Erratic charging, No full charge.

Question

Possible warning to always use surge protection?
While running my PB off an automotive inverter and then repeatedly trying to start a vehicle. (causing the inverter to go into low voltage alarm) A week or so ago also dropped it and bent the case, making the plug not fit well and not always making full contact, It would show green when discharged and requiring a little extra push to go orange and start charging.
Replaced my battery and got a new 65w charger a couple years ago. Still barely got 2 hours use of it on the battery and prior to now barely 1 1/2 hours which might be normal for the age of it. Now maybe a 1/2 hour starting from an indicated full charge.
Now plugging it shows green and occasionally flashing orange briefly while in use, (usually only for a minute or two and tpically only for 15-30 seconds) charge rate is slower than normal, power indicator shows as charging, but isn't.
Installing the plug incomplete has the adapter showing charge orange but the charge indicator shows as on battery power and quickly shows a discharge state.
I put the unit to sleep with 45% charge and woke it up 8 hours later with the same state and it typically appears to stay at what ever charge it was at when put to sleep and not be charging unless in use.
The adapter light usually flashes orange for maybe a minute at a time when in use and gradually shows an increasing state of charge while in orange. Though sometimes still shows an increasing state of charge despite not changing to orange or not always going up immediately when it's actually showing orange charging.
When the hard drive is spinning up and other use also has the adapter light showing charge and charge state stays the same when showing green, so it appears I'm only charging for brief times. It might start showing an orange charge when the screen saver kicks in and for about 15-30 seconds when closing the lid.
When it eventually gets to an indicated full charge it turns out I only have a 20-30 minutes of use and typical shutting down despite showing indications of over 50% capacity.
Reset the PMU and restated, ran the utility, Figuring if it still works resetting should make it work properly, but it not making any difference. My cd/dvd drive also failed, so I can't run the hardware test.
Any clues as to what the problem is, Requiring replacement of part or all the charging circuit components?
I also developed hard drive noises after dropping it a few weeks ago, but this charging problem didn't started till my vehicle starting problem.
PB 12 G4 1.12 GB   Mac OS X (10.2.x)  

Answer 1

Looking in posts for different size units, others seem to have encountered similar problems.
It looks like it could be a battery problem, though in my case I'm still getting about a 1/2 hour out of it (but was getting 1 1/2 hours out of it) and it acting the battery is at the end of it's life on top of the odd orange green light function etc,
The charging problem also possibly tied to something in the PMU or logic board, or charger itself that is either damaged or worn out and the problems with incorrect battery capacity etc appears not exclusive to old units or OS's and being a bit erratic and not showing up in the hardware test. (of which I can't run due to my disc drive also not working anymore)
When I first had problems with my old battery everything went back to normal with a new battery and charger. So I'll blame it on built in defects, globalization and profit margins.
I bought a new 65w charger thinking I might get better life out of the new battery, but it didn't. (and despite extended applecare supposedly my old battery was at it's expected performance level and not replaceable for free, and the place I had it tested at claimed to get better life out it than I ever could, but was likely using newer charger)
My old 45w charger also had a frayed cord where it entered the plug and wasn't maintaining a good connection and I was getting tired of fixing it as well figuring my problems might be tied to running off inverters and a not very good plug in power source when plugged in, not getting full line voltage.
My current problem started with dropping it and it not making a good connection unless forcing it in more and later developing into erratic and incorrect charging after a few power surges. But because it still appears to work, I figured it could be a software problem, but didn't fix itself running the disc utility or restarting.
I've yet to try running the battery down again, because it appears to take so long to recharge and only recharges while using it.
Even sleeping for a 3-4 hours on the battery runs it down to 80% where it used to only lose a few points. Seeing it shut down at 60% last time, likely means I don't have very much use on the battery now and my power indicator is optimistic.
PB 12 G4 1.12 GB Mac OS X (10.2.x)
PB 12 G4 1.12 GB Mac OS X (10.2.x)