I have a couple of G4 PowerBooks, and remembered today that I had a 12" PB battery in storage that had failed a long time ago. I had tried all the usual resets, and had eventually replaced it with a Newertech unit from OWC that has (as usual) been unproblematic. "I wonder about that old battery," said I....
The battery's symptoms, as I recall, were that it would charge for a few seconds, then turn off for a few minutes, and only ever charge to some unusable minimum. Again, I knew that this was a newish battery with a low cycle count that had failed; the packaging told me that it was 5200mAh and generic. I decided to try this one like the last.
So I just within the past hour fired up the soldering iron, took off the battery's lid, and this time disconnected the -ve lead from the controller board and left the rest. I left for a few minutes, then resoldered the -ve lead.
I am presently posting from the machine in question with the battery taking a regular charge. I haven't cycled it yet, but interesting, the battery cycle count was preserved (23). Clearing the controller's memory had the desired effect.
I haven't gotten around to disassembly of the other battery mentioned a couple of posts ago, but if I can make this three for three, I will be a happy man.
The battery's symptoms, as I recall, were that it would charge for a few seconds, then turn off for a few minutes, and only ever charge to some unusable minimum. Again, I knew that this was a newish battery with a low cycle count that had failed; the packaging told me that it was 5200mAh and generic. I decided to try this one like the last.
So I just within the past hour fired up the soldering iron, took off the battery's lid, and this time disconnected the -ve lead from the controller board and left the rest. I left for a few minutes, then resoldered the -ve lead.
I am presently posting from the machine in question with the battery taking a regular charge. I haven't cycled it yet, but interesting, the battery cycle count was preserved (23). Clearing the controller's memory had the desired effect.
I haven't gotten around to disassembly of the other battery mentioned a couple of posts ago, but if I can make this three for three, I will be a happy man.