In an effort to familiarize myself with newer form factors, I just acquired a PowerBook 15" Al 2004. It's running 10.4.11, and passes both the quick and extended Apple Hardware Tests. It runs very nicely, helped no doubt by 1.5 GB RAM and a 7200 rpm 80 GB HD. But there are two problems that I don't have the experience with this model to troubleshoot, and the Apple Service Manual's also no help. They may be related.
POWER PROBLEMS: It runs nicely on AC and will charge a new battery and two used batteries (one has 759 charge cycles and still holds 23% original capacity!). But when the AC plug is pulled, it immediately dies and will not continue to run on any of the fully charged batteries. I have to do a PMU reset in order to restart on battery-only power. Plugging the AC back in while it's running on battery power immediately shuts down the PB. This happens whether I use a proper 65W Apple power adapter, or a 45W Apple power adapter, or a 70W Kensington universal AC/DC adapter. However, when it's been running on battery power and I plug in the AC and kill it, I can restart it without doing a PMU reset. Interestingly, every time plugging in or unplugging AC power kills the PB, the internal clock goes to default and has to be reset. Removing the battery and replacing it also causes the clock to go to default and require reset. So the backup battery probably is bad. It has been charged overnight, with no change in behavior or symptoms. The previous owner replaced the left USB/AC power/headphone/speaker port board, as well as the backup battery. The original backup battery still shows 2.6V of charge. TRACKPAD PROBLEM: The trackpad does not work smoothly. In every other Apple laptop I've ever used, I could move the cursor anywhere I wanted with light finger pressure. With this one, I have to press down hard in order to drag the cursor around, often lifting my finger and going back to get the cursor to move after it suddenly stops. "Normal" finger pressure results in only sporadic cursor movement. A fresh install of the OS and adjusting preferences offers no relief. Proper and expected cursor behavior is possible with an external mouse plugged in to either USB port. Trackpad behavior is the same, whether the mouse is plugged in or not. QUESTIONS: Can a "bad" backup battery cause any or all of the problems noted above? Can a "bad" left USB/Battery/headphone/speaker board cause the power problems? What's the deal with the trackpad behavior? I've never seen this before. Thanks for any help/insight/hints. Jim Scott --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
