Wallstreet PB
Unit runs fine when plugged in. Won't run off battery.
When plugged in and running, the battery has X thru it and also not showing in left module. If I eject and push back in... it shows up and is full.
Lasts a miinute or so and then disappears.

New battery module board ?

Thanks for your help.

Have had the same problem - have you tried the Battery Reset software from Apple yet?
It addresses just this problem. No promises but it's free!

=Tkk

Thank you Hiredman for the advice.
Tried it... not fixing the problem. The battery did not discharge....
that I can see anyway. The battery did show up for a time, but then
disappears... says bay is empty. After reading the other posts I'm thinking
that I might need the battery control module board mentioned in another area.

Hopefully someone will read this and help. I hate to start monkeying around with new parts without a good idea the fix will work.

Hi, I have the same exact problem. Tried many other solutions posted on the web but none has worked, including the Apple Battery reset utility. Any help? Thanx!

bpg
Thats why I,m thinking " Battery Control Module "

RECAP... units runs fine plugged in. Battery in menubar has X thru it.
Eject and reinsert battery... and for a moment battery shows up, and reads full. Then it will dissapear from left bay and I get the X back.

If I pull the power plug, the unit looses power and shut down.

Anybody help !!

Same problem here. I thought it was the battery, because it is old. It was working fine one day, then the next day it wouldn't charge. I don't have enough experience with Li-ion batteries to be familiar with how they usually fail, so I bought a new battery. The machine did not recognize the new battery in either slot. It recognizes the old battery, shows it as full, but it is actually dead. I called tech support at batteries.com, where I purchased the battery, and tech support at APC, the manufacturer. Neither had ever heard of a battery not being recognized. I sent it back and got another one. Same problem.

This leads me to believe that the charger board has failed. That there are multiple units exhibiting the same problem at about the same time is consistant with a component failure problem similar to the capacitor burnout in the old Airports, and these machines are old enough that this type of problem wouldn't be surprising.

My 292MHz Wallstreet 98 has gone through a lot. It died about a year ago. It wouldn't respond to anything except to cycle the fan and green LED on and off in response to PMU resets.

I replaced various components that I had won on E-Bay, starting with the PMU, then the AC/Audio board, then Charge board. None restored function. I finally replaced the motherboard and CPU with the 266MHz Wallstreet 2 units. That brought it back to life, but it doesn't recognize the batteries and doesn't charge them, despite multiple PMU resets and running Battery Reset 2.0 numerous times.

About the only things I haven't replaced are the case plastics, screen, modem and hard drive. I suspect one of the components I bought guaranteed to not be DOA was DOA, but which one remains a mystery. I know both batteries were good before the PB died.

At this point I'm hesitant to go back to buying components on E-bay without knowing which one is most likely to be the culprit. I hope my experience to date will help others in a similar bind.

whidbeyben

Has anyone tried replacing the back-up battery (the one used to maintain the clock when the regular battery is removed and the AC adaptor is not connected)? Or would a bad back-up battery not give this kind of problem?

Hi There,
I have a Wallstreet that had the same symptoms - My son had the PBook kicked while at school, and then the only way it would work was if it was plugged in. Battery would show 4 lights, but discharge quicker than 15 seconds when unplugged.

I took a deep breath, and followed an Apple Take apart manual (I can send you the pdf if needed), which was a bit tricky, but not impossible.
I didn't know about Powerbookmedic.com, so got my parts from Powerbookfixit.
WallStreet Power & Charge Card - SKU PBF0308 - $24.95
WallStreet PMU Board- SKU- PBF0338 - $29.95
I also took the opportunity to replace the PRAM Battery, and upgrade the hard drive to a 160Gb at the same time (Hey - I'm not going back in there for a while!)

Anyway, as it happens, I replaced the above components, and all now works fantastic.

The only regret I have is that I didn't take it apart before buying the parts, as where the Charge card connects near the front of the Wallstreet, there is a pin connector, and this was loose!

I think that maybe I could have gotten away with pushing the board back onto the pins and all would have been ok. However, I did replace the parts as I had bought them.

Like I say, all now working well. Using OSX 10.2.8 and the 160 Gb drive is quiet.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Regards

Gareth

Hello Guys. My Wallstreet is having the same problem....sort of. The only difference from Dave is it crashes. It crashes when running on batteries, and Crashes with the battery in the bay and plugged in. When you take the Battery out though while still keeping it plugged in, the little tyke runs great. Im trying to narrow the problem down to the power board or the charge board....any help is appreciated. -Kevin

Hi Kevin,
Mine still worked when battery was in, it sounds like there is either something terminally wrong with your battery - or the connector pins that the battery contacts when inserted. Have you tried taking out the CD bay and then inserting the battery in the other side - If the PBook still has a problem, I would think the problem lies in the battery. Better still, can you get hold of another battery to do the test with?

If the PBook still has problems with other batteries, it sounds like the charge board, seeing as the powerboard is allowing the 'little tyke' to run without batteries, but with power.
Gareth

Hey Gareth,
Thanks for the reply. I tried the batt out in the right side and it works. I guess there is something wrong with the left side, but don't know how to correct it. Is there anything I can do to maybe get the left side to cooperate?

Hi Kevin,
The Battery makes contact with sprung copper tabs - I have put a picture up on my website of the charge card - outside the Powerbook:

http://www.grafit.co.uk/pbook/

Also - the contacts on the battery could be grubby - in which case, clean them off with a bit of sandpaper.

If the battery is fine, you could try and get a pair of tweezers or long nose pliers and pull the contacts on the charge card that you can see on the picture on the website, out a bit.

Please remember to disconnect your powerbook from the charger and take out any battery from the opposite bay before fiddling about in here!

Also - this is a 'take the risk yourself' operation.

The better option would be a dismantle, and get down to the charge card to 'play about' with these contacts when you have more space available.

I can email you the Wallstreet 'Take-Apart' Manual if you'd like - it is the genuine Apple one.

Let me know.

regards

Gareth

Gareth- The manual would greatly be appreciated! I was looking for something to figure out how to go into the machine anyway for a few other changes.....ie- Fan and Hard drive. I know the hard disk is easy to change, but I think the fan is out too. 'preciate it! Kevin

musicman0825@mail.ev1.net

Gareth,
Thank you for the manual! it will definately help me out. Thanks again! Kevin