me one lit LED on it. Right after the power went out, I tried and only the first LED flashed, briefly.
There is a battery reset utility for Pismo, I *believe* (I kind of got lost in the circumlocutive system requirements on Apple's site but the description did say "G3 Series PowerBooks"). I didn't bother downloading it because the documentation was all about 9.x and I have OSX-only on my system. There are two parts to it: an extension and a utility.
Anyway, it sounds like the micro in the battery is confused. If the utility can't be found, or doesn't work, and you have nothing else to lose, you can try resetting the micro "the hard way":
1. (This may not work, it's not documented by Apple TTBOMK but it is a standard feature of most intelligent battery controllers) - With the battery out of the computer, hold down the battery check button for at least twenty seconds.
If no luck:
2. Try removing power from the microcontroller to reset it fully. The problem here is that the micro is powered off the battery, and it takes so little power that it could live for years if you just leave it to run down :) The best way to do it is to open the battery pack and disconnect the cells, short out the power input terminals on the controller board to discharge any capacitors on the board, and reconnect everything. An alternative way (which doesn't involve breaking the ultrasonic welds) is to short out the battery terminals for a couple of seconds, but this is not recommended - apart from possibly damaging the cells, whatever you use to short it will get REAL HOT.
The problem with all of these methods is that they only "reboot" the microcontroller, they do NOT clear the contents of the EEPROM in the battery. This is the non-volatile device that stores historical battery information and - more importantly - factory-calibrated charging constants. If you were really unlucky and got a power spike during an EEPROM write, the stored charge parameters might be corrupted and the computer may simply refuse to charge the battery. In this case, the only way to fix it is to get a known-good one (maybe from someone else's dead battery where the cells are bad but the EEPROM is good) and either copy or transplant it.
-- Lewin A.R.W. Edwards http://www.zws.com/ Learn how to build high-performance embedded systems on a budget! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0750676094/zws-20
-- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and...
Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! |
Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html>
G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/>
---------------------------------------------------------------
The Think Different Store
http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
