Hello! First of all sorry for my english. I write from Italy. I received a gift: a Powerbook G4 Titanium gigabit ethernet. I really like but it has a problem: the battery charges, but the powerbook does not work if the power adapter is not connected. There are solutions? I can work on the software? I would not spend a lot of money. thanks!
Benvenuto, africatwin!
Your English is many times better than my Italian!
With the computer connected to the power adaptor, do "About this Mac" from your Apple menu (left end of menubar) and, in the resulting window, click the "More Info..." button. That launches System Profiler.
In Profiler's left-hand "Contents" pane, find a click "Power" to get this window (I added the yellow emphasis):
From that screen on your computer, copy the lines matching those II highlighted in yellow in teh above image. Paste them into a response to me.
The numbers there can be very helpful in diagnosing battery issues, and I believe we can give you better advice regarding your issues.
When you answer, please also tell us your Mac OS version. It will show up when you do "About this Mac." That may make it easy for us to help you as the process continues.
Thanks for your kindness! Now I am out, but just I'll be back home, I'll answer to you. Thanks again and "a domani".
dear Allan, sorry, but I don't find "Profiler's left-hand "Contents" panel, and "Power". I got a Mac Os X 10.2. may be this the cause? I see this:
thanks for your patience.
Gianni.
Ah! Now I see! System Profiler did not evolve its present form until OS 10.3, so we won't get the battery report for which I hoped. I never had a Mac notebook until OS 10.4 was de rigueur so I don't know if you can check the battery numbers from OS 10.2
It is not common for a defective battery to report a full charge but not run the computer. If this is the original battery, I would expect it to be thoroughly useless by now. They have a finite life. Apple no longer sells batteries for older notebooks, and one must be careful shopping tfor third-party batteries.
I will ask of some of my fellow Mac friends to see if we can get battery information from your Mac OS version.
Stay tuned!
Allan
If this was the last Titanium G4 Powerbook, the battery is now over 12 years old, and likely dead. An improved capacity battery for this range of machines costs between 57USD and 95USD depending on preferred capacity. Plus international shipping. These are Newer Technologies NuPower batteries. The battery for your system clock is probably dead too, so system settings and time cannot be retained if not talking to a network time server.
In the Terminal, the following will report battery health only if the machine is actually running on the battery. There may be no means to retrieve your battery health when restricted to corded power.
pmset -g ps
system_profiler SPPowerDataType
You can try resetting the PRAM by holding down the option-command-P-R keys altogether on a fresh boot before the gray screen appears, and continue holding them down until you hear a second chime, then release.
You might consider sending an email to the developer of CoconutBattery to see if he has a version that can work on Jaguar. His site shows a version back to Tiger (10.4).
thank you all!
I'll try to do what you recommended and, if not disturbing, see you soon on this forum.
Gianni.
PowerBook is not working even after battery is fully charged
