2005-01-13

Dead iBook battery

Well, after 18 months my iBook battery is dead.

I noticed that the battery meter in my menu bar was showing a little black 'x' and the menu read 'No batteries available'. I figured "this can't be good news", frowned, and began googling.

The obvious solution is here (that the battery is just dead... buy a new one):
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=666378

I did some more searching in the hope I wouldn't have to buy a new battery. I found some references to OS9 being able to charge a battery that OSX won't recognize. So I reinstalled Classic and booted up into it after resetting the PMU. Sadly, no luck. Classic would show the battery at 0% for a while, then 'X'.

I even tried a dubious hint that said to short-circuit the battery by connecting the two end connectors with some wire. Still no luck... just some pretty sparks.

So I'll be buying a new iBook battery soon. With my luck, they won't be selling them anymore and my only option will be a 17" Powerbook instead. Yeah, right.

PS. Battery also had no LEDs since the problem started. Indicating no charge... or that its little chip is completely dead.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bummer dude... does the laptop just turn itself off, or does it actually continue working just that you have no idea how much battery charge is left?

ntt said...

Laptop runs fine off power.
But since the battery isn't recognized it behaves as if there is no battery at all. So the laptop has become a desktop.

Anonymous said...

Oh well. Hope your new battery is serving you well.
Next time it breaks just get yourself a PowerMac or a Powerbook :)

-zan.