Battery/recharging problem with iBook

I've had a bunch of problems in the last 2 months with my iBook not charging, or running down the battery even when plugged in. I need advice on the next step to take in diagnosing the problem.
(1) About 2 months ago, while connected using the Apple adapter, I noticed the green ring on the power cord had turned yellow some minutes (hours?) before. Before I knew it, the machine was threatening to shut down due to low battery. Since it had been plugged in all this time, I jiggled the cord at the point where the thin white cord enters the white brick and it suddenly started charging again. I concluded that I might need a new adapter.
(2) But I postponed buying one until a similar event happened again. I forget the details, but the event motivated me to buy a new 3rd-party adapter which seemed to work fine. Of course, ever since the first incident I ALWAYS used the iBook with it plugged into the wall. My two batteries were 3 or 5 years old, and I doubted they had much juice left.
(3) Two weeks ago I had the machine give me the low power warning in the middle of a lecture, then turned itself completely off... even though (as noted) it was plugged into a verifiably active wall outlet, using the new adapter. This was extremely embarrassing. Pressing the reset button and praying finally seemed to bring it back to life (with a bad date). Without realizing it, I think I actually reset the Power Manager.
(4) I read up on the problem and decided that I probably needed a new Power In board. I bought one online -- and installed it myself in a 5-hour marathon last Sunday (the day before yesterday).
(5) Monday I was doing some work on it and the problem recurred. I tried running it with no battery (but plugged in); no dice. I tried resetting the Power Manager (which I know how to do now); no dice. I noticed that my installed battery was the 5-year-old original Apple battery. I dug around and found my 3-year-old BTI battery and put it in. Everything seemed fine! This BTI battery charged up with no problem. Or so I thought.
(6) Everything seemed peachy, too, during my lecture this morning (Tuesday) using the BTI battery (which was charging itself fully with 4 green LEDs) even though it was a bit old. Again, I ALWAYS used it plugged into the wall.
(7) But during my evening lecture I noticed, once again, that it was not charging the battery. I put it into sleep mode and then tried running it with no battery at all. No dice. Eventually I reset the Power Manager one more time and it started recharging.
Questions:
(A) What the heck is wrong with my iBook? I replaced the power adapter. I replaced the Power-In board. I reset the Power Manager several times. I replaced an ancient (unchargeable) battery with an old (chargeable) one.
(B) Is the iBook designed (as I have read in a couple of places) to run with no battery (if plugged into the wall outlet)?
(C) Will buying a new battery fix the problem? I assume the answer is no, if the problem is with the charging circuitry. I assume the answer is yes, if a low or old battery can confuse the power management circuitry. I just don't want to shell out well over a hundred bucks to discover that the problem remains.
Any help would be appreciated!

Hi, James.
Yes, the iBook should run even with no battery installed.
These are the four most common possibilities when the battery will not charge:
(1) there is something wrong with your battery
(2) there is something wrong with your power adapter
(3) there is something wrong with your power input board (the part that contains the port where you plug in the adapter)
(4) there is something wrong with your logic board
Since you have eliminated all the possibilities except (4), it is likely that your logic board is having problems. The PMU (Power Management Unit) is part of the logic board, and it may be going out (hence, temporarily working again when you reset it). Since the iBook is not running reliably without the battery in place (as it should), replacing the battery most likely would be futile.
When a computer gets to be five years old, it seems a bit short-sighted to pay very much for repairs, just to have something else go wrong sooner rather than later. Have you had a look at the hugely improved specs on the new MacBooks? Is it time for a new portable to avoid embarrassment during your presentations? It sounds like that could be your best option.

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