hey guys,
not a true computer genius here, but recently my battery went goofy. I have 12" powerbook G4, that i purchased in the fall of 2005. She still works wonderfully and all but recently my battery has quit charging and there is just an "X" over the battery symbol in my top line display. At first I definitely thought it was the battery, but whenever i turn off my computer and unplug the wall charger, the computer resets itself to Wednesday December 31, 1969 at 6:00 pm.
I asked a few people and they said it might be the logic board, what does everyone think?

CMOS battery has probably gone dead. It will need to be replaced.

Thats my guess anyway, considering the BIOS time is resetting itself. See if its still under warranty, the battery shouldnt have gone so soon.

I think Dublin is right. CMOS battery on the motherboard.

Once you have fixed that, then you need to go through a battery synchronization procedure to make sure your notebooks power management subsystem accurately checks your primary battery status. Procedure should be in your user manual. Only after that has been accomplished, and your battery still has the "X" thru it, would I consider replacing your primary battery.

It's possible the primary battery has failed this soon, but it not as likely. Lithium batteries from a few years ago had recharge lifetimes of as low as ~400 cycles. A heavy user could reach that in 3 years. Also, if the battery was abused (used to 100% depletion a number of times, or used in high-heat or extreme cold conditions) it could fail prematurely. Lithium cells definitely do not take well to being run to 100% depletion.


(Do only Mac owners call their computer 'she'?)

john albrich said:


Thats 'cause Macs are big girls compared to a PC lol