Powerbook charging indicator

my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.
Antony Lacey wrote on :

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

It worked a week or so ago, but for the last few days is only ever green (or off).

Anyone else noticed the same?

17" PB, OS 10.3.8

Jim replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

It worked a week or so ago, but for the last few days is only ever green (or off).

Anyone else noticed the same?

17" PB, OS 10.3.8

15", 10.3.8, no problems here.

Have you tried running it down completely, then charging?

Jim

Gareth Slee replied on :

allatsea@redacted.invalid (Antony Lacey) wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

It worked a week or so ago, but for the last few days is only ever green (or off).

Anyone else noticed the same?

17" PB, OS 10.3.8

Orange while charging on a 12" PowerBook 10.3.8

Gareth

Antony Lacey replied on :

Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

15", 10.3.8, no problems here.

Have you tried running it down completely, then charging?

Yep, and from various stages in between - always green.

Ah well, it's not as if it's not charging the battery - it was just useful to not have to turn the Powerbook on to see what charge the battery was at.

Jim replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

15", 10.3.8, no problems here.

Have you tried running it down completely, then charging?

Yep, and from various stages in between - always green.

Ah well, it's not as if it's not charging the battery - it was just useful to not have to turn the Powerbook on to see what charge the battery was at.

Well, you can always press the button on the battery to get a rough idea.

Jim

Paul Womar replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

Tried a Power Manager Reset? Depends ont he PB you have but it seems to be prod the reset hole with a paperclip with no battery in the machine or start it up from cold with Shift-Control-Option-Power.

Antony Lacey replied on :

Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:

Ah well, it's not as if it's not charging the battery - it was just useful to not have to turn the Powerbook on to see what charge the battery was at.

Well, you can always press the button on the battery to get a rough idea.

I knew that - I did it before accidentaly and thought "that's cool" - then promptly forgot!

<fx: ouch!>

Jim replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:

Ah well, it's not as if it's not charging the battery - it was just useful to not have to turn the Powerbook on to see what charge the battery was at.

Well, you can always press the button on the battery to get a rough idea.

I knew that - I did it before accidentaly and thought "that's cool" - then promptly forgot!

<fx: ouch!>

It's always nice to know that you are, in some small way, the cause of concussion in others.

Jim

Woody replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:

Ah well, it's not as if it's not charging the battery - it was just useful to not have to turn the Powerbook on to see what charge the battery was at.

Well, you can always press the button on the battery to get a rough idea.

I knew that - I did it before accidentaly and thought "that's cool" - then promptly forgot!

Not as handy as looking at the state of the plug though.

Antony Lacey replied on :

Woody usenet@redacted.invalid wrote:

Well, you can always press the button on the battery to get a rough idea.

I knew that - I did it before accidentaly and thought "that's cool" - then promptly forgot!

Not as handy as looking at the state of the plug though.

Nope, I shall try Power Manager reset that Paul suggested later, when I have something else (more important) sorted.

Antony Lacey replied on :

Jim jim@redacted.invalid wrote:

I knew that - I did it before accidentaly and thought "that's cool" - then promptly forgot!

<fx: ouch!>

It's always nice to know that you are, in some small way, the cause of concussion in others.

Like that is it?

That's a lop sided grin by the way - and rather goggly eyes!

Antony Lacey replied on :

Paul Womar {$PW$}@redacted.invalid wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

Tried a Power Manager Reset? Depends ont he PB you have but it seems to be prod the reset hole with a paperclip with no battery in the machine or start it up from cold with Shift-Control-Option-Power.

Finally got round to this - apart from setting the system date back to 1970 it didn't change aything.

Martin Sammtleben replied on :

Paul Womar {$PW$}@redacted.invalid wrote:

Suddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge.

Tried a Power Manager Reset? Depends ont he PB you have but it seems to be prod the reset hole with a paperclip with no battery in the machine or start it up from cold with Shift-Control-Option-Power.

My charge indicator went into "perma-green" mode half a year after I bought my iBook. I suspect it's the electronics in the plug that are broken as it charges just fine and other adapters I've tried did turn orange after a while.

It's been like this for a couple of years and has never bothered me.

D.M. Procida replied on :

Martin Sammtleben nosp@redacted.invalid wrote:

My charge indicator went into "perma-green" mode half a year after I bought my iBook. I suspect it's the electronics in the plug that are broken as it charges just fine and other adapters I've tried did turn orange after a while.

There are no electronics in the plug.

Daniele

Peter Ceresole replied on :

D.M. Procida real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid wrote:

There are no electronics in the plug.

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

This is a genuine question- I don't know and I'm curious.

Martin Sammtleben replied on :

In article 1gum3le.kvldpxxfgjxtN%real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid, real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid (D.M. Procida) wrote:

There are no electronics in the plug.

Well, I just assumed that there's some sort of switch that turns off the orange LED and turns on the green one when it senses a change in the current.

At some point the silvery, outer shell of the plug came loose revealing a smaller capsule-like piece inside that the wires lead into and that contains the LED.

D.M. Procida replied on :

Peter Ceresole peter@redacted.invalid wrote:

There are no electronics in the plug.

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

This is a genuine question- I don't know and I'm curious.

Actually, I don't know about the PowerBook G4 plugs, as I haven't taken apart one of them. However, the PowerBook G3 plugs, which are larger, have no electronics in them.

Daniele

Peter Ceresole replied on :

D.M. Procida real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid wrote:

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

This is a genuine question- I don't know and I'm curious.

Actually, I don't know about the PowerBook G4 plugs, as I haven't taken apart one of them. However, the PowerBook G3 plugs, which are larger, have no electronics in them.

Thanks. But bugger... I'm now intrigued. I'm not sure what to search on to find out how the charging indicator lights work on the PBs and iBs. Anybody have a pointer? Or even the distillation of the knowledge?

Antony Lacey replied on :

D.M. Procida real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid wrote:

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

This is a genuine question- I don't know and I'm curious.

Actually, I don't know about the PowerBook G4 plugs, as I haven't taken apart one of them. However, the PowerBook G3 plugs, which are larger, have no electronics in them.

No idea, but did the G3 plug change colour when fully charged? Or is it a PB G4 thing only?

Tim Auton replied on :

peter@redacted.invalid (Peter Ceresole) wrote:

D.M. Procida real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid wrote:

There are no electronics in the plug.

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

The computer does it. There are four connections on the plug and the PSU cable has only two wires, the other two connections must be for the LEDs and controlled from the computer.

Tim

Martin Sammtleben replied on :

In article 09k8511h95o661dm1g2c35drphggbg77hq@redacted.invalid, Tim Auton tim.auton@redacted.invalid wrote:

The computer does it. There are four connections on the plug and the PSU cable has only two wires, the other two connections must be for the LEDs and controlled from the computer.

If that was the case how come my charger stays green no matter what iBook/PB it is connected to while my gf's charger does change from orange to green when powering either her PB or my iBook?

Wouldn't that suggest there's something in the plug?!

Woody replied on :

Martin Sammtleben nosp@redacted.invalid wrote:

In article 09k8511h95o661dm1g2c35drphggbg77hq@redacted.invalid, Tim Auton tim.auton@redacted.invalid wrote:

The computer does it. There are four connections on the plug and the PSU cable has only two wires, the other two connections must be for the LEDs and controlled from the computer.

If that was the case how come my charger stays green no matter what iBook/PB it is connected to while my gf's charger does change from orange to green when powering either her PB or my iBook?

Well, the green light will come on if there is any connection to ground to the plug, ie you can make it come on just by touching it. Presumably the red light comes on if there is any power leaving the plug. But if you have one plug that doesn't work and one that does in different situations, that would imply that it was the plug that was at fault rather then anything else.

Flavio Matani replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

D.M. Procida real-not-anti-spam-address@redacted.invalid wrote:

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

This is a genuine question- I don't know and I'm curious.

Actually, I don't know about the PowerBook G4 plugs, as I haven't taken apart one of them. However, the PowerBook G3 plugs, which are larger, have no electronics in them.

No idea, but did the G3 plug change colour when fully charged? Or is it a PB G4 thing only?

The one in my Pismo didn't .

Peter Ceresole replied on :

Flavio Matani flavio_mataniTAKETHISBITOUT@redacted.invalid wrote:

There's a green LED and a red one; how do they switch them? The light source is in the plug, not the TiBook.

This is a genuine question- I don't know and I'm curious.

Actually, I don't know about the PowerBook G4 plugs, as I haven't taken apart one of them. However, the PowerBook G3 plugs, which are larger, have no electronics in them.

No idea, but did the G3 plug change colour when fully charged? Or is it a PB G4 thing only?

The one in my Pismo didn't .

But the one in my TonkaBook always has.

Kathy Morgan replied on :

Antony Lacey allatsea@redacted.invalid wrote:

uddenly the charging light on my Powerbook power adaptor only ever shows green when charging the battery, it used to be orange when not at full charge. [...]

Anyone else noticed the same?

17" PB, OS 10.3.8

That happened a couple of years ago on my TiBook--that is, the light always showed green--except the color correctly indicated the charger wasn't working. I tried resetting the power manager, but it still didn't work, and I ended up having to get the battery charger repaired.