Time for a new ibook battery?

T

tagraves

Registered
After a rare road trip my G4 Ibook battery is acting odd. Seems not to be taking a charge. Even with resetting PMU and also PRAM, it appears dead (when it was alive a few days ago even.) System profiler says the battery is not connected, and the indicator lights on the back show it dead. I've tried re-seating the battery & the contacts look clean. When I plug in the AC cord it glows orange for about 20 minutes and then turns green, but still no juice shown on the battery indicator (it first shows 0% and then I get the icon with the X in it.) No indicator lights show on the battery itself when I press the button on the back, so I'm sure it is discharged, but I'd love to find a way to recharge it (or try to) before scrapping it.

Last year Apple replaced the DC controller board, but the symptoms were different then. At that time, the machine was not recognizing that the AC plug was even there, but since replacement it has worked fine.

Any thoughts before I order a new battery? I didn't find anything quite like this in the forums.

Thanks.
 
I would have also guessed a problem with the contacts.

Maybe you can try with a friend's battery to make sure it is a battery-related problem?

If you do buy a new battery, I can recommend checking on eBay - there are some shops that sell refurbished batteries; I bought one for something like US$ 50 (incl. shipping to Asia!) and it works great. (Also lasts longer than the original one I'd received with my iBook did at the very beginning!)

ecirtap

http://www.patriceschneider.com/apple-osx/blog/
 
I second that— I had a similar problem and bought a new battery that I found through froogle.com for much less than Apple's cost.
 
Take a look at the options at macsales.com. I always suggest this place because they've given me the most consistent service and quality for all the many years I've been endlessly upgrading everything around me.
 
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