Battrey problem in Ti 500 MHz power book

[MamaMoose]

My Ti 500 MHz power book is deader than a doornail. I tried to turn it on today (it had been off for about a month) with no success. I then plugged it in to a 110 V source and nothing happens - no charging lites and system does not boot. I removed the battery and wiped its contacts  - still no joy. I think my battery is dead but I am not sure. I left it plugged in for an hour or so and still nothing.

By the way, the battery compartment is the worst design I have ever seen. When I move the battery release slide, the battery does not pop out and I have to gently pry it out with a small screwdriver. For the price they charge, Apple certainly should have done a better job.

I took it in a while back because I could not get the battery to seat properly. The Apple tech added some shims but said that keeping the battery in place was a major problem.

In any case, should I replace the battery - they are expensive or is there some way I can determine  thebatery's condition? I have a high quality VOM but I do not know what contacts to test.

Thanks for any help or ideas,

MamaMoose

[kelly]

MamaMoose. Check out this Macintouch information.

Reader Report: Laptop Batteries

http://www.macintouch.com/laptopbatt.html

[Barticus]

Mamamoose;

Since you specified that the laptop will not boot at all, I might begin to suspect the power adapter before the battery.  Do you have access to a known good one to test?  If the battery were dead and the adapter good, you should be able to remove the battery and still boot the machine.

Bart

[DaveF]

Mama Moose,
IAWB.  The yoyo part of my Pismo's power adapter went dead last week.  Apple sent a new one under AppleCare Protection Plan.  

Dave

[MamaMoose]

Well TS strikes again!! I never thought of the power adapter! removed the battery and plugged in adapter - NO JOY!! Looks like I have a bad adapter. I think my warrenty is still alive but if not what is the price of a new adapter?

I think I will mosey over to Palo Alto Mac store and check things out. Unfortunately Jobs in his not so infinite wisdom does not have an easily accessible Mac store here in the East Bay (yeah I know there is one in Emeryville but it is a bear to get to).

Thanks gang - you always come through

mamaMoose

[Randy]

From Apple Kbase
Resetting iBook and PowerBook Power Management Units: "Over time, the settings in the Power Manager may become unusable, which can result in operational anomalies with the computer. Examples would be not turning on, not waking from sleep, not charging the battery, or not seeing the AC Adapter, among others."


http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=14449

[MamaMoose]

Took my Ti G4 500MHz powerbook into Apple store today.

Daignosis after complete checkout:
   Bad power management circuit

Solution:
   Computer sent back to Apple for full repair

Estimated cost of repair including Battery compartment fix:
   Without AppleCare - $375!!
   With Applecare - $0

Moral: Get Applecare it is a moneysaver especially for laptops.

MamaMoose


P. S. The Apple store genious was sure it was the hockey puck adapter and was quite surprised it wasn't. His best guess was a AC house voltage surge may have fried the power supply circuity.

[MamaMoose]

Got my Ti 500 MHz powerbook back from repair a few days ago (took three days from CA to Houston, TX!!!). Booted it up and it worked like a charm EXCEPT got an error message during boot:

"built-in memory test detected a problem. Please contact a service tech for assistance"  

So, I removed my second (top) memory chip (256 MB) and rebooted. Now the system booted with just the original 128 MB RAM in place without the error message. So I concluded that  top memeory chip was the problem and I ordered a new 512 MB chip and installed it.

Now I got the same error message as above with the brand new chip in.

I am running OS 9.2.2 in this system. It seems to work flawlessly ewven with the memory warning. But I need this machine as it will be my backup as I dismantle my mainframe for the move from CA to OR. My concern is that I can't afford to have the laptop fail  and I do not have time to send it back in for service. I will take it to the Apple genius in Palo Alto and hope they can figure out the problem, pronto!

Anyone have any ideas? Thanks,

MamaMoose

[Bill]

Could be the dimm slot itself that's gone bad.