Hi there,
I purchased a PowerBook G3/333 (Bronze Keyboard/Lombard) last year (around September). It had sat idle and unused for a number of years and the seller mentioned while the machine powered on; the battery wasn’t recognised and didn’t charge but she thought there might have been a simple fix for that.
So, the machine arrived and was running 10.3.9 (I believe) and seemed in pretty good order but musty smelling so obviously had been unused for a considerable period. PRAM battery also seemed to be dead.
I decided to install Mac OS 9 (9.1 initially I think) from some one of the old installation disks I have lying around. This went perfectly and to my amazement (I think after reboot following the OS 9 installation) the main battery wasn’t recognised and started charging normally. I done some more testing and I was thrilled to have a battery that seemed to offer a couple of hours of useable life on a full charge. I went on to install 10.3.9 again and all was still good, with Panther seeing the battery and charging/discharging normally.
Anyway, so regular life stepped in and the machine was set aside for a couple of months while I worked on a large project at work. I went to have another thinker with the PowerBook a few weeks ago to discover that things were back to square one - with the battery not recognised at all and showing no charge on the button/LEDS on the side. I went through installing a couple of different versions of Mac OS but had no joy. I’ve metered the battery (not 100% sure on the pinout) but seems to read just short of 2V so there is some vague bit life. Have also tried the Battery Reset utility to no avail. Along with trying in both slots
Would anyone have any advice on next steps? Kind hopeful that there is something simple to get it back charging.
Many thanks in advance for any advice.
All the best,
M
I purchased a PowerBook G3/333 (Bronze Keyboard/Lombard) last year (around September). It had sat idle and unused for a number of years and the seller mentioned while the machine powered on; the battery wasn’t recognised and didn’t charge but she thought there might have been a simple fix for that.
So, the machine arrived and was running 10.3.9 (I believe) and seemed in pretty good order but musty smelling so obviously had been unused for a considerable period. PRAM battery also seemed to be dead.
I decided to install Mac OS 9 (9.1 initially I think) from some one of the old installation disks I have lying around. This went perfectly and to my amazement (I think after reboot following the OS 9 installation) the main battery wasn’t recognised and started charging normally. I done some more testing and I was thrilled to have a battery that seemed to offer a couple of hours of useable life on a full charge. I went on to install 10.3.9 again and all was still good, with Panther seeing the battery and charging/discharging normally.
Anyway, so regular life stepped in and the machine was set aside for a couple of months while I worked on a large project at work. I went to have another thinker with the PowerBook a few weeks ago to discover that things were back to square one - with the battery not recognised at all and showing no charge on the button/LEDS on the side. I went through installing a couple of different versions of Mac OS but had no joy. I’ve metered the battery (not 100% sure on the pinout) but seems to read just short of 2V so there is some vague bit life. Have also tried the Battery Reset utility to no avail. Along with trying in both slots
Would anyone have any advice on next steps? Kind hopeful that there is something simple to get it back charging.
Many thanks in advance for any advice.
All the best,
M