SuKayser

Q: Powerbook battery symbol has X

MMy laptop keeps crashing. At first, it did so only when to plugged in. The screen would go black after maybe 15 minutes, with the battery icon reading maybe 80%. Yesterday it crashed even though plugged in. Battery read 0% when I rebooted.  After leaving it plugged in all night, when booted, the battery icon showed an X. Do I need a new battery or is there some other possible problem. This is an old powerbook G4, 1.25 GHz., now on OS 10.5.8.

PowerBook G4/1.25, Mac OS X (10.3.9)

Posted on Nov 22, 2014 12:26 PM

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Q: Powerbook battery symbol has X

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  • by K Shaffer,

    K Shaffer K Shaffer Nov 23, 2014 2:24 PM in response to SuKayser
    Level 6 (14,244 points)
    Desktops
    Nov 23, 2014 2:24 PM in response to SuKayser

    Several of the Console utility crash logs should point to some aspects of this issue.

     

    With a known good battery of less a few years age, and other parts of working status

    you could troubleshoot by simply trying others in place of original or older ones.

     

    If the battery and the AC adapter could be proven OK, then the third item to consider

    in hardware, would be the DC-in board. - A fourth worth considering, is a PRAM battery.

     

    If your model PowerBook uses a separate clock battery that is on or near the logic

    board, that may have stopped holding a charge and may need replaced. A few models

    of PowerBook did not use a separate clock battery, when this goes dead there can be

    startup issues. This may also affect other aspects of the computer. However should

    the main battery be old (does not necessarily mean a high charge/recharge cycle #)

    it may need replaced regardless of the status of the clock battery.

     

    You could see what exact version of repair guide at iFixit.com for PowerBookG4 and

    that may show you how to replace the clock battery. There is a fair chance that needs

    a new one, and could likely also need a main battery. They usually don't last very long.

    When you identify the correct exact PowerBook model series you have, then the parts

    to fit it should be also readily identifiable. Some may be harder to find, going forward.

     

    Where the clock or PRAM battery is concerned, some users were able to disconnect

    it from the logic board, and use commands to reset the PRAM (and/or also PMU) to

    get their computer to boot up again. While this workaround could make it work, this

    would not repair the issue and a new clock battery would need to be installed.

     

    Not sure how helpful this info is...

    Good luck & happy computing!

  • by ChitlinsCC,

    ChitlinsCC ChitlinsCC Nov 24, 2014 1:22 PM in response to SuKayser
    Level 5 (7,507 points)
    Notebooks
    Nov 24, 2014 1:22 PM in response to SuKayser

    I had a PB Pismo battery problem that stumped me - completely. A tool that I found informative concerning the facts on my battery and its charging habits was XBattery by Jeremy Kezer. He also has a temperature App if a sensor is present. see both here (ShareWare) http://www.kezer.net/shareware/

    Current XBattery version is actually 1.4.3, regardless of what the website says.

     

    I tried everything I could find on these boards regarding Battery & Power Management - see my efforts here Pismo new battery flashing light then dead | Apple Support Communities

     

    have you:

    1. ejected then re-inserted the battery?
    2. zapped the PRAM?
    3. reset the Power Management Unit (PMU)?

    see the above thread for how-to

     

    best luck

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