Question : Problem: PowerBook G4 12" Al problem with Battery / Power

I have a PowerBook G4 12 in Aluminum that I believe originally ran OSX 10.4.   It's specs are:

1.5 GHz PowerPC G4
512 MB RAM

It had a blown hard drive, so I took the unit apart and replaced the hard drive.  I put it all back together.  I didn't have a OSX 10.4 disc lying around, so I installed 10.3 (panther).  The OS installed great and runs fine.  I ran all applicable updates (which fixed a minor touchpad issue I was having).

I just realized however that the battery doesn't charge.  The icon in the top right corner of the screen reads 0% no matter how long the laptop is plugged in.  The icon changes between the "plugged in" battery and the battery with the little bolt from time to time pretty arbitrarily.  The light on the power cord changes between green and orange from time to time as well.

I don't know if this was occurring since I put the unit back together or if it's new.  I originally thought it might be resulting from the battery not making 100% contact properly as there was the absolute slightest rise from it on one corner, however the changes in the "green" to "orange" occur even when the laptop sits unused on a desktop.  To test this, I popped the battery out while it ran and got the "no battery" icon, so at least it must be recognizing it's there, it just doesn't charge it.

I have even reset the Power Management Unit and though this reset the time/date it didn't solve the problem.  Any idea what could be going on?

Answer : Problem: PowerBook G4 12" Al problem with Battery / Power

Sounds most likely that it is a dead battery. Li Ion batteries degrade over time, and it is possible that this battery is now dead.

I'm not sure if it is in the Panther version, but if you go to System Profiler->Power then it should give you the battery statistics:

Battery Information:

  Model Information:
  Serial Number:      SMP-bq20z951-3968-bc5
  Manufacturer:      SMP
  Device name:      bq20z951
  Pack Lot Code:      0000
  PCB Lot Code:      0000
  Firmware Version:      002a
  Hardware Revision:      000a
  Cell Revision:      0100
  Charge Information:
  Charge remaining (mAh):      4065
  Fully charged:      No
  Charging:      Yes
  Full charge capacity (mAh):      4499
  Health Information:
  Cycle count:      22
  Condition:      Good
  Battery Installed:      Yes
  Amperage (mA):      377
  Voltage (mV):      12442


If the information isn't in the Panther version of System Profiler, you can get the same information by installing XBattery which allows you to graph battery performance over time:

http://www.kezer.net/shareware/xbattery/

Cheers,

Joel