Powerbook G4 Not responding

[mseydel]

A co-worker of mine noticed recently that his G4 17" Powerbook, which normally is used on his desktop at the office, doesn't seem to function off of battery power anymore. He's using 10.3.4 on his machine; the battery lights up when tested and shows a consistent 42% charge no matter how long it's plugged in via AC power. If you unplug the AC power, the 'book just shuts down. The only 'odd' thing about his usage of the machine is that he tends to switch between his 'old' AC cord from his previous 15" G4 (alas, stolen from off of his desk!) and the newer one supplied with the 17"...I can be superstitious about my Mac hardware, but I doubt this is the cause for his woes. Any suggestions? I already tried rebooting from the console, removing and resetting the battery, as well as PRAM reset and the 'normal'
types of options...and I'm stumped. In my case, that's not saying much.

 

[Zammy-Sam]

do you mean by resetting the battery resetting the PMU? I really think this should solve the problem. What happens when you boot into the single user mode (apple+s) and unplug the AC power cable? Does it still turn off right away? The thing about the single user mode is, that there are no power saving features on. So, if your battery indeed has some power like the light-indicator says, it should work. If it still turns off, there might be something wrong with the battery or the contacts. Did you unplug the battery and check those? Any way to test the battery on another 17'' book?