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GHz TiBook not seeing battery?

CharlesT

Well-known member
I just bought a 1GHz titanium, which, although cosmetically challenged, seems to function pretty well. With one exception, of course. It absolutely refuses to run off battery power. I have a working 500MHz VGA and an 867 tibook, so have a couple of batteries to play with. It seems like it can intermittently sense that a battery is there (runs at 667 MHz on just wall power and switches to 1GHz with a battery installed), but it refuses to run for even a millisecond if I pull the plug with a fully charged battery that keeps the 867 going for over 2 hours. Also, running System Info on it the battery portion sometimes reports the battery with all zeroes, other times with the same cycle count, etc, as when the battery is in the other machine. So that part is flaky, but it never pulls any current from the battery to run on.

I know I can just start swapping parts with the 867 but seeing as that one is in great condition, thought I'd ask the question before going down that route. Has anyone experienced this kind of behavior before? By the way, I did the PMU/PRAM reset a couple of times, but that had no effect.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated.

 

CharlesT

Well-known member
I've cleaned the contacts using an emory stick on the blades followed by lots of contact cleaner. No change in behavior, unfortunately. 

But, I did notice that the machine sees both a 45 watt and 65 watt charger as 45 watts. I know it won't charge when using a 45 watt charger, so that explains the not charging part, although I'm not sure how that relates to not running off battery, since it should do that even without a charger. But, on the hunch that there's really only one problem at the root of this, I'm suspecting the problem is with the DC In board.  Will need to take a closer look at that.

 

CharlesT

Well-known member
I believe I've come to the root of the problem on this guy. It was really two problems, one of which I was able to correct, the other...

The corrected problem was with the DC In board, actually the spring contact within the circular connector. I rooted around in there with a set of tweezers and jiggered the contact enough so the chargers are properly identified. But, didn't fix the main battery problem. Sooo, spent the better part of the afternoon taking the machine apart and got the logic board out.  i happened to notice what seemed like a burn mark on the plastic connector for the CCFL power line, then went looking for what could have generated the heat on the logic board directly above it. And..., found it, an 8 pin part with it's top half burned off and lot's of signs of just a little too much heat. The part is very near where the connector from the DC In board is mounted. I don't have a camera for my microscope or I'd put that in here.

So, now have to figure out what next. The part number is burned off the part, but I could probably get it off my 867, which would require a complete disassembly of that guy, which I'm reluctant to do.  Plus I'm not setup for surface mount soldering, although an 8 pin part might not be a bad start. 

I got this thing along with a 1.5GHz 12" powerbook for $50 for both. The 12" is in great shape and runs nicely, so I could argue with myself I got the TI for free, but it's the TI that I wanted. I've already ordered a new top case for it, but at this point not sure I want to put much more into it.

Anyone know where I can get a new logic board for a reasonable price?

 
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