Hi guys,

I have a G4 Powerbook, and i have been running it with the power hooked up to run my external monitor. I ran in external mode for about a month, then ran down the battery to recharge it. I have just noticed that the battery says (0%) and 'Battery Not Charging'.

When i press the button on the battery, all the lights are lit, indicating the battery is fully charged, but i can't run the laptop without the power cord hooked up!

The battery information is:

System Power Settings:

AC Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Dynamic Power Step: Yes
Reduce Processor Speed: No
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On LAN: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: Yes
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Battery Power:
System Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Disk Sleep Timer (Minutes): 10
Display Sleep Timer (Minutes): 2
Dynamic Power Step: Yes
Reduce Processor Speed: No
Automatic Restart On Power Loss: No
Wake On AC Change: No
Wake On Clamshell Open: Yes
Wake On Modem Ring: No
Display Sleep Uses Dim: Yes
Reduce Brightness: Yes

Hardware Configuration:

Clamshell Closed: No
UPS Installed: No

AC Charger Information:

AC Charger (Watts): 65
Connected: Yes
Charging: No

Battery Information:

Charge Information:
Charge remaining (mAh): 0
Charging: No
Full charge capacity (mAh): 0
Health Information:
Cycle count: 0
Battery Installed: Yes
Amperage (mA): 0
Voltage (mV): 12383

This is a fairly new battery as i changed it after the fire issue. Does anyone know what might be causing this?

I had something very similar the other day with my MBP. It was saying 0%, Battery Not Charging. However it still worked when I unplugged it from power, but it would not charge. I found that when I did an SMC reset it seemed to start charging again. Don't know if this will fix your problem, but maybe give it a go.

See here to do an SMC reset:
Resetting an Apple portable's System Management Controller (SMC)

Good luck,
Steve


Edit: However, it doesn't look promising with your battery saying no cycles, no charge capacity etc.

Thanks for that, i'll definitely give that a go....hopefully it's fixable as if its the laptop who knows what the cost would be!

Thanks again.

never mind...

Thanks for the info smrawlinson but unfortunately it didn't help. The PMU reset ok but the battery still isn't being used by the laptop.

Guess i will have to call the apple store.

Bugger - hopefully someone else might have an idea, otherwise I guess the Apple store is the way to go.

Good luck!

Thanks smrawlinson, hopefully it's only the battery (as even they cost a lot). Are batteries covered under any sort of warranty? I don't have apple care by the way.

Theres plenty of Batteries (official and Third Party) on eBay
eBay Australia - Powerbook G4 battery, Laptop Accessories, Apple, Computers items at low prices

Thanks for the link wally4000, i hadn't even thought of ebay. Pretty cheap there too, half price!

I'm taking it down to NextByte in the next few days to see what they say the problem is.

on the old OLD 1999 Lombard powerbooks, when this happened, apart from the already mentioned solutions was to insert the battery repeatedly, like 15 times.

other than that, apple tech time!

I should mention, back in 1999 I was actually as sexy as the Lombard powerbook

I think it might be apple tech time.....and i'm not touching your last comment!