iBook charging woes

I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all.
jhm1 wrote on :
Hello, My daughter has a tangerine iBook. We purchased it used. There was always a problem with the AC adapter jack.You always had to fiddle with it to get it to make a good connection. Loose jack right? So I repair medical imaging equipment for a living and I decided I can fix this.Found info on the web about disassembly. Got to the DC in board and sure enough the solder joints were all broken loose. I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all. The light comes on green for a few seconds then turns orange like it's charging with the battery in, and stays green with the battery out. It seems that part must at least see the battery. The battery indicator shows no charge. I took it back apart to see if I unpluuged something or pinched a wire but I don't see anything. The battery did charge before. I can find everything but a schematic on the battery charging circuit. I can't really figure out where I can read what voltage. ARe all the pins on the jack not supposed to be connected? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jim
John Johnson replied on :

In article pan.2006.02.03.21.51.47.671360@redacted.invalid, jhm1 st_uke@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hello, My daughter has a tangerine iBook. We purchased it used. There was always a problem with the AC adapter jack.You always had to fiddle with it to get it to make a good connection. Loose jack right? So I repair medical imaging equipment for a living and I decided I can fix this.Found info on the web about disassembly. Got to the DC in board and sure enough the solder joints were all broken loose. I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all. The light comes on green for a few seconds then turns orange like it's charging with the battery in, and stays green with the battery out. It seems that part must at least see the battery. The battery indicator shows no charge. I took it back apart to see if I unpluuged something or pinched a wire but I don't see anything. The battery did charge before. I can find everything but a schematic on the battery charging circuit. I can't really figure out where I can read what voltage. ARe all the pins on the jack not supposed to be connected? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jim

I'd start by trying to recalibrate your battery, then perhaps resetting PMU, and then start thinking about replacing the battery (or the iBook, whichever is more economical for you). Instructions for all of these procedures are available on the web and in the archives for this group. It does matter which OS you're running, so I can't just give you instructions. Peter Renzland is a guy who's posted procedure for battery calibration before, so his name might be useful in a search. HTH

Fred McKenzie replied on :

In article pan.2006.02.03.21.51.47.671360@redacted.invalid, jhm1 st_uke@redacted.invalid wrote:

...... Got to the DC in board and sure enough the solder joints were all broken loose. I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all. The light comes on green for a few seconds then turns orange like it's charging with the battery in, and stays green with the battery out. It seems that part must at least see the battery. The battery indicator shows no charge. I took it back apart to see if I unpluuged something or pinched a wire but I don't see anything. The battery did charge before.

Jim-

Is it possible that the terminals on the jack were used to feed power between the top and bottom of the PCB? Normally I'd expect such holes to be soldered-through, but the vibration that broke the original connections may have disrupted a soldered-through circuit.

Is it is easy to remove the jack? If so, you might clean-up the holes, add a strand or two of wire to connect top and bottom of each hole, and reinstall the jack.

Fred

jhm1 replied on :

On Sat, 04 Feb 2006 13:39:09 -0500, Fred McKenzie wrote:

In article pan.2006.02.03.21.51.47.671360@redacted.invalid, jhm1 st_uke@redacted.invalid wrote:

...... Got to the DC in board and sure enough the solder joints were all broken loose. I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all. The light comes on green for a few seconds then turns orange like it's charging with the battery in, and stays green with the battery out. It seems that part must at least see the battery. The battery indicator shows no charge. I took it back apart to see if I unpluuged something or pinched a wire but I don't see anything. The battery did charge before.

Jim-

Is it possible that the terminals on the jack were used to feed power between the top and bottom of the PCB? Normally I'd expect such holes to be soldered-through, but the vibration that broke the original connections may have disrupted a soldered-through circuit.

Is it is easy to remove the jack? If so, you might clean-up the holes, add a strand or two of wire to connect top and bottom of each hole, and reinstall the jack.

Fred

That's an idea! I'll try that. Thanks Fred!

jhm1 replied on :

On Fri, 03 Feb 2006 23:01:56 +0000, John Johnson wrote:

In article pan.2006.02.03.21.51.47.671360@redacted.invalid, jhm1 st_uke@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hello, My daughter has a tangerine iBook. We purchased it used. There was always a problem with the AC adapter jack.You always had to fiddle with it to get it to make a good connection. Loose jack right? So I repair medical imaging equipment for a living and I decided I can fix this.Found info on the web about disassembly. Got to the DC in board and sure enough the solder joints were all broken loose. I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all. The light comes on green for a few seconds then turns orange like it's charging with the battery in, and stays green with the battery out. It seems that part must at least see the battery. The battery indicator shows no charge. I took it back apart to see if I unpluuged something or pinched a wire but I don't see anything. The battery did charge before. I can find everything but a schematic on the battery charging circuit. I can't really figure out where I can read what voltage. ARe all the pins on the jack not supposed to be connected? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jim

I'd start by trying to recalibrate your battery, then perhaps resetting PMU, and then start thinking about replacing the battery (or the iBook, whichever is more economical for you). Instructions for all of these procedures are available on the web and in the archives for this group. It does matter which OS you're running, so I can't just give you instructions. Peter Renzland is a guy who's posted procedure for battery calibration before, so his name might be useful in a search. HTH

Thanks, John! I did try the PMU reset, but I don't know about the battery cal. I look for that. Thanks again, Jim

Steve West replied on :

jhm1 wrote:

Hello, My daughter has a tangerine iBook. We purchased it used. There was always a problem with the AC adapter jack.You always had to fiddle with it to get it to make a good connection. Loose jack right? So I repair medical imaging equipment for a living and I decided I can fix this.Found info on the web about disassembly. Got to the DC in board and sure enough the solder joints were all broken loose. I soldered them all back and reassembled. Now it runs fine on the AC adapter but will not charge the battery at all. The light comes on green for a few seconds then turns orange like it's charging with the battery in, and stays green with the battery out. It seems that part must at least see the battery. The battery indicator shows no charge. I took it back apart to see if I unpluuged something or pinched a wire but I don't see anything. The battery did charge before. I can find everything but a schematic on the battery charging circuit. I can't really figure out where I can read what voltage. ARe all the pins on the jack not supposed to be connected? Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Jim

If you can't fix it, you can pick up this part from eBay or a used Mac parts dealer.

The Apple part number for the DC board is 922-4982. Try putting that into Google in quotes and you should find one.

cheers,

Steve West Edinburgh, UK