On Aug 15, 2012, at 10:13 AM, Steven wrote: > I got a Pismo recently for very cheap. The good news is that, while it was > sold for parts, it has a 60gb HD, 256mb of RAM, and boots right up (once I > unplugged the seemingly dead PRAM battery). The bad news is that I've noticed > two problems that I can't quite figure out. > > > > First, It has an Apple battery, which originally seemed dead, but after being > plugged in for an hour or so it started charging. It now shows more than > 3800mAh left, according to a battery utility, but it takes forever to charge. > The estimated time to charge shows around 8 hours, and while it does continue > to charge, it only reached about 60% after 12 hours or so. It also discharges > randomly. It says that the estimated time left is an hour or so and > discharges normally, but then it will sometimes drop down to zero almost > instantly.
This is the normal failure mode of these batteries. Mine did the exact same thing., I ended up getting a NuPower replacement battery from OWC. > > Because the main battery just needed to be recharged, I thought the PRAM > battery might be the same way. After plugging it back in and allowing it to > charge for a while the computer will boot, and the battery seems to act > normally. It reached 100% charge after an hour or so, and seemed to do fine > running on battery power until it suddenly lost all power. The only way to > get it to start again was to unplug both batteries. I plugged the PRAM back > in and left it overnight, and after a while it was charging normally again, > but this time it lost all power even when plugged in. Also a standard failure mode for the PRAM battery, which is (iirc) a Nicad battery. > The other problem is that the power plug sometimes needs to be twisted before > the computer will recognize it. I'm assuming the sound card is going bad, but > would it be possible to fix this myself since it hasn't actually broken yet? > I'm not the best at soldering, but if it saves me $25 I'm willing to try it. > Also, is there any way this could be contributing to the other problem in > some way? That is more often than not a sign of a messed up plug on the power supply than a problem on the Pismo itself, but it's worth checking. Resoldering the power connector is relatively simple. The metal shield around the plug is what makes the thing tight or not, and also is the ground. It should be nice and round with no obvious gap in the seam. If you see any daylight in there it's been yanked or stepped on and that can cause this issue. -- Bruce Johnson University of Arizona College of Pharmacy Information Technology Group Institutions do not have opinions, merely customs -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
