ibook g3 w/ no power

n8thegr8 · 03-28-2007, 02:15 PM

I'm having an issue with an 12" ibook g3 600 that I bought recently off ebay. originally, the seller had bent a pin in the power socket preventing the power adapter from plugging into it. I repaired that and it booted up immediately, so I powered it down and put it back together. once I did that, I plugged the power back in one of the conducters peeled off inside the jack, creating a short that cooked a voltage regulator on the dc-in board (just my luck), so I figured screw it, and I ordered a new dc-in board and a new power supply.

replaced both, and now it charges the battery without a problem, but on both ac, battery, and both combined, when I press the power button, nothing happens at all. no hard disk/fan spin up, no led's, no image, nothing. I couldn't find a blown fuse on the mobo anywhere, and it's got me perplexed because I had it booting once before. are these symptoms characteristic of the whole bga logic board problem? any suggestions are greatly appreciated at this point, because I've exhausted all my ideas.

sinclair_tm · 03-28-2007, 11:00 PM

have you reset the pmu? other than that, i'd say the logic board got hosed too with the short.

n8thegr8 · 03-29-2007, 07:31 AM

yeah, I tried the pmu reset to no avail because it wasn't receiving the power to do the reset, lol, but I decided to just completely take out the mobo and take a look for some blown fuses or something. what did I find you ask? the large capacitor on the top side of the board was bulged and everything around it in a 1-inch radius was smoked, including lifted traces and resistor's melted in half. just my luck, yay. anyways, I ordered a new 700mhz mobo for it (movin on up!), so all in all, I'll have spent $250 on this little guy by the time I dig myself out of this hole, not too bad for a 700mhz 12" g3 with a new mobo, new dc-in board, new psu, airport, and 80gb hdd. I think next I'll be upgrading to a superdrive and adding some more mem. thanks for your help!

sinclair_tm · 03-29-2007, 01:15 PM

good luck. i wish i could find deals like that.

n8thegr8 · 04-01-2007, 09:02 AM

ok, now this is just getting f'in wierd. So I get my new lobo yesterday, right? I get it installed, and plug in the battery (it was fully charged), and OMFG IT WORKS!!!!! YAY!!! ok, so I'm going through, trying to get ubuntu installed, cuz I lost my OS X discs, and the battery starts getting low, so I plug in the power adapter. POOF! it shuts off and won't power on anymore, just like before I replaced the lobo. So I figure, damn, must've blown a fuse or something, but here's the kicker: THE POWER ADAPTER WASN'T EVEN PLUGGED INTO THE WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and now the battery won't charge either. awesome. so I tried just leaving it sit for 10 hours without the battery or power to try and drain the capacitors and reset the pmu and pram, since the keystroke wasn't working, woke up this morning and I still don't get $#!t. any ideas? I would be tempted to say it fried the logic board again, but how? the power supply wasn't even plugged in! *sigh* damn you apple and your shenanigans....

sinclair_tm · 04-01-2007, 08:07 PM

it could be that the power brick has an internal short, which caused the dc/mobo to fry. which means you need to try a new power brick, and dc/mobo again.

n8thegr8 · 04-01-2007, 09:06 PM

yeah, I thought about that, but I still don't really see how that could have killed the mobo while it wasn't plugged into the wall, it's really really odd, what's even more odd is that I actually got it to boot once by draining the capacitors, but when I put it back together, it stopped working. *sigh* this sucks, the people on the apple forum are telling me I'm stupid and I just need to buy a new macbook, lol, like I woulda bought this if I could've afforded a macbook, lame.

n8thegr8 · 04-02-2007, 06:36 PM

muahahahahahahahaha, well ladies and gents, I discovered the problem. I was able to rig up a battery charger to charge the battery back up, plugged it in to the lappy, and it booted first try, so apparently it's something with the power adapter. I'm gonna try and rig something up and I'll update on it this evening, thanks for your help!

jgaeng · 04-24-2007, 09:36 AM

I am curious to know if and how this issue was resolved as I am experiening a very similar problem with my G3 ibook 700 MHz dual USB logic board. I recently bought my G3 "as is" and had absolutely no power except when plugged into the AC the board did get hot and the cap light key did light up when pressed but no other signs of life whatsoever. I bought another used but "tested" logic board of the same speed, swapped it out and got the thing to boot to the flashing question mark, I presume since the brand new 60 gig hard disk I installed was not formatted. I then proceeded to put the entire case back together with all of the metal and plastic fittings just to find myself back in the same situation of having no power. I have a DC in board on order but am at a loss as to what the problem is because there is no sign of damage to either mother board. I only have the one battery but I have not been able to charge it since this whole Odysssey started. I don't want to drop a lot of monet into this thing so does anyone have any ideas?

03-28-2007, 02:15 PM	#1 (permalink)
n8thegr8 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 13 OS: OS X, vista, xp	ibook g3 w/ no power I'm having an issue with an 12" ibook g3 600 that I bought recently off ebay. originally, the seller had bent a pin in the power socket preventing the power adapter from plugging into it. I repaired that and it booted up immediately, so I powered it down and put it back together. once I did that, I plugged the power back in one of the conducters peeled off inside the jack, creating a short that cooked a voltage regulator on the dc-in board (just my luck), so I figured screw it, and I ordered a new dc-in board and a new power supply. replaced both, and now it charges the battery without a problem, but on both ac, battery, and both combined, when I press the power button, nothing happens at all. no hard disk/fan spin up, no led's, no image, nothing. I couldn't find a blown fuse on the mobo anywhere, and it's got me perplexed because I had it booting once before. are these symptoms characteristic of the whole bga logic board problem? any suggestions are greatly appreciated at this point, because I've exhausted all my ideas.

03-29-2007, 07:31 AM	#3 (permalink)
n8thegr8 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 13 OS: OS X, vista, xp	Re: ibook g3 w/ no power yeah, I tried the pmu reset to no avail because it wasn't receiving the power to do the reset, lol, but I decided to just completely take out the mobo and take a look for some blown fuses or something. what did I find you ask? the large capacitor on the top side of the board was bulged and everything around it in a 1-inch radius was smoked, including lifted traces and resistor's melted in half. just my luck, yay. anyways, I ordered a new 700mhz mobo for it (movin on up!), so all in all, I'll have spent $250 on this little guy by the time I dig myself out of this hole, not too bad for a 700mhz 12" g3 with a new mobo, new dc-in board, new psu, airport, and 80gb hdd. I think next I'll be upgrading to a superdrive and adding some more mem. thanks for your help!

04-01-2007, 09:02 AM	#5 (permalink)
n8thegr8 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 13 OS: OS X, vista, xp	Re: ibook g3 w/ no power ok, now this is just getting f'in wierd. So I get my new lobo yesterday, right? I get it installed, and plug in the battery (it was fully charged), and OMFG IT WORKS!!!!! YAY!!! ok, so I'm going through, trying to get ubuntu installed, cuz I lost my OS X discs, and the battery starts getting low, so I plug in the power adapter. POOF! it shuts off and won't power on anymore, just like before I replaced the lobo. So I figure, damn, must've blown a fuse or something, but here's the kicker: THE POWER ADAPTER WASN'T EVEN PLUGGED INTO THE WALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and now the battery won't charge either. awesome. so I tried just leaving it sit for 10 hours without the battery or power to try and drain the capacitors and reset the pmu and pram, since the keystroke wasn't working, woke up this morning and I still don't get $#!t. any ideas? I would be tempted to say it fried the logic board again, but how? the power supply wasn't even plugged in! sigh damn you apple and your shenanigans....

04-01-2007, 09:06 PM	#7 (permalink)
n8thegr8 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 13 OS: OS X, vista, xp	Re: ibook g3 w/ no power yeah, I thought about that, but I still don't really see how that could have killed the mobo while it wasn't plugged into the wall, it's really really odd, what's even more odd is that I actually got it to boot once by draining the capacitors, but when I put it back together, it stopped working. sigh this sucks, the people on the apple forum are telling me I'm stupid and I just need to buy a new macbook, lol, like I woulda bought this if I could've afforded a macbook, lame. Last edited by n8thegr8; 04-01-2007 at 09:08 PM.

04-02-2007, 06:36 PM	#8 (permalink)
n8thegr8 Registered User Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 13 OS: OS X, vista, xp	Re: ibook g3 w/ no power muahahahahahahahaha, well ladies and gents, I discovered the problem. I was able to rig up a battery charger to charge the battery back up, plugged it in to the lappy, and it booted first try, so apparently it's something with the power adapter. I'm gonna try and rig something up and I'll update on it this evening, thanks for your help!

04-24-2007, 09:36 AM	#9 (permalink)
jgaeng Registered User Join Date: Apr 2007 Posts: 1 OS: xp,OS10	Re: ibook g3 w/ no power I am curious to know if and how this issue was resolved as I am experiening a very similar problem with my G3 ibook 700 MHz dual USB logic board. I recently bought my G3 "as is" and had absolutely no power except when plugged into the AC the board did get hot and the cap light key did light up when pressed but no other signs of life whatsoever. I bought another used but "tested" logic board of the same speed, swapped it out and got the thing to boot to the flashing question mark, I presume since the brand new 60 gig hard disk I installed was not formatted. I then proceeded to put the entire case back together with all of the metal and plastic fittings just to find myself back in the same situation of having no power. I have a DC in board on order but am at a loss as to what the problem is because there is no sign of damage to either mother board. I only have the one battery but I have not been able to charge it since this whole Odysssey started. I don't want to drop a lot of monet into this thing so does anyone have any ideas?