Hrmph. My relatively new 12" 867Mhz Powerbook has died once again. System 10.3.

The first time this eemed to happen I fixed the problem by determining the 512Mb RAM module I installed was bad, and replaced it with a nice new Kingston 512Mb module.

Last evening, I unplugged the Logitech USB mouse I use and an Ethernet cable, and then the power cable before shutting the lid for the 10 minute drive home. As I pulled the power cord out the screen went black with a noticeable "poof" (power being unplugged). I thought nothing of it at the time, and got home, plugged everything back in, and no boot. Power cord shows green and battery shows full charge.

Took my new Kingston 512Mb RAM module out hoping for the same problem as before, replaced it with the stock 128Mb (256Mb total), nothing. It won't start up. Left only the on-board 128Mb RAM in. No start up. Reset the PMU. No start up. Took the battery out and ran only on the power cord. No start up.

Any thoughts before taking it into the local Apple dealer? Anyone encountered this before? This is my first hardware failure after 18 years of Mac use, and I can troubleshoot most stuff but this has me (and a buddy of mine at Apple) baffled.

And this is the only time I have something crucial on the hard drive, of course. I'm praying for a logic board or otehr board problem way more than a hard drive problem

Hrmph.

David JJ

PS. When I say "no boot" I mean nothing ... no chime, seemingly no power, just silence and a black screen.

Hi David,
I beleive that when you unplugged the power adapter a short occured at the jack. If you take off the bottom case and view the bottom of the motherboard near the power jack and see discolorization chances are there is a short in that section of the board which filters the power from the adapter and distributes various power supply voltages to the rest of the system. This area also routes battery power to the system as well. The other thing that could 've happeneed is the jack solder joint broke and again you have a short with the best thing that cold've happened is an open circut in that area as resoldering will fix the problem. I recently purchased about 4 or 5 G4 boards with this kind of problem from a clearing house and repaired all of them. They function just like new after the repairs. Hope this will give you a start at diagnosing what has happened.

Actually I had just discovered that there have been many cases of power adaptor/jack related problems, including the university student in the U.S. whose remarks on Apple's own boards caused the whole thread to vanish. They relate, as you said, to either soldering or shorts occuring as the apparent result of a design flaw that has yet to be addressed. As long as it get fixed, it'll be fine. Only one hardware failure in 18 years (and I think 15 machines) is not too bad a track record.

I'm off to the local dealer today armed with a bit more information for them.

Many thanks!

Davey JJ

i have the EXACT same problem with my TiBo 15" 667 (DVI/Combo), i did take a look at the board in the area the "theWrench" refered to, but i didnt notice any pronounced discoloration - i will look again when i get home.
BTW after reading your post, which is like the 56,833th post i've seen re: endemic TiBook problems i finally blew a gasket and typed up a rant which you may or may not wish to read: "Steve's New Clothes"
either way good luck - BTW did you see

b