help!! powerbook won't charge!!

hey all. i have a serious problem. i am currently in the caribbeans for school and my powerbook (G4 12" 1.5GHz) won't charge. its not like there's an apple store around the corner (its a 3rd world country).

here's the scenario: it just started a couple of days ago. when i connect the adapter, the circular light would not come on, or it would light up green... but flicker. the orange light does not come on at all to indicate that the notebook is charging. initially, i thought the problem was the adapter. but when i tried it on someone else's notebook, it charged up their laptop... so its not the adapter. i tried their adapter w/ no luck. also, i tried resetting the power manager by holding the ctrl-shift-option-power buttons for five seconds. i also tried taking off the battery and holding the power button for 5 seconds... all w/ no avail.

any ideas on what else i should do?? it would cost around $100 for shipping one way... and there's a risk that it might get damaged along the way... so i might as well go home to fix it.. but that would be really expensive.

any info would be greatly appreciated...thanks!

 

Sounds like your power supplier may be damaged. If so, the only way you'll be able to get it repaired is through Apple or a Certified Apple repair center.

EDIT: It would be more helpful if you elaborated more on your problem and what condition your notebook is in.

 

Are you sure that the Power Manager was completely reset? Also, make sure you zap your PRAM also. When doing this you should here the machine chime THREE times before you allow it to fully boot. Good Luck.

 

well, i thought i explained it clearly but i'll try again. like i said, i tried plugging in the connector to the notebook. sometimes the plug lights up green (faintly or flickers) or doesn't light up at all. its supposed to light up orange since i only have like 2% power left. i googled my problem and a website suggested that i press ctrl-shift-option-power for 5 seconds while the notebook is off. this is supposed to reset the PRM. i tried this but it didn't work. i also read the owner's manual and they suggested taking off the batter and pressing the power buttong for 5 seconds, replace the battery and turning on the computer. this didn't work either. i noticed that the time and date was wrong... so i guess it worked, but it didn't fix the problem.

i bought the pb from ebay (dec 1 2005) from someone who's had it for 4 months but used it for a couple of days before upgrading to a 17" powerbook. when i received it, it was cosmetically flawless. i haven't had any problems up until now.

also, do you think it might be because of the humidty of the island getting into the power jack?? that's a super long shot but i just thought of it... lol.

can you please elaborate on how i would go about resetting the PRM? i actually held those buttons for 10 seconds instead of 5. when it booted, i noticed that the time was off... which i thought was an indicator that the PRM was reset. did i do something wrong?? or am i supposed to do it differenty? i didn't hear any beeping....

 

To Zap the PRAM hold down command + option+ P + R during boot. Keep the keys depressed until you hear three chimes.

good luck

susan

 

Okay based upon what you are telling me, it is quite possible that your AC connector (on the Mac) has a loose connection. The good news is that Apple's turn-around time on a repair like this is perhaps 3 days at most including shipping! The PB is still under warranty so you just need to call Apple and arrange for the repair. They will probably send you a postage paid box and off it goes. This is a minor repair at most.

Barry

 

mine sometimes does something like that..not that I have an apple..but the only way I can charge the battery is if I close the screen then it will charge..

 

yeah, the charge port is definetly loose. Like barry said, easy fix for apple.

 

are the 3 days you're talking about account for the fact that i'm in the caribbeans? or were you assuming that i'm in the US? thanks!