Lombard Charging Issue - What'd I Miss?

[stretch]

Perhaps there's someone out there who can enlighten me about this problem.

I have a G3 400MHz Lombard with 10.3.9/9.2.2. It refuses to charge or run on the main battery. It runs fine on the power adapter, the 45W flying saucer type. In OS 9, the battery isn't even recognized in the control strip as being present and there's a RED X across the battery. Here' s what I've done so far.

1. Thinking the main battery was bad, I bought a new one. The old one had no green lights when I pushed the battery button. The new battery showed three green lights, so I plugged it in. I also bought and installed a new pram battery just to be safe. Problem persists.

2. Thinking now that it was a charging/recognition issue, I ordered a charger. I goofed and got a VST charger, so I reordered and installed the internal board. The benefits of the VST charger is that it completely charged the new battery and confirmed the old battery is in fact bad. Problem persists.

3. Ordered and installed the DC/Sound board. Problem persists.

From a software angle, I've booted into OF and did the 'reset-nvram', 'reset-defaults' and 'reset-all' and I've downloaded Apple's Battery Reset 2.0 with no results. I've also pressed the small reset button on the back of the machine.

As it stands now, I can disconnect the AC power and I get an immediate 10 second sleep warning. Before it would simply die. When I plug in the battery without AC, the machine tries to power up, but dies after 2 or 3 seconds.

I read somewhere that this may be a logic board issue. If that's the case, I'll stay attached to the cord. I'm out of ideas at this point.

Can anyone tell me if I've overlooked something stupid?

 

[beachycove]

Clean battery contacts.

Reset battery management software.

Fast and pray.

 

[jruschme]

Does it still give the red 'X' with the new battery? If it didn't then, I'd start to suspect the AC adapter.

I have one yoyo adapter which refuses to charge the battery on my Pismos (and I think on my Lombard, though I haven't checked). It powers the 'Book just fine, but won't charge the battery internally (also works fine with VST charger). The version of ASP with Tiger actually has an entry under Power which reads something like "AC Adapter is unable to charge battery: Yes". I suspect that something is amiss in the 1-wire communications between the Pismo and the AC adapter.

If you've got another AC adapter, it's worth a shot to see if that makes a difference.

 

[stretch]

I tried another power adapter. No change. Still an 'X' across the battery icon. What gets me is that in OS9, the power strip says that the bay is empty. It doesn't matter which bay (left or right) that I put the battery into. Battery has four green lights for now. So, if this machine can't detect a battery, how can I expect it to charge the battery? Is the battery detection logic on the logic board? Seems to me it would be on the charger board, but I could be wrong.

Still connected to the wall at this point.

 

[J English Smith]

It is quite possible for the battery to light to 4 dots, but be no good. I have one like that. It is still recognized, but drains to 0 about one minute after boot. Later, they get to the point where the Pismo knows it is borked and puts a red X on it.

Is there a friend with another Lombard/Pismo who could try the battery in their machine? I think the battery is far more likely to be the culprit than the charging circuit, but it does happen. The fact that you've updated the DC board makes me suspect the battery.

There's a guy in Florida on eBay who has sold 2-packs of new Pismo Apple brand batteries for about $50-55. I ordered from him with my fingers crossed. They really were new batteries and after a one day chargeup, work perfectly. I was so pleased. There are still some decent Pismo battery deals out there...

 

[J English Smith]

Oh, also - have you tried the new battery on both sides of the unit? Are both bays battery bays like on the Pismo?