Strange Battery and Startup goings on!

Hi
Ive got an old G4 667mhz laptop running 10.3.9. Recently Ive been experiencing some strange battery behaviour. I seem to get low battery warnings even though the % shows its above 50%. The most noticeable glitch is that I'm often unable to boot up the laptop without it being plugged into the mains - unless the battery has been recently charged.
I'm guessing (hoping) its a battery problem - although I guess buying a new battery will probably be the same cost as the whole machine
many thanks for your help
and a happy new year to you all!

The battery level indicator can get out of whack sometimes I have heard, this I was told happens more if you don't run the battery charge down all the way and just run to half and recharge, run to half and recharge.
Try running the battery all the way down and charging it up a few times. Sometimes it helps things.
That said its possible that your battery is just getting into its latter days and is nearing the end of its service life. (If this becomes the case remember to properly dispose of the battery when its done please)
Some after-market batteries will also give you longer running times then the Apple ones now.
Also this is the G4 PowerMac forum you will probably get more PowerBook related help in the Power Book Forum
--Spire

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Fuzzy screen, strange colours, and startup freeze

Hello there.
This issue might have been covered, but I have not found a thread with it specifically.
The thing is, I have an first generation Imac G5, with 17 inches screen and 1.8 Ghz. It has Leopard with the latest patches. The serial number was in the range of the repair extention program (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2390?viewlocale=en_US) so I got it repared for that issue over a year ago. There was no video gliches, but it just refused to power up. They really had a hard time making in work at the shop I went to in Montréal. I think they said the first power supply they instelled grilled, and they also had to change the mother board. But at last it was ok and worked for a year.
But small video glitches (with strange random colour lines)and kernel panics started to became more frequent until finally, the thing froze on mid startup.
After a night's sleep it started all right with a bit of screen oddities but froze two minutes after when a program was started. It starts all right in safe mode, but more screen oddities become apparent over time and after a while it dies painfully in an abstract graphic figures drug addict vision style nightmare. I have tried all the basic reset stuff without sucess.
At apple they say repair it at your own expanse and bugger off... lol. But I'm really being poor student budget here! So basically, I want to identify the problem's origins, know if I can sort it out myself and how... If not, how much would it cost to repair the damned beauty. It would be a shame to end the love-hate relationship we share, and I might be old-school but I like keeping my comps more than 3 years.
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Antoine

Welcome to Discussions Antoine - you may be having a problem with your video RAM, or with your power supply or logic board. Try starting from your install disk and run Disk Utility:
Disk Utility
1. Insert the Mac OS X Install disc that came with your computer, then restart the computer while holding the C key.
2. When your computer finishes starting up from the disc, choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu. (In Mac OS X 10.4 or later, you must select your language first.)
Important: Do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must restart from the disc again to access Disk Utility.
3. Click the First Aid tab.
4. Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.
5. Select your Mac OS X volume.
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Let us know what you find,

7.0.3 battery and startup problems on ipad

Since I did the 7.0.3 update, two problems have arisen on my ipad 4.
The first is that my battery drains fast when not in use. It used to be that if my ipad were left alone, unplugged and on but not in use, the battery barely drained. But now it drains like I've been watching movies on it all day. The first day after the update, it sat on the counter most of the day unused, and it shut down because the battery completely drained out. It's been like that since. I have to turn it off now, when not in use.
Also, when I turn my ipad on, it takes forever to start up. It just sits with the apple icon on the screen and it's like that for so long, I think it's locked up. Eventually, it comes up. This happens every time.
Since I never had these problems before, I'm assuming that it's a result of the update. Prior to the 7.0.3 update, I had done the previous version 7 updates and have been using it with no trouble. So this wasn't an update from version 6 to 7. Please let me know if you have any ideas, thanks.

Two things that might help. Reset all your settings and reset the phone. Use the Settings app to reset all settings. Settings > General > Reset > Reset All Settings Then reset your device. Press and hold the Home and Sleep buttons simultaneously until the Apple logo appears. Let go of the buttons and let the device restart. See if that helps.
As far as the battery usage, check your settings. The iOS 7 update adds new features and turns them on. You may not need all of them to be on. There are many threads in this form with suggestions for reducing battery usage.

Strange noise and flashing lights -- can this be battery/power-related?

I have had two occurrences of a very strange sound and never-before-seen flashing of a light on my TiBook. Here is what happened:
I recently got a new battery (a NewerTech Extend 4800) for my 3 year-old PowerBook. I carefully followed the directions that came with the battery and installed it, then plugged in the power adapter to charge it up. I then started the computer so I could see the battery’s progress. Upon start-up, a “whooo” sort of sound came out of the computer for a few moments and the little sleep indicator light flashed several times (as did the apple light on the back of the computer lid). Nothing appeared to be out of order and the computer started normally otherwise. I was able to monitor the battery’s progress and since everything seemed to work normally and no one I talked to seemed to think I’d damaged anything, I just used the computer normally for the next two weeks with no problems.
Then last night the computer just shut down all by itself – I did not put it to sleep and it is not set to go to sleep on its own (my power saving setting is only set to dim the screen), nor did I click “shut down.” I thought perhaps somehow the power cord had not been attached and the battery had run down, although the new battery has been warning me properly when the battery is getting low, so that doesn’t make sense. It would not wake, so I restarted it. Upon restart, the same noise and flashing light situation occurred again.
I called the company that sold me the battery and the tech guy’s suggestion there was to reset the PMU and he gave me an Apple article to instruct me on how to do that. I have done that, but there is no evidence that that has solved whatever the issue was. I am hoping that someone can identify the sound and lights pattern and advise me as to whether it is some more serious issue, or if it’s nothing to worry about. It has been suggested to me that it is possibly a power adaptor issue, but since I’ve run down and recharged the battery without incident several times in between the two occurrences, that doesn’t seem logical either. Is there a known signal a computer makes when there is some power/charging issue?
Thanks for any help you have or for at least posting if you have had a similar experience. So far, no one I’ve talked to has ever heard of this before.
15" Powerbook G4 (tiBook), 1 Ghz, 1 GB, Super Drive Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Hi ChloeB,
Your description of the "moaning" sounds at startup sounds like something I'm dealing with. I came across the following post by EWW in the "My Powerbook Won't Start Up". I recommend the link and wish to specifically credit EWW with the posting, as I found it helpful. The URL is
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=380101&tstart=0
Begin Pasted Posting
Hi, limberlingo, and welcome to Apple Discussions.
Power On Self-Test Beep Definition - Part 2 (Oct. 1999 and later Macs)
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58442
1 beep = no RAM installed
2 beeps = incompatible RAM types
3 beeps = no good banks
4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)
5 beeps = processor is not usable
Your Powerbook is not detecting any good RAM at startup. This may indicate that your RAM (all of it — do you have one module or two installed?) has gone bad, or that it isn't seated properly. The first thing to try is reseating it: remove the module(s) and then reinsert it(them). Then try starting up again. If that doesn't do the trick, and you have only one RAM module, it's probably bad and will have to be replaced. A single RAM module having intermittent problems before failing completely (as it apparently has now) would account for all your problems.
If you have two modules, it's much less likely that both of them have failed or loosened in their slots simultaneously. Post back with results of your testing.
End of Pasted Post by EWW
There's another thread I found where one of the causes of a three-tone warning was found to be a pinched ribbon cable coming off the bottom of the trackpad. You can find that in the thread titled "Solution to Freezes Caused By Ribbon Cable" - - the information provided by Marc Posner, Anthony Brade and others.
The URL is
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=228678
Hope this helps.
Paratus

IPod Touch Strangeness: Battery life and iPhoto

I have a first generation iPod Touch (8 GB), running v.2.1. I recently went on a long trip, and the iPod Touch worked as expected, with pretty long battery life, etc. However, on my return, I've noticed two oddities. First, now whenever I attach my iPod Touch to its usual computer (iMac G5/20"/2.0 GHz), not only does iTunes start, but iPhoto also starts. It's not like I loaded a bunch of photos on the Touch-just the same 5 photos that have been on it for a year. Secondly, since returning, my battery life seems to have gotten much shorter. I had not used it for a couple of days earlier this week, and the Touch was completely discharged, despite the fact Wi-fi was turned off during this time. Thinking this may have been a fluke, I recharged it. Last night, I turned it on (full battery), and played a game on it for a bit. When I was done, the battery was slightly discharged. I made sure wifi was turned off again, and let it sit overnight. This morning, the battery was again half discharged. Any idea what is going on with these two things?
Thanks in advance.

Only Apple knows. The testers for iOS5 may also know but they are prevented from telling people now. by thieir NDA (non disclosure agreement).

T42P. Does not boot/startup. Black screen. All indicators except the battery and power are off.

Hi all,
I am new to the forum and so very desperate for help!
I have a T42P (2373-C61) machine. All of the sudden today, it blue-screened. I turned it off, then tried to turn it back on.
Now, it is not coming up at all. I can not even get to the BIOS or see anything in the screen!
All the lights/indicators are off except these two: the battery/power and the little z (the on indicator).
The NumLk and Caps Lock indicators flash every 15 seconds or so.
The hard drive, bluetooth, and wireless lights are off completely.
Tried getting to the BIOS by unplugging the battery and using the AC only but nothing happens when I press F1 or the IBM button.
Also, tried a suggestion from other users that requires unplugging Battery/AC, pressing Power button 10 times, then the 11th time for 30 sec. Still nothing happens.
No HW/SW was added to the machine recently...
Any suggestions is appreciated..

It can also be the LCD itself...
BTW, if the graphic card has failed that equals motherboard replacement since it's soldered to the planar...
Let's hope not...
Good luck and keep us posted.
Cheers,
George
In daily use: R60F, R500F, T61, T410
Collecting dust: T60
Enjoying retirement: A31p, T42p,
Non-ThinkPads: Panasonic CF-31 & CF-52, HP 8760W
Starting Thursday, 08/14/2014 I'll be away from the forums until further notice. Please do NOT send private messages since I won't be able to read them. Thank you.

My macbook pro is running very slow with some strange mouse and window movements. The trackpad is very unresponsive and when responding the cursor moves on its own and/or very erratically. When on safari the window suddenly zooms in or highlights words.

My macbook pro is running very slow with some strange mouse and window movements. The trackpad is very unresponsive and when responding the cursor moves on its own and/or very erratically. When on safari the window suddenly zooms in or highlights words and looks them up via dictionary. I currently have a wireless mouse connected and I am still having the same problems.
I fee like I may have a virus or my laptop is perhaps being accessed remotely. All of the sharing options are unchecked.
HELP PLEASE
Very worried!!

Try these in order testing your system after each to see if it's back to normal:
1. a. Resetting your Mac's PRAM and NVRAM
    b. Intel-based Macs: Resetting the System Management Controller (SMC)
2. Restart the computer in Safe Mode, then restart again, normally. If this doesn't help, then:
     Boot to the Recovery HD: Restart the computer and after the chime press and hold down the
     COMMAND and R keys until the Utilities menu screen appears. Alternatively, restart the computer and
     after the chime press and hold down the OPTION key until the boot manager screen appears.
     Select the Recovery HD and click on the downward pointing arrow button.
3. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions: Upon startup select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Repair the Hard Drive and Permissions as follows.
When the recovery menu appears select Disk Utility. After DU loads select your hard drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) from the the left side list. In the DU status area you will see an entry for the S.M.A.R.T. status of the hard drive. If it does not say "Verified" then the hard drive is failing or failed. (SMART status is not reported on external Firewire or USB drives.) If the drive is "Verified" then select your OS X volume from the list on the left (sub-entry below the drive entry,) click on the First Aid tab, then click on the Repair Disk button. If DU reports any errors that have been fixed, then re-run Repair Disk until no errors are reported. If no errors are reported click on the Repair Permissions button. Wait until the operation completes, then quit DU and return to the main menu. Select Restart from the Apple menu.
     Reinstall the 10.9.2 update: OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 Update (Combo).
4. Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks: Reboot from the Recovery HD. Select Reinstall Lion/Mountain Lion, Mavericks from the Utilities menu, and click on the Continue button.
Note: You will need an active Internet connection. I suggest using Ethernet if possible because it is three times faster than wireless.
Reinstall the 10.9.2 update: OS X Mavericks 10.9.2 Update (Combo).

My macbook pro running lion will not boot . it stays on the grey page with the cog spinning. I have tried all methods of booting to no avail. I have removed the bottom and taken out the battery and the ram . will this affect my applecare warranty.

my macbook pro running lion will not boot . it stays on the grey page with the cog spinning. I have tried all methods of booting to no avail. I have removed the bottom and taken out the battery and the ram . will this affect my applecare warranty. I had to try myself as I'm overseas for two months and nowhere near any sort of help .

there was a recent software update that seemed to screw HDV up. Do some searching here over the last month or 2 and you'll find a bunch of posts and some possible solutions.
Worst case scenario, do as Shane suggests. But might I suggest you take a look at the user tips section of the forum. there are some great tips on how to prevent these sorts of problems by cloning your startup drive, etc.

How do I enable the big green battery and the plug icon? (R61 - Win7 64)

I know that this subject is pretty old, but maybe somebody will answer.
I have a reverse problem from:
http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T61-and-prior-T-series-ThinkPad/How-do-I-remove-the-big-green-battery-an...
I do not have this green battery and the plugin icon, instead I have gray battery like this:
Strange thing is that it is resistant to any changes in Power Manager Advanced Options - whatever I check: hide, show, small icon, big icon - it stays as it is.
I use Win7 64bit.
Any ideas?
Moderator comment: New thread split from the above link. Subject and post edited to reflect new content.
Solved!
Go to Solution.

Yes, that previous page button is wonderful, isn't it LOL. It has gotten me many times. Some text editors are merciful and will preserve your work if you immediately hit the back button. The Lenovo Forum editor does not but it does autosave your draft ever so often
Concerning Power Manager: First, let's make sure of the obvious. Have you tried removing and re-installing your battery and making sure it is making good contact?
Assuming your battery is not the problem,
go ahead and uninstall "Hotkeys."
Hotkeys version 3.81.0100 currently includes 5 separate components which you will see in your list of programs:
- On Screen Display
- Thinkpad Full Screen Magnifier
- Lenovo System Interface Driver
- Lenovo Auto Scroll Utility
- Lenovo Patch Utility
Use Control Panel and make sure to un-install all of these. (You may never have installed Hotkeys. If so, skip this step Or, if you have installed a previous version which does not include all of these components, just un-install any of these you find).
Next, use Control Panel to un-install "Power Manager," and "Lenovo Power Management Driver." Yes, "Power Manager" is different from "Lenovo Power Management Driver." (It sounds like like you may never have installed "Lenovo Power Management Driver" so just skip that one if you don't see it in your list of programs.)
Tip: Older versions of "Power Manager" may be called "Thinkpad Power Manager" or "Lenovo Power Manager." We're now up to version 6.36.
Reboot as prompted during the un-installation process.
Now, go to the Lenovo Drivers and Software page here and enter your type/model number.
Install the following software in this order:
(1) First, install "Lenovo Power Management Driver" from the Power Management section.
(2) Next, install "Hotkey Features Integration" from the Software and Utility section.
(3) Finally, install "Power Manager" itself. (Version 6.36 you see there is the latest version).
Reboot as instructed during the installation process.
As for the Lenovo "anti-shock feature," install "ThinkVantage Active Protection System" from the Thinkvantage Technology section
That should do it. Let us know how you do.
Moderator comment: Subject edited to match new thread.
Have a great day. (I do not work for Lenovo)

Elitebook works on battery and charges it - but does not start with it (only starting on AC)

Hey,
my 8460P only starts up when connected to AC power. Even with a fully charged battery it does not boot, i also have tested this with a replacement battery - but batteries are working on another Probook.
Strange: If I unplug the AC directly after powering ON, the 8460p continues running on battery.
What exactly happens:
I have fully charged battery and no AC connected. I press the power button, the CPU fan makes noise (full throttle), LEDs are glowing: Wireless, Power and HDD. The DVD drive is initializing... and then after 3 seconds device shuts down - BUT the power LED keeps glowing.
If I then press the Power button once again, nothing happens.
But when I connect the AC back, the SCROLL LED glows for about 3-4 seconds and then turns off.
What I did already: The well-known hard reset (disconnect everything, hitting power 30seconds): no success.
Latest BIOS is installed. Factory defaults loaded... nothing. Played around with different BIOS settings (everything which sounds for "power" or "AC" tried...) nothing.
This is not OS related - so updating any drivers or software does not make sense.
Further remarks:
Also from the sleep modes (hibernate or S3) it will not wake up from battery... again only when connected to AC!
Any solution/idea? please support.
Thanks a lot!
regards,
G

@gambrinus
‎Thank you for using HP Support Forum. I have brought your issue to the appropriate team within HP. They will likely request information from you in order to look up your case details or product serial number. Please look for a private message from an identified HP contact. Additionally, keep in mind not to publicly post ( serial numbers and case details).
If you are unfamiliar with the Forum's private messaging please click here to learn more.
Thank you,
Omar
I Work for HP

Strange patterns during startup

Since a year I noticed strange black and white patterns shown on my Cinema Display 30 and strange noise pattern on the secondary Philips monitor during startup. I have a 3.1 MacPro w. ATI Radeon HD 2600 video card, and I am using Mac OSX 10.6.8.
I have tried several software solutions, and PRAM reset as well. Unfortunately the problem still occurs.

What is shown on the display is often a window into the display memory. Patterns such as the ones you are seeing may indicate that the RAM on the display card is failing.
The Apple-brand ATI 5770 is a good replacement card, and as long as you are running 10.6.5 or later, seems to work in all models MacPro.

Iphone 3G strange battery indicator readings (not typical issue)

I know a lot of people are complaining about long charge times and not reaching full charge but my problem is quite unique and after many hours searching I have not found a similar issue.
I have noticed that my iPhone charges very quickly usually in less than an hour. I verify this by looking for the plug icon at the top of the screen and at the horizontal battery indicator seen when waking the phone from sleep.
The strange part besides my fast charge times is that sometimes when I charge my phone from about 20-30% battery life it will show the lightning icon at the top..then a few minutes later I will see the plug even though the phone is obviously not close to being fully charged...the plug will go away after a few minutes and revert to the lightning until it finally finishes. Is this situation a reason to get a replacement unit? I already installed the latest update. I am not noticing any signs of poor battery life or stuck indicator besides this one issue. Am I the only person that has the plug icon show when the iPhone is in the middle of being charged???
also I have reset the phone multiple times yet in the usage menu, it shows that the phone has never been reset. These are all minor quibbles may be but I want to know if it is justified to seek a replacement phone...thanks

Hey, i did experience the same problem. my battery would charge half way, displaying the lightning icon, and then the it would stop charging, displaying the plug icon. my battery wouldn't charge to the max. I was pretty ****** off about it so i went to my nearest apple store and told them about the problem; now i have an appointment to see a technician. After going to the apple store i used my iphone until the battery was completely dead and then i plugged it to my computer. After a few hours it charged completely (plug icon appearing when fully charged)???? i don't know what happened. Now i'm just testing my iphone's battery life to see the the problem arises again. so far it seems to have improved after i completely drained the battery. (tip)
I'm gonna keep on testing the battery and see if the problem arises again.

HP DV7-3085dx won't power up, seems the battery and charging is ok.. possible mother board problem?

Hi I recently received an HP DV7-3085dx from a friend of mine since he hadn't been using it for a while.
So, when I tried to turn it on for the first time, the power button wouldn't work, or the lap top itself wouldn't power on.
When I plug in the charger, AC adapter light turns on, and when I connect the battery, both the battery light and the AC light turns on fine.
However, there's no fan, or any light flashing when I press the power button as if it's dead.
I've searched and tried:
1. hard reset - pressing on the power button for a minute without any attachement and so on
2. reseating ram and CMOS battery
3. cleaning heatsink and re-applying thermal compound.
4. tried turning on the laptop without hard drive.
However, none of those would solve the problem.
Could it be the faulty motherboard, fan or heatsink?
Or, does battery light on means the motherboard is safe, at least?
By the way, it seems like the battery charges just fine as after a while on an AC, the battery light turns off(signaling that it's fully charged)

Hello coolhair50, welcome to the HP Forums.
I see that you've acquired your Notebook from a friend, that you're trying to get it to turn on and start up. That only the batter and charger appear to be working as the Notebook will not turn on. I will try to assist you with this.
You're on the correct path, the issue does appear to be hardware related from what you've attempted so far. The battery and charger appear to be fine.
What I would suggest starting with is this document: Troubleshooting Black Screen Displays with No Error Messages During Startup or Boot. It will guide you through testing the memory and hard drive. If all of that tests ok, then you're most likely looking at a motherboard issue.
You have a few options at that point. The first would be callling support to see what they could offer. HP Technical Support, North America 1-800-474-6836. For all other regions click here.
The second would depend on your own personal knowledge of Notebooks, but you could use the Maintenance and Service guide to look up possible compatible parts and how to replace them.
Please let me know how everything goes for you.
Thank you for posting on the HP Forums.
I worked on behalf of HP.

Satellite P10 switching randomly between Battery and AC

I have a satellite P10 that's been having some strange power issues for about a year now.
My laptop will switch over to battery power even when plugged in. I will then either use the computer until the battery drains and have it shut down or hibernate before the battery will charge.
I thought I had fixed it by downloading and installing a new Bios from the toshiba website, which seemed to work for a while but now it the problem seems to have returned.
I have also bought a new battery and power bar, thinking this was the problem...but this did not solve the problem.
Anyone else out there with similar problems or a method of fixing this?
any thoughts would be great.

Hi Greg,
I suffered this phenomenon on my SA30-141, and by trial and error I found it to be a poor contact between the AC socket on the notebook and the AC plug on the adapter cable. Using the technique that Dennis described I tried waggling the power plug when it was connected and found that I could induce the notebook to switch to battery power following which it would not return to AC power without a complete re-boot.
I resolved this problem by anchoring the AC cable to the back of the notebook with a small strip of plastic wrapped around the cable and then clamped to one of the nuts on the back panel of the notebook with a spare bolt. This stopped any lateral movement of the AC plug when it was connected even if the notebook was moved about.
regards,

What is difference between Startup upgrade and startup migration.

what is difference between Startup upgrade and startup migration.

I am having the metalink note.
STARTUP MIGRATE was introduced in 9.2 as a mechanism to be sure that most everything that needs to be done to run an upgrade script or a patch script is done automatically. In the past, customers were expected to adjust certain initialization parameters prior to beginning an upgrade or applying a a patch,
but most of this is now done automatically by STARTUP MIGRATE.
When a customer starts a database in MIGRATE mode, the following ALTER SYSTEM
commands will be set automatically:
But i am not sure what exactly the meaning by startup upgrade.
and exactly the startup upgrade and startup migrate

Strange Battery and Startup goings on!

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