Powerbook shuts down when power adaptor isn't plugged

I bought my powerbook G4 about 3 years ago and I've been having alot of problem with it in the past few months (yeah I know it's old lol).
When I first got it my friend told me not to use the battery while I'm working with the laptop, instead use the power adapter by removing the battery from the laptop and use the adapter instead. I tried to do that, and it didn't work.
Even now when I tried to remove the battery and just use the adapter, it's just doesn't want to start up.
I also got this problem whenever I'm using my laptop I always have to have the adapter plugged in or else it will shut down without any warning.
I checked the battery level with the button on the battery cover, it's always on 100% charged. BUT it won't turn up unless I plug the adapter in back.
I can't afford a new macbook pro so yeah =(
thank you!

There is another battery involved: the backup battery or PRAM battery. It resides to the right and under the optical drive (see image from iFixit.com guide) and remembers startup configurations when there is no AC or main battery power connected.
My PB's backup battery is dead and, If I let the main battery run down, I have to reset the computer to get a valid restart even after reattaching the AC power adaptor. If the backup battery is dead, then what little life is left in your main battery will be doing the work to hold the system parameters when you are off AC power.
The backup battery looks like this:
http://www.ifixit.com/Parts/images/products/155/155035s.jpg
It's a difficult install unless you are familiar with the inner workings of the Powerbook and how to get to them. It's also hard to find these that are new. And who wants a "Used" battery.

Similar Messages

Powerbook Shuts Down When Unplugged

My Powerbook shuts down when I unplug my notebook. It won't power back on unless I plug it back in. The battery is brand new from Apple (part of the battery replacement program) It first happened a month ago while using the notebook on battery for 20 minutes, it shut off. I was able to power it back on with the batttery but HAD TO RESET THE CLOCK and the iWeb document I had opened wasn't saved.
Now, when I unplug the notebook, it shuts off and won't power back on unless plugged back in and I still have to reset the clock.
Even though the battery is somewhat new, I'm confused because the notebook has to have the battery reset when the notebook turns off when removed from the power adapter.
Any answers?

try running it with the battery removed completely.
if it runs ok, could be bad battery.
if possible, try your battery on another machine and different battery on your machine.
if different battery does not work on your machine, it could be hardware problem with PowerBook.

MBP Shuts Down when Power cord is removed

My MBP almost instantly shuts down when the power cord is unplugged. The battery has been fully charged; I've tried restarting the laptop, holding down the power button for 10 seconds, and resetting the SMC.
What is going on??

I'm having the very same problem, and unless I find something on the discussions, I'm taking it into the Apple store as soon as possible.
This is my third battery, and each one seems to have a lifetime of about three months. This situation is different, though. The first one was bulging and shutting down when the battery was below 25% charged and the max battery capacity was dropping sharply. The second one was part of the exchange program, but I noticed it was starting to bulge and the max capacity was starting to drop (below ~60%).
This time, the max capacity is around 75% and I first noticed that it would shut down from sleep sporadically when on battery power. Then today, when I opened it, it shut down immediately. The battery was ~90% charged, but it wouldn't start up without the AC adapter. Now every time I unplug the adapter, the computer shuts down within 3 seconds. I also reset the SMC, which I think is the same process as resetting the PMU, perhaps they are equivalent terms or analogous devices, but the problem persists. There is no way to calibrate the battery since the computer won't run off it.
Unless there is something else to try, I recommend anyone with these problems should ask for a replacement battery.

Powerbook shuts down when running on battery

I got this problem only lately int these lasts months... my powerbook g4 15" is almost 3 years old.
I first noticed that the battery endurance is more and more reducing...it lasts more or less 20 minutes from when I unplug it form the power-net.
And that's only "the bright side" of the problem: because more and more often I'm getting the powerbook (always when it is running on battery alone) shutting down without any warning with battery indicator still full...
that's really wired.. it is really running me mad...
I found some other topic on the forum... but none of them helped me getting the clue on what's happening to my powerbook
do you think that doing a reset to the battery will sort things out?
thanks you very much in advance I hope someone can help me...
powerbook g4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Sadly I think the last coment is right. After so many charges (500-1,000) the battery dies. I had the exact same thing happen to another brand of laptop when its battery died. Replaced it and it works great again. Sorry to say but rechargable batteries don't last forever.

Shutting Down when AC adaptor removed

I have a few small problems with my MBP since i got it in early march, a battery has been replaced (the original mysterioulsy died after 4 months), and two power adaptors with fault springs on the pins of the adaptor. My current problem is that:
After extended use with the a/c adaptor plugged in, the battery full charged and the MBP seemingly working fine if i remove the a/c adaptor with 1 second it shuts down (not sleep mode) and requires the power supply to be restored before it will restart properly, although for brief moments a whirr can be heard when the power button is pressed. The battery is charged an full, Anyone got any ideas, think i will call Apple support in the morning but starting to doubt the reliabilty of Apples power units.
mac book pro Mac OS X (10.4.6)

Take it to an Apple store. There was a batch of bad batteries released with the first MBPs which all seem to have this problem. Since you said that you already had your battery replaced once, I would like to think that this is something different. It does however sound exactly the same as the problem I had. Apple replaced the battery, and now all is good.

PowerBook shuts down when iPhone is connected

I just got an iPhone S 3.0.1, and noticed that whenever I connect it to my 15" PowerBook 10.4.11, it will shut down.
So far, the computer stays on if I'm using it, but if I leave it inactive for about 5-10 minutes, it completely shuts down.
When I go to restart it, it takes a bit longer than usual to have anything come up on the screen.
Any thoughts?

OK, that's a little different - it sounded like the computer would shut down immediately upon connecting the iPhone.
I have no great answer. I use the Touch myself. Try posting to the iPhone forum, too.
In case it helps someone, does this happen whether the power cable is attached or not? What timeout do you have set for the Mac to sleep ordinarily? Got an Apple Store nearby?

Ibook G3 shuts down when power cord is inserted.

I have a 800mhz G3 12" and when I plug in the power adapter when it is running it immediately shuts down and will not bootup until I unplug the power adapter. I have tried two diffent adapters with the same results.
G3 ibook 256 ram 12" Display Mac OS X (10.3.9)

You may have to consider having the computer checked to see if
the DC-in circuit is working properly; could be that is where things
are going wrong. If you had a spare battery and an external
charger (such as some companies offer for their iBook replace-
ment batteries) you could run it for some time before needing to
do some repair, maybe.
For out of warranty repairs, you can check with Tech Restore, PB Restore
and other named companies who offer authorized/certified repairs online. I
had good service and was able to contact wegenermedia about my iBook
repairs before and after the service, which was very satisfactory.
PS: And one assumes there was a reliable power supply on the
AC adapter's power-in; and the adapter has a proper voltage out.

Macbook Air 13 shuts down if power cord isn't connect

My new (apr 2012) mb air 13 has randomly started shutting down if the power cord is not connected...At first, it was just randomly shutting down every 5-10mins, rebooting, and then shutting down again. I updated the software, and now - when plug into power - seems to work ok. However, if it is not connected to the power cord, it shuts down almost instantly.
Has anyone had this issue? Can anyone help? Thanks a million to anyone who can through their hat in the ring on this one...

Seems like your battery is on it's last legs.
Or, it could be that there is a loose connection somewhere between the battery and your logic board. This I highly doubt since you're getting a "Service Battery" notice.
To be sure, take it to the nearest Apple Store or Authorized Dealer/Service Center to be sure.
Click on the apple logo on your top left corner, about this mac, more info, system report and under power, see what it says about your battery.
You'll then know if your battery is dead.

Why has my iBook started to completely shuts down when power runs out?

I purchased my iBook G4 in early 2006 (OSX 10.4.11)
Until last week, I would regularly use my laptop until the battery charge was used up. I would get a low charge warning and it would automatically sleep. I could then plug it in to charge. When it was plugged in, I could touch the track pad or power button and all of the programs that were open when the power ran out would be there, just as I left them.
This has recently changed. Now when the power runs out, I receive the same low charge message, but instead of sleeping, my computer completely shuts down. When I press the power button to reboot, everything starts back up fine, but I get a message that my date and time are off and need to be reset. I then go to the Date and Time menu, which automatically updates through my wireless connection.
My questions are:
1. Why is it shutting down instead of sleeping?
2. Why is my date and time reseting to an incorrect date and time?

The difference is that in the past, your battery shut the computer down when their was enough juice to safely sleep the machine. Now it thinks it has enough juice, but it's truly running out. The battery is necessary to maintain the date and time in the computer.
Your battery needs to be calibrated. You should follow the instructions at:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.4/en/mh1959.html
This will allow the battery to truly know how much juice it has left.

MacBook won't start on battery/shuts down when power adapter is removed

Help & advice needed please.
My MacBook won't start without external power, it gives a whir then a click then nothing. Once started up, if I remove the external power it just shuts off.
The battery shows at 98% & charging. Coconut Battery shows the following:
Current battery charge 4126 (& increasing as I type)
Maximum battery charge 4200
Current battery capacity 4200
Original battery capacity 5200
80%
Battery loadcycles 111
Age of your Mac 6 months
Charger connected yes
Battery is charging yes
Does anyone have a clue why the Mac won't power itself on the battery when everything else seems like it works?
Cheers!

As of today, my MacBook and I have been together for 40 days. Yesterday, while I was happily surfing (on battery), it powered down with no warning. Okay, these things happen. I plugged it in, restarted, and all seemed to be fine. Battery was about 70%. I did other things on my other machines and when it was about 90%, unplugged it and everything was good. This morning after using it unplugged for 1.5 hours it did the same thing, but decided to only work with the power adapter, not on battery alone. When trying to boot without AC, it would try to spin the CD and then fall back into off. When on AC, if I pulled the adapter, it would last two seconds and go blank. I made an appt. with the Apple store (Fashion Show Mall, Las Vegas) for 3:20pm. I got there right at 3:20pm and the monitors showed I was 5th in line. Store was fairly packed, at least one patron at every display item. Monitors also said the next MacGenius appt. was "approx. 8:30pm." Glad I made an appt! I was served about 15 min. later, during which time the monitors had changed to "No more MacGenius appts. available today, please try tomorrow." However, one guy came by without an appt. and was told he would be put on standby and to come back in 30 min.
Once I explained my issue with my MacBook battery, my Genius tried one of his batteries. "I just want to make sure it's your battery and not your motherboard." My machine worked fine, so he said "No problem, I'll have you out of here in 10 minutes." He got me a brand new battery, tested it, and put my old one in a box on the rear counter with four others. He pulled the serial number from the "About this Mac" area, didn't need my receipt for purchase date or anything. I had even printed this page: http://www.apple.com/support/macbook_macbookpro/batteryupdate/ to use as ammunition, but didn't need it. He did approve highly of my dashboard widget "iStat pro", available here: http://islayer.com/.
So the battery issue is a very common problem, and one that Apple has tried to deal with as painlessly as possible for the consumer. My Genius did ask if the battery showed an "X" in the icon bar, and I said no. Just wouldn't run on battery. On the way out of the store, one of the 3 MacBooks, in fact the one closest to the door, had an "X" on the battery icon. When I unplugged the power, it shut down immediately! The moral of the story is to contact Apple immediately with problems and give them a chance to fix them. Hope this helps others.

T410i shuts down when power unplugged

My T410i battery indicator shows 96%+, but if I unplug the power supply it will shut down within 4 seconds, and will not power back on unless I unplug the battery for a few seconds first. In addition, the fingerprint reader stopped working at all.
I ran the Lenovo hardware diagnostics, which gave the computer a clean bill of health.
For about a week after this phenomena began I had no issues as long as I did not unplug power while the computer was on. Today it turned off for no apparent reason while I was away from the computer and will not power on no matter what I do.
Any suggested course of action??

got warranty still?
Regards,
Jin Li
May this year, be the year of 'DO'!
I am a volunteer, and not a paid staff of Lenovo or Microsoft

Macbook Air Shutting down when power is removed

Helping my friend troubleshoot his Macbook Air, purchased summer 2014. He said it was a pain to get it to turn on, and I advised him against taking it to our university's help desk (If you can really call it even that).
I have reset the NVRAM, PRAM, and SMC. I did an Apple Diagnostics Test three times, twice plugged in and once unplugged. Got ADP000 when plugged in and PPP007 when running on battery.
When plugged in it does not shut down, however when unplugged it'll stay on 10-20 seconds before crashing. The first time I did the diagnostic test it shutdown before the test could be completed, the second time however was the longest it had stayed on before crashing maybe 30-40 seconds before I restarted to test while plugged in.
I believe they only option left is to take it to an Apple Store, we are both from an area with an Apple store that is close however it is currently about 2-3 hours away from our campus.
On a side note, I think there was some sort of malware/adware on it. The homepage in chrome and safari just didn't look right so I changed them to Google, and it got changed back to the odd looking one. The url said something like search.searchbenny - He also had kaspersky internet security installed, but it was expired or something. I don't think this could be causing the issue but I thought it was worth mentioning.

If you click on the Apple menu's, "About This Mac," and then click on "System Report....," it will give a battery condition report. Best guess, as stated by Kappy, is that the battery needs to be replaced.
If he bought in the summer of 2014, it should still be under warranty.

Batterie stuck @ (83%) & Shut down if power adaptor unplugged

Because I live in Canada Vancouver BC we don't have Apple genius bars so i'll have to phone apple to send me a new batterie if thats the case. All those problems are fine now except i encountered a new problem, It will only turn on with the power adaptor plugged in and the % of the batterie charge/life stays at (83%) and if i am using my MacBook and unplug the power adaptor it shuts off and i have to plug in the Power adaptor again to restart it
My MacBook Is brand new and has encountered several problems after 4 months from perches, with power issues. I believe that it's because i "Over heat/Use" My MacBook.

Hi Appleipod_2575: Maybe check with the Apple store listed below, sounds like a battery/charging circuit issue
http://www.apple.com/ca/retail/pacificcentre/
Stedman

Satellite A200 won't shut down when power supply is connected

The Satellite A200 just shuts down, if the power cable is disconnected before shutting down. Otherwise the notebook shuts down and restarts immediately (max 5 seconds between shut down and restart).
Does anybody got the same strange problem?

Hi Thomas
You should definitely contact the ASP in your country. Maybe its something wrong with the power supply electronic on the notebooks motherboard.
As John said the replacement should be done for free because the A200 is a new series and the warranty should be valid.
Good luck

How do you prevent the computer from shutting down when in sleep mode?

How do you prevent the computer from shutting down when in sleep mode and plugged in?

Thanks tjk.
Those are great suggestions and got me looking in places I had not considered before. Unfortunately, the problem remains. The System Preferences did not have the shut down option activated and there are no parental controls active on the computer.
Any other suggestions are welcome.
Brian

Powerbook shuts down when power adaptor isn't plugged

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for