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Will not charge the battery

I got my PowerBook as a hand-me-down with a dead battery. I tried using it without the battery for awhile, but the power cord will not stay in very well at all; and it was very frustrating to have my computer zap off several times a day. My daddy bought me a new battery off the internet, which worked great...

But a few months later the computer decided not to charge it up all the way anymore. The power cord would glow orange and it would take it's time to charge it up a few percentages, then decide that was good enough and show me the "fully charged" icon (the power cord would switch to glowing green) and refuse to charge anymore regardless of what percentage it was at. It got down to the sixties when daddy suggested I reset the PMU.

So I reset the PMU, and from then on the computer has refused to charge the battery at all. The power cord never glows orange, and it always shows the "fully charged" icon even though it admits that the battery is currently at 31%. I have tried a different power cord. I do not know anyone else with a PowerBook who could recharge the battery for me.

A friend has suggested that I need to install a new "DC-In Board," whatever that is. I'm pretty clueless about hardware. Maybe my husband could figure it out, if I had one, which I don't know where to get?

Here's what my computer has to say about its battery:

Charge Information:

Charge remaining (mAh): 1374

Charging: No

Full charge capacity (mAh): 4400

Health Information:

Cycle count: 0

Condition: Good

Battery Installed: Yes

Amperage (mA): 0

Voltage (mV): 11259

(The cycle count reverted to 0 when I reset the PMU. Somehow it got up to 17, despite never charging, before I reset the PMU again. Don't ask me why I tried resetting the PMU a second time...)

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This is somewhat difficult to diagnose without seeing it. First download and run Coconut battery: http://www.coconut-flavour.com/coconutba... it

This will give us the true story of the battery condition. My first guess is that the AC plug in is bent open to far and failing to make good contact. Check to see if it can be burnished in to tighten it. After we know if that is tight and making good contact, we'll see if you need a DC in port change or a power adapter change. Let me know what you find. You have no need of the baggage of a husband when you have us around. Why buy the cow.........

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3 Comments:

I've tried that Coconut program, but it's just saying the same thing my System profiler is, am I doing it wrong?

Current Battery Charge: 1323 mAh

Maximum Battery Charge: 4400 mAh

30%

Current Battery Capacity: 4400 mAh

Original Battery Capacity: 4400 mAh

100%

Battery-Loadcycles: 14

Age of your Mac: 62 Months

Charger connected: Yes

Battery is charging: No

The only thing that seems interesting to me is how it got up 14 loadcycles in the past 5 days despite never charging and never being unplugged.

I don't think I understand what you're saying about the plug. I've tried my iBook's power cord (that computer has a whole different issue) and that didn't work either...

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Sorry I didn't realize the paragraph spaces would be edited out :x Is that readable?

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The AC plug has a center post and an outer collar. Sometime these outer collars get spread open and prevent a secure fitting. Loosing contact would also make the battery count climb.

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