My Powerbook G4 seems to run especially hot since I got a new battery, a generic-ish 3rd party dealie I bought off eBay. And the power adapter just failed. Could the battery cause these troubles? If so, where should I look for proper battery replacements?
I suppose it could be that the adapter was actually the cause. Since my adapter failed, I have borrowed another one, but I've mostly used it with the OEM battery, being afraid that if it is was the battery, then I'd fry my borrowed adapter.
Here's the auction I bought from:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6761753585&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWN%3AIT&rd=1
And here are pictures of the inside and outside faces of the battery:
http://weston.canncentral.org/images/batteryscan.jpg http://weston.canncentral.org/images/batteryside2.jpg
Note that the blurring on the pyramid logo-ish like thing is not an artifact of scanning -- the ink is actually blured. I suppose my worries are bit heightened by the fact that the battery just feels a little cheap, including touches like this blurry-ink quasi-logo.
What seems possible, or more likely -- that the battery can make the computer run hot and adapter fail? That the adapter was just on its way out? And where should I look for quality battery replacements for a PB G4 667 DVI?
In article 1116105022.816627.95640@redacted.invalid, "weston" notsew-reversePreceedingAndRemoveThis@redacted.invalid wrote:
My Powerbook G4 seems to run especially hot since I got a new battery, a generic-ish 3rd party dealie I bought off eBay. And the power adapter just failed. Could the battery cause these troubles? If so, where should I look for proper battery replacements?
How did the adapter fail? Why did you need a replacement battery? Did the old one fail unexpectedly?
The battery life on the OEM battery was getting down below 20 minutes, so truly portable use of the machine was getting out of the question. :) Hence the replacement of the battery.
The adapter apparently just stopped delivering power to the machine. To make sure it was the adapter and not the connection on the motherboard (because I have had to replace that on older machines). I borrowed one with similar output ratings (24 V & 1.875 A = 45 Watts), and the borrowed seems to power the machine just fine. So the assumption is that the original adapter failed.
On another message board someone suggested to me that the PB G4 667 DVI might actually need 65 Watts, but I can't see how that mismatch might hurt an adaptor, or cause a battery to run hot....
In article 1116115889.928245.262180@redacted.invalid, "weston" notsew-reversePreceedingAndRemoveThis@redacted.invalid wrote:
The battery life on the OEM battery was getting down below 20 minutes, so truly portable use of the machine was getting out of the question. :) Hence the replacement of the battery.
The intent of the question is to determine whether the battery was reaching expected EOL. Given what I know about the machine so far, I'd say it was.
The adapter apparently just stopped delivering power to the machine.
But why? Broken wires? It's a bit unusual for the transformer and associated components to fail, but it happens. I don't know whether other problems could cause it to fail.
On another message board someone suggested to me that the PB G4 667 DVI might actually need 65 Watts, but I can't see how that mismatch might hurt an adaptor, or cause a battery to run hot....
It wouldn't.
The easy way to check whether the new battery is making the machine run hot is to borrow another battery and see if it runs cooler. I can't think of any other test that you could run easily.