PowerPC :: Ibook Instantly Shuts Off While Battery 60%
Oct 27, 2007
I recently purchased an iBook used from someone locally. I got a good price because he said the battery was weak. However, I want to make sure that's actually the case. The power cord connection is not loose.
Coconutbattery says my battery is 36% health, but it also says it's not plugged into the charger when it actually is, so I don't know how reliable this program is. It says my mac is 27 months old, i have 367 cycles on the battery... etc. And I am running Tiger.
The problem is that the power meter on the top bar will say i've got a full charge... so I run the computer (on battery) down to about 60% according to the meter, but the computer instantly shuts off. I try to reboot, and it shuts off while rebooting. It's like the battery works fine and suddenly dies. I get about 30-40 minutes use out of the battery.
Is this the battery or do I have other problems? This only happens when using the battery.
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Nov 25, 2005
I have done all those PMU resetting stuff. The problem is that my iBook (1GHz, 768MB RAM, Tiger 10.4.3) keeps shutting off when I run it on battery. While plugged in there doesn't seem to be a problem. Here's what I've found out: This seems to happen only when I run the iBook from the battery. There is no pattern as to when it will happen: It might be fully charged, at 70%, 50%, etc. There are no warnings: The iBook just dies
To restart it I have to plug in the charger, I can't start it from the battery after one of these sudden deaths
If I press the battery indicator after a crash, it doesn't show any charge - no green lights
When I restart the machine the battery indicator will work, and it show's a charge in Tiger as well
I've done all that PMU resetting, PRAM resetting, etc. Doesn't work. Any ideas as to what this could be? Bad battery?
One more thing: I've run the hardware test, and it doesn't come up with anything at all.
Coconut Battery shows that my battery should hold a charge as well. Max charge is still at 3500mAh, 18 months and 750 cycles after I got the iBook.
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Oct 7, 2007
My school-computer (iBook 14" 1,42 Ghz G4, running OSX 10.4.10) has developed some unpleasant habbits lately. With lots of batterycharge left, 28-50%, it shuts down without warning. I try to restart it, and it gets to various stages of booting before shutting down again. It won't run untill i plug in the powercable, and then it starts of from almost half full charge. I did a bit of searching on the forums, and installed coconutbattery with the attached (depressing) result. Tried resetting the pmu, which didn't stop it from shutting down on me again 46 mins later. Does this mean I need to replace the battery?
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Jul 26, 2008
Purchased this notebook used, but very nicely cared for, excellent condition. I ran the Apple Hardware Test and everything passed including the logic board.
The battery has 500+cycles. The problem is laptop shuts down at 50% or less of battery. Clock is wrong at startup but is correct a few seconds later.
Runs forever and very nicely on ac power.
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May 28, 2007
Two days ago my iBook G4 (about 18 months old) has started to shut down instead of sleeping when I close it or when I select "Sleep" from the menu.
Strangely enough, it seems to only happen when I have iTunes open before I try to put the computer to sleep.
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Jul 24, 2008
I have this iBook G4 and the wierdest thing is happening. When it is on and you bump it or move it a little it just shuts off like a hard shut down. Has anyone else out there heard of this problem or does anyone know how to fix it?
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Aug 2, 2009
This is about another Mac Laptop.
It is an Ibook G4 1.42 Mhz. It will run well when plugged in. Though when on battery it will just shut down ever so often. Like every 30 minutes and then more often after that.
I was thinking low battery or bad battery. But I put in a new battery and then it did it still?????
What ideas do you have for this??
I did a test on the battery and I do know it is pretty bad. But I do also know I tested this book with a new batter and it still abruptly shuts off completely.
When I sign back on the clock has to be reset each time.
Besides that.. Everything is good.
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Dec 26, 2009
my daughter bought a used ibook g4 15" and it worked for several months before developing a maddening habit of shutting down without warning. I've read other threads about this with ibooks but they say it happens only when the battery is operating and doesn't happen when plugged in. My daughter's does it either way and will only stay on for ten or so minutes most times before shutting down. It makes the machine unusable. We've checked the power supply and the power input board. Is this a logic board issue? She paid $450 for the computer but the prices have come down and it might not be worth fixing. I can solder and can get into the logic board if someone can tell me what to do.
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May 25, 2010
I have an ibook G4 14" 1.42ghz.I have it plugged into a power adapter almost always. It has been plugged in in both instances/I recently put it to sleep and when I return anywhere from 15 minutes to a couple hours it is shut down. I have a heck of a time getting it to power on. It took me several times, anywhere from 3-6 times to get it to turn on.
When I turn it on it goes through the usual loading procedures and after loading a window pops up saying the date and time are wrong and could cause applications to act erratically. The date ends up being 1969 and sometimes the time is wrong.
I have fixed the date and it still happens.
I don't know if this has affected or led to this but my battery has been shot for a couple months now and occasionally (probably 1-2 times a day) the power adapter (a cheap copy of apple's) would become unplugged from the laptop prompting the message stating you are on reserve battery and that the computer will go to sleep soon.
Does anyone know what is causing this? How much would it cost to fix it?
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Nov 16, 2010
I do not have AppleCare on this machine. I've got a 27" iMac that will randomly shut down, be it in the middle of playing music on iTunes, while I'm typing a document or while the machine is simply in screensaver mode doing nothing. Usually the machine tries to instantly reboot itself. All too often, it cannot be rebooted and I have to let sit for quite sometime before it will even power back on. Lately the problem has gotten worse, almost never reboots by itself.
Finally, in the last few days, it just won't turn back on. Nothing. My biggest concern is that I have an unreleased music album from an instantly recognizable major client on the iMac's hard drive, not due out for many more months and still unannounced. I can't simply take the computer into an Apple store for troubleshooting as those files are worth and could cost me exponentially more than even a new iMac outright ever would.
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Nov 27, 2006
My wife has a three-year old iBook G4 and yesterday while she was doing some work, the screen just went black. By the time she brought it to me the machine was shut down. I hit the power button and it started to boot up, but about five seconds later it shut itself down again.
I kept playing with it and I was able to get back in to OS X and I played with it for a few minutes and all seemed fine. I then shut the screen and put it to sleep, then when I tried to wake it back up it shut itself down once again.
After a few more tries of getting it back in to the OS I was able to get all her files off the hard drive, but the problem is still there.
My guess is that it's the logic board, but that's just a guess.
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Nov 5, 2007
I was hoping you could get me started in the right direction. My wife has an iBook G4 which lately, while using a full battery, just turns off suddenly. There is no warning and it never does it when it's plugged in. The battery looks like it's almost fully charged - at least that's what the meter in the menu says, so I don't know what's going on.
Could you possibly give me some steps to go through to try and figure this out?
The first step she wants to try is to get a new Intel MacBook, but I'd like to try a couple of other things first!
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May 9, 2008
My iBook G4 is 3 years old. I have 2 problems: My latest problem is that it won't charge the battery. I bought a new Ac Adaptor, and I used my battery and my adaptor in another G4 and it charges, but not in my computer. So I know the problem is INSIDE my computer. My father replaced the.DC-inboard when the pin off of my old charger broke off inside the computer.
2.) Now the computer won't turn on. If it does turn on it shuts off 20 seconds later.
There is no warranty, I don't know where to start with fixing it since I can't get it to stay on.!
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May 6, 2010
I was given an old ibook G4, with a borken hard drive.
since it would boot from a firewire drive on mac os X 10.4 ppc, I decided to change the hard drive, which i had never doe for a laptop. I had a very similar 40 Gig toshiba IDE drive from an old laptop, opened the ibook and changed the drive.
everything works, the mac boots fine, sound, video etc, yet I realised that it had one rather serious issue. It shuts down when moved / tapped, even very lightly, and this is problematic for a laptop. I was considering buying an airport extreme for it, but now I'm afraid this might not be mendable, nd i'm reconsidering.
what could be wrong ? is there somekind of shock sensor that could have been damaged ? I put back all the screws, and only changed the drive and proceeded cautiously, but maybe something was damaged- what could be causing this, is there a specific area I should focus on ?
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Jan 11, 2010
My iBook G4 crashed on me one night, and the only way I could turn it on again was to unplug the power cord from my computer, turn it over, remove the battery, put the battery back in, plug the cord back into the computer, hold down the start button, and it would restart. Although, when it restarted, the fan would go on first, and then the computer would make the normal start sound. Some times the finder would be on the screen after I restarted it displaying a quick link icon of the hard drive. So after a few weeks, it did it again, then a few days, and then it got to the point where I had to keep my computer in the same position otherwise it might shut down.
Now, if the power cord is green everything is fine, but if I move my computer and bump the cord into the wrong place it turns from green to bright red, makes an evil buzzing sound, and in three seconds the computer shuts off and I have to restart by using the method above. If or when the power cord goes bright red I do have 3 seconds to pull out the cord before it shuts down. I then sleep the computer, put the cord back into the computer, and move the cord around until it is green again.
I took my computer to a mac genius, and when he looked at the crash report he said it was frequent, but not caused by the battery and couldn't tell me what was the exact problem. I bought a brand new power cord, but I still couldn't move the computer around to much or it would shut down.
1.) Has anyone ever heard of this happening? And if so, what causes it to be so touchy?
2.) What can I do to fix it myself?
3.) If I send it in, will they be able to fix it so that it is perfect again without having to spend more than the money assessed?
I would like to try to have it fixed. At this juncture, my only option is to send it in for $280 and hope they can fix the problem that no one seems to know what is the exact problem, or even where the problem stems from. I should add here that the battery is fully charged, and the report says it can hold about 1 hour of life, although it's more like 30 minutes, and then without warning to plug in or risk shutting down (like it used to give me) it will shut down.
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Sep 23, 2006
Ever since I sold it here on MR and got it back, there has been a problem with my 12" Dual USB iBook G3 500MHz's screen (lord, that's a long name). Whenever the screen is tilted back farther than 45 degrees or so, the backlight shuts off. I can open the casing and fix it if it's possible. Does anyone know what the problem with it is? I'm trying to get it fixed up and ready to sell back to my friend as his first Mac, and I'm trying to get every problem resolved
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Aug 28, 2006
iBook G4 about 9 months old. I checked the battery recall and my first few numbers match, but not the second set, so I'm guessing I'm ok. The battery has been more than awesome but past couple days it has been a little weak. Today however is bad. Battery is now at 89% and says 0:27 until Full(it's charging right now). Earlier I was running just on battery and within 10 minutes it went from 99% to 86%(which is when i plugged it in). Usually it says around 5:00+ hours but it was at 3:30 hours@99%. Still with me? What I am wondering is if there is a simple solution to this and maybe the battery isn't connected in all the way or something. Or if it is failing(randomly out of nowhere) what to do and how much to replace. Or to call apple and check about the recall. I want to say it's coincidence that this is going on now after I just heard about the battery recall. Oh, and FYI maybe this helps. Last night I did leave it on the whole time with it plugged in. I was downloading a large ISO and didn't stay up for it to finish. That is the first/only time I've done that. I'm stupid. I wasn't thinking straight and the 0:27 thing is exactly what it says. 27min until the battery is full, not until the PC dies. Otherwise I need help with the other problems. I will be calibrating it today as well.
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Nov 11, 2006
I did a thread search and could find lots of instances of an ibook not seeing or using the battery, but I seem to have the opposite problem. I have an ibook g3 700mhz (dual usb). It will only boot and run off the battery. It will not boot or run if it is only plugged in (dead battery or no battery = no running or booting). When plugged into a 45W white charger (that works on other ibooks of the same ilk), it will be green without battery and orange when the battery is in. It will not charge a battery. I've tried:
two other dc-in boards and cables known to work in other ibooks
two different batteries (that charge in another machine)
PMU reset (the light on the charger changes to green for 3 seconds, seemingly indicating the reset was done correctly)
for fun I put in a hard drive that worked in another machine and added ram that works in another machine all to no avail. What the heck is going on?
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Mar 6, 2007
My iBook used to come up with an alert that it was using reserve power, and then automatically go to sleep, so I could wake it as soon as I plugged it in. Now, there is no warning, if it gets to 0% it turns off, NOT sleeps but turns completely off without shutting down. This means any unsaved work is lost etc, its not at all good. Can anyone tell me how to fix this? (I have Tiger, iBook 1.44Ghz, 1.25 RAM)
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Mar 14, 2007
My iBook G3 800 MHz will not charge any more all of a sudden. I have tried plugging it in to several power sockets and it won't charge. Whats more... I tried charging it with just the normal charger, and I even tried charing it with the extension wire! I am not sure if it is the charger, or my iBook. If it is the iBook, should i rip it open and get a new part for it? If it is the charger, where can i get a new one?
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Sep 8, 2007
My mum has an trusty iBook G4, and finally, after ~4 years now, the battery is on the fritz. I have tried resetting PMU, but it appears the battery itself is on the way out. Is it worth purchasing a new battery for it? Or should I tell her to take the plunge and buy a low-end Macbook [non pro] to replace it?
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Oct 31, 2007
Recently my friend came into possession of a used iBook G3 (I don't know the specs off hand; but it runs Tiger okay), and ran into a slight problem. It appears as though the battery doesn't fully charge, and loses power 5 minutes after it being unplugged. I've looked at the battery, and it appears okay--although possibly lose. I'm sure that Apple wouldn't do repairs on it anymore, but does anyone know why the battery might not be working? If specs are needed I can provide them. But its an iBook G3 running Tiger.
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Mar 14, 2009
I just tried to charge my iBook, and it won't charge. If I unplug the charger from the mains socket, and plug it back in, the ring around the charger will turn green for about a second and then turn off. I've tried to restart the iBook, and I've removed the battery from it also.
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Mar 13, 2010
I recently bought an iBook G4 off eBay. There is one issue with it and I am not sure what is causing it. The battery shows it has about 35 charge cycles, and when it is fully charged it says around 5-6 hours of battery life left. I will use the laptop for around an hour, at which point the battery life is at around 80% with around 3-4 hours remaining. All of a sudden, the computer will go into sleep mode and when I plug the charger in, the battery is at 0% and charging! I am not sure if this is a bad battery that is old and can't hold a charge, or what. I have already tried resetting the PRAM and PMU but with no luck.
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Jun 4, 2010
I got myself a new battery for my iBook Clamshell however it won't detect it and thus runs off AC power.
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Mar 5, 2010
I have a 5-year-old PowerBook G4. I remember I changed the battery about a year or two ago, because when I used to take it to classes in college, and use it unplugged, my laptop would shut off in less than an hour (more like ~30 min) when it reaches ~30%. After I got a new battery, it went back to normal, and lasted much longer. In the past couple of days, I noticed that within about 5-10 minutes of using my PB unplugged, battery goes from 100% --> ~85%, and then all of a sudden shuts down.
When I plug it back in to a power supply, and it starts back up, it starts recharging from 0%... this seems a little extreme. I haven't noticed this problem because I almost have it plugged in these days, as I usually use it at home or at work where I have a power supply available, and I use it for a few hour period at a time. Does this seem purely like a battery problem?! (ie. it's just time for a new battery...)
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Aug 18, 2006
i have a g3 ibook here, and after having plugged in to charge for 4 hours, the battery meter on my menu bar still says only 12%, but three hours of life remaining. or, if it says 80%, i have 22 hours of juice. how do i fix this bullcrap?
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Oct 6, 2006
i have a Clamshell iBook that until yesterday had a perfect battery but it now charges only to 27% what should i do? i have tried the battery reset apple application Battery reset 2.0.
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Dec 31, 2006
I have just bought an old ibook g3 on ebay, the battery in it is dead, if the battery is one of the ones effected in the recall will I apple just send me a new one even thought the battery is already dead?
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Jan 13, 2007
My iBook is almost 3 years old and I think the battery is just dead. It holds a charge of maybe 20 minutes max and it's gotten to the point where I'm just gonna give in a buy a new batterry. Can I just buy any "14" iBook G4" batterry off of eBay or any site other than from Apple direct(retails $129)? Should I be looking a particular model number for the battery (A1080) or the laptop? I see batterries selling for $80 on eBay....
have u guys done this? I dont want to end up with something that won't work just because I bought it at a non-Apple site...
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