My PB G4 keeps randomly going to sleep!!

Question

First of all, my apologies if this topic has already been discussed...due to the issue I'm having, I have no idea when my computer will decide to go to sleep!
I've had my PowerBook G4 since 2005. For the past few days, it randomly goes to sleep. I can be in the middle of doing anything (like typing this) and it will go to sleep (it just did twice while typing the above sentence). When the battery is in, it does is every few minutes. When just hooked up to power (no battery), it does it every 20-30 minutes, but, in both instances, will rarely do it once or twice in a few minutes. When the battery is in and it goes to sleep, the battery does not feel too hot, so I don't think it is overheating.
When it goes to sleep, I can just hit a few random keys and it will wake up. Once or twice, I have had to unplug it and remove the battery to restart it.
Other (possibly) pertinent information:
-I always have it plugged in while using it-very, very, rarely use it with just the battery. No specific reason, just habit, I guess.
-I have never replaced the battery or the charger.
I will admit that I haven't always kept up to date on updates, and I am sort of technologically clueless. Because of my lack of knowledge, this freaks me out a bit that my computer is doing this. I love it and have never had any problems before! I know I can take it to Apple, but, I don't want to take it if it is an issue easily resolved. There is only one Apple store in my area and you typically have to wait a few days for an appointment.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!!

Answer 1

Welcome!
I'm suspecting you 5-year old battery might have something to do with it. The clue to this is:
Once or twice, I have had to unplug it and remove the battery to restart it.
That sounds like you're short on power. Mine did that when the battery was dying, although not while the A/C adaptor was connected. Still, a very heavy-duty program can draw power from both the battery and the A/C adaptor in newer Mac notebooks, so that's a possibility in older ones.
To check your battery's condition, do "About this Mac..." from the Apple menu and click "More Info..." in the resulting window. You're now looking at the very informative utility, System Profiler. In the left-hand pane, find and select "Power." Then look at the info in the main pane for "Battery Information." You don't say what version of the Mac OS you have, and Profiler can show slightly different info from Panther to Tiger to Leopard.
Anyway, you need to look for the section under Battery Information that has items like "Charge remaining (mah)," "Full charge capacity (mah)," and "Cycles" or "Cycle count." The last two are the most important in determining the condition of your battery. Copy and paste that section into a reply to your own thread and we will have a good start on figuring out what to do.
Please add your version of OSX to your equipment line where it now says PowerBook G4. It's also useful to show the processor speed. I assume you don't need to post the screen size as you've posted in the forum for PowerBooks with 17" displays.
Had I only my trusty old PowerBook in my equipment line, it would read:
PowerBook G4 17"; 1Ghz processor; OS 10.4.11; 1G RAM
That doesn't make a difference for the question you posted today but is helpful to others should you wish to post another question. Saves a responder having to burn a post asking for the basics. BTW, all that info is available from "About this Mac..." or from the opening pave of System Profiler.
I'm glad you found us--I'm sure you will get some useful help here.