Ibook g4 1.33ghz Battery not showing etc

mauve · Oct 26th, 2009, 09:56 AM

Hi,
I've recently bought a used ibook for my mom as a gift.
At the moment of purchase the battery seemed to be working OK, it had about 75%
of charge. But when I brought it home, the battery would not show up in the top right corner, computer would shut down when unplugged and the battery itself did not have the LED light working. Sometimes it would show up for a moment and then it's gone...
My mom does not really need a battery, working through adapter is fine, but the date and time resets all the time when computer is restarted.
I've read somewhere that these ibooks do not have the "clock" battery so they rely on the main battery charge.
I am far away from Toronto right now and any help would be helpful
Thank you.

HowEver · Oct 26th, 2009, 10:04 AM

The battery is likely dead. And it was likely near death when you bought it. The seller may or may not have known that "75%" could mean "75% of 2 hours" or "75% of 2 minutes."

In any case, without testing it I wouldn't assume an iBook battery would last at all.

If you search on ehMac you'll get varying opinions about where to get a replacement. Rule out eBay.

mauve · Oct 26th, 2009, 10:18 AM

Thanks for your reply.
Buying a new battery would be problematic ( I am on the other side of the world right now)
As I mentioned, using the ibook with just the adapter is fine. It is the date and time resetting which happens alternately that's disconcerting. I am just hoping that there is a way to work around it.

EvanPitts · Oct 26th, 2009, 10:28 AM

^^^
Perhaps a slightly less bad battery pack? The machine will need a new battery, and a number of places carry them, though I can not vouch for any of them because I have held off on replacing the one on one of my machines and simply put up with the crazy date/time deal. Without a battery pack, there is no way around the date/time problem...

mauve · Oct 27th, 2009, 05:17 AM

Interestingly when I connected to internet this morning and turned on the computer the time and date were correct. I think it sets itself to time and zone.

EvanPitts · Oct 27th, 2009, 07:24 AM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by mauve
	Interestingly when I connected to internet this morning and turned on the computer the time and date were correct. I think it sets itself to time and zone.

It will automatically set, if the option is checked in the System Preferences > Clock. The system will, however, complain when booting, which you will see if you have verbose booting on, or in the error logs otherwise. Once you connect to the Internet, then there will not be a problem at all.

Of course, if the battery pack is the original, you may be able to get a new one from Apple under their recall, if it is still in force.

monokitty · Oct 27th, 2009, 10:21 AM

	Quote:			Originally Posted by EvanPitts
	... , if it is still in force.

It isn't.

And to the OP, the battery is defective as already mentioned.

IceWewe · Nov 17th, 2009, 09:20 PM

If there aren't any LEDs on the battery then it's pooched. Time to get a new one.

Battdepot.ca is good for the medium quality (read: you don't care about it lasting you 3 years, you'd just like something that will have a decent run-time and last you 1-2 years)
Newertech is excellent! I cannot recommend them enough. My PB G4 15" chewed through Apple batteries like they were water until I put a Newertech battery in. Guess what? All the Apple batteries I had for it have since died, and the Newertech solders on.

Expect to pay ~$75 for a Battdepot battery, and ~$160 for a Newertech battery (only slightly more expensive than an Apple original one)

If you don't mind spending the money, the Newertech battery is definitely worth every penny.