage

    Might want to pop over to ifixit.com and post there also; someone there may have ideas.

     

    If you're testing with a known-good Apple-branded battery, then you've done all the troubleshooting I can think of! Something is toast on the logicboard itself is my guess.

     

    ~Lyssa

  • by crispage,

    crispage crispage May 11, 2014 12:09 AM in response to Lyssa
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 11, 2014 12:09 AM in response to Lyssa

    Thank you Lyssa. Have posted on ifixit as suggested. But I fear you are right about the logic board. I was wondering if somehow you could lash up the charger output direct to the connection in the battery bay, assuming voltages etc are compatible? Alternatively just keep charging batteries on another iBook or external charger and replacing as depleted (a pain). Best wishes, Chris

  • by K Shaffer,Helpful

    K Shaffer K Shaffer May 11, 2014 1:44 AM in response to crispage
    Level 6 (14,234 points)
    Desktops
    May 11, 2014 1:44 AM in response to crispage

    Do the resellers of various batteries for Apple Portable computers

    who show external battery chargers, have one that'd work for yours?

     

    I see there are chargers along with replacement new batteries to fit

    a variety of Apple portables here; these standalone. And I see they

    are also selling a newertech brand of battery, on same page:

    http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/Apple/Laptop/Batteries

     

    Oh... I just checked* on their external chargers: "Sold Out."

     

    If you did go that far, it'd be almost worth it to get more iBook G4s

     

    *edited

  • by crispage,

    crispage crispage May 11, 2014 4:13 AM in response to K Shaffer
    Level 1 (0 points)
    May 11, 2014 4:13 AM in response to K Shaffer

    HI there! Yes, I have looked at these (about GBP 50 here in UK, only one seller I've found and I think they are US imports). You can buy a fully working iBook for less than that now ... I do have a number of iBooks (I fix them up and sell them as a hobby). There is always at least one pending repairs which may not power up or whatever but somehow has a working charge circuit ... so can be used as an "external charger". Cheaper than buying the proper job