IBook Won't Recognize Charge in Battery

Question

My iBook, a Revision B non-FireWire machine, is experiencing a very unusual problem in that it won't recognize the charge in a battery.
Like many iBooks, this one no longer will charge a battery. I purchased a new battery from OWC in the fall and found it wasn't charging--yet one of my two decade-old batteries was still initiating the amber light (something this battery did not). I sent the battery back and received another one, which gave me the same symptoms.
I performed the oft-discussed routines for resetting power management systems on iBooks, resetting the PMU, PRAM, and NVRAM. I tried each procedure several times and even "drained" the capacitor by leaving it unplugged/unbatteried for 30 minutes. The computer still wouldn't charge the battery--there was no attempt made according to the symbols in the control strip. (My iBook runs 9.1 although I do have a copy of Jaguar I could install on it--but at the moment I have the extra space filled with VPC and Win2K). I also tried Apple's battery reset extension.
Figuring I could get away without built-in charging, as this is currently a laptop I only use on an occasional basis, I bought a VST charger. The battery charged up fine. When I put it in the iBook, I got maybe 10-15 seconds of battery life.
The main problem here: *even with a known charged battery, the computer won't see any charge in that battery*. It's fine by me if the computer doesn't want to charge, as I have the VST charger, but I do want it to work off the battery.
Some history, in case any of this is relevant: I purchased this computer new in August 2000 with two batteries. The original yo-yo adapter shorted out five years later. It took about three weeks for a replacement to come, and that replacement was an OWC house brand charger (not an Apple). I depleted both batteries, which were still getting close to their original capacity, during the time between the adapter's failure and the arrival of the new adapter. Neither battery charged on the new adapter, although I blamed this on a combination of drainage and age. I later replaced the power adapter with another Apple, but the batteries had been drained for too long to charge back up. Neither will charge in the VST station, although the OWC battery does.
The computer runs OS 9.1, has 192MB RAM, and has not seen a fresh system install in about three years. It has an Airport card installed and has no history of trouble outside of the shorted yo-yo and the inability to charge/recognize batteries.
I've worked on tons of Macs and have seen far crazier problems, all of which have been solvable, but this one is impossible even for this veteran Apple user to figure out. Every known remedy has failed, and I'm wondering if perhaps it's an internal problem relating to the PRAM capacitor--which appears as though it would have failed in 2005 if it indeed failed.
Any help would be greatly appreciated--although this is by no means my main machine, I still use it for a few OS 9 programs I haven't bothered to upgrade and definitely want to use it without the AC adapter for the first time in nearly six years.

Answer 1

It's a good idea to start your own discussion when you have a different problem than the one discussed in a particular thread.
https://discussions.apple.com/static/apple/tutorial/ask.html
Which exact iBook model is it?
You can choose from this list:
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ibook/index-ibook.html
If it's one of the older, colored iBooks, you need to update the firmware on it before attempting to boot from an OS X disc or install OS X (as mentioned above).
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1284?viewlocale=en_US
Is the Jaguar CD the full retail version or a disc that came with another Mac? If it's a disc that came with another Mac, it probably won't work with the iBook.