ibook g4 sudden shutdown when unplugged

stagegurl · #1 November 8th, 2007, 04:50 PM

several months ago when my ibook g4 was just over a year old it began suddenly going to a blank screen when the battery was fully charged and the computer was unplugged. Sometimes i would hold down the power button and the computer would come back from seemingly having fallen asleep. other times i would have to plug the computer in and hold down the power button for it to come back. to do this it would make this whirring fan sound before going from a black to a gray screen and then finally re-starting up from the beginning. a box would then appear telling me that my date and time were set wrong and that this could cause some functions to behave erratically. this despite my having frequently changed the date and time zone back to my own and locking the settings. the computer keeps switching the date back to 1969. and now when i put a dvd into the computer it just spits it back out and won't play it. long story short...i am beginning to hate my mac. what's the point of a laptop if you have to leave it plugged in for it to work. apple tech support has done nothing to help me and has refused to admit that the g4's have a problem despite my having read about tons of people having these exact same problems after a year. i read something about how in denmark this consumer group proved that there was a faulty part attached to the battery coming loose and that they were suing apple. do u know how i can fix this. please help!

ra3ndy · #2 November 9th, 2007, 12:45 PM

I've run into this before, and in my case, doing a full set of resets did the trick.

1) Reset the PRAM by holding down Apple+Opt+P+R as soon as you press the power button to turn on the machine, keep the keys held until you hear the startup chime for the third time.

2) Then, boot while holding down Apple+Opt+O+F to boot into Open Firmware mode (white screen w/ black text). Type reset-all and hit return, the ibook will restart itself.

3) Finally, Reset the Power Management Unit by following these steps: Shut down the iBook, unplug it and take the battery out, then hold down Shift+Control+Option+The Power Button all at the same time for 5 seconds, then release. Count to 10, and boot up.

Some of these steps may be redundant, but I never know which one fixes this problem. Most likely it's the PMU reset, which also resets the NVRAM (part of the reset-all in step 2). I just like to go in this order out of superstition (like why most techs advise allowing the extra startup chime in the PRAM reset).

Good Luck!

**Giaguara** · #3 November 9th, 2007, 03:39 PM

Randy's suggestions are good. Check also the battery cycle count; About this Mac > More Info >> under Battery it should show the cycle count. Is it over 300?