iBook Question [is this iBook toast?]

Self ^ | May 31, 2007 | Self

[Spktyr]

Command-Option-P-R doesn’t work unless the thing actually bongs and tries to start. You *can* reset the Power Manager, though - but instructions vary on model.

[6SJ7]

How old is the iBook? If it is old enough, the PRAM/NVRAM battery has died ...

This happened with my Mom's 2001 iBook. The battery would discharge in about 1/2 an hour. It would not even wake from sleep. However, I removed and replaced the battery (the same 6 year-old battery), plugged in the charger, and then powered up the iBook just fine with the charger plugged in. In fact, you can run an iBook on the charger alone without a battery even in the battery bay.

[6SJ7]

I'm posting this message for a friend who clicked "Yes" to that prompt and immediately the following happened:

• The pointer/hourglass locked up
• The whole screen froze
• He had to power down by removing/reinserting the battery
• Upon trying to turn on the iBook, no (green) power light was present.

'Hour glass'? Are we talking Windows or OS X? Windows has an hourglass in a 'wait' state; OS X presents a 'spinning beach-ball of death'.

'Green power light'? Are you sure this is an iBook? I own both a 2004 iBook and a new MacBook. There are no green lights on the machine other than the battery charge indicator lights (4 of them) on the bottom of the machine. There is also an amber/green ring light on the charger cord, but that's it.
Something sounds fishy here.

[texas booster]

Yep, I spoke too soon, and didn’t double check,

I saw the reference to pOrn and the description of the problem and thought, “You’re going to China!”

.cn is the country abbreviation for China.

[Tribune7]

If you’re near an Apple Store, try to get some time with a “Genius.”

Good suggestion.

Just curious but was he using a a standard account or admin account when he tried to log in?

[George W. Bush]

This problem is easily solved by buying a new MacBook Pro on Tuesday.

[Thank you, thank you. I'll be here all week.]

[Sunnyflorida]

This message would also be sent to you mac if you were away from your normal wifi base station and some dude named Jim Dean (jd) set up his own personal network with the name of jdnetwork.

The machine should come on with the battery removed and connected to the power cord. If you do not shut down properly it can take what seems like forever for it to reboot in some cases.

[jdm]

Thank you all for your posts. I'm grateful for your taking the time to help. I will attempt to answer each post below, the best I can.

---

Has he tried hooking up to the power cord? How old is the battery? It sounds more like a low power situation to me than a virus.

I'm starting to think it's more a power situation too. He said that when the cursor froze, the hard drive started making weird, loud noises, while it was trying to (apparently) connect to "jdnetwork" (I should have mentioned this is my FIRST post, of course - would have been helpful). However, my PC makes noises from time to time, but has never totally collapsed like this.

---

How old is the iBook? If it is old enough, the PRAM/NVRAM battery has died - and removing the main battery while that was discharged can cause the Power Manager to get confused. If that happens, the machine might not turn on. Flip the iBook over and tell me what the model number on the bottom is.

He received the iBook maybe 7 or 8 months ago. It's not that old. He does announcing for a high school baseball team, and uses the computer to play songs between innings, for plate appearances and so on. So the school actually owns the iBook; they're letting him use it. It's one of the cheaper iBook's, though. Not a lot of bells and whistles.

---

1. Try zapping the PRAM by holding down command-option PR when you try to start up.

2. Try booting off of the recovery DVD provided with the computer.

3. If he/she can access the RAM modules and/or Airport card on the computer, make sure they are seated firmly. This last one bedeviled my Dad’s powerbook for a week post soft drop until discovered.....

Thank you for these suggestions/recommendations. I'm going to try to do these later today when I see my friend, and the computer is in front of me.

---

This happened with my Mom's 2001 iBook. The battery would discharge in about 1/2 an hour. It would not even wake from sleep. However, I removed and replaced the battery (the same 6 year-old battery), plugged in the charger, and then powered up the iBook just fine with the charger plugged in. In fact, you can run an iBook on the charger alone without a battery even in the battery bay.

Good info. Thank you. I going to play around with the battery later, and see if maybe that's the culprit. It's not worth giving the iBook to Apple for 7 days, I think. He needs to use it this weekend and next week (if possible) so having it gone for a week or more would be last resort. I'm going to see if there's an Apple store up in Ann Arbor after I post this message, since that's only about a 60 or 70 minute drive from here.

---

'Green power light'? Are you sure this is an iBook? I own both a 2004 iBook and a new MacBook. There are no green lights on the machine other than the battery charge indicator lights (4 of them) on the bottom of the machine. There is also an amber/green ring light on the charger cord, but that's it. Something sounds fishy here.

He said at first that he thought the light was blue, but then said "no, no, no, it's green." He didn't have the computer with him at the time, so there was no way I could check. It's definitely an iBook. I'm not sure of the model, to be honest. I can find that out later today, and post back here with that info, unless we fix it by then. In any case, when this has all been resolved, I will post back to let everyone know, regardless.

---

Just curious but was he using a a standard account or admin account when he tried to log in?

Standard account. It's a computer he was issued by a high school, to use with his baseball announcing. It's a really simple iBook. In fact, even though the iBook is new (2006) the software is, in most cases, from 2001 or 2002.

---

Thanks again very much everyone! Will post more updates later.

[jdm]

LOL!

[jdm]

The verdict:

The “Genius” at the Apple Store in Novi, Mich. said the problem was with the “logic board” (motherboard). The iBook is being shipped to an Apple Care Center in Memphis, and will be repaired there.

Thanks again so much for your input, suggestions and help.

[kmiller1k]

This is the very same problem my son had with his g4 ibook last month. While I was using his laptop cruising Free Republic it just stopped. It turned itself off and nothing we could do ourselves or by troubleshooting with Apple by phone would turn it back on. The suspicion was a bad power cord but it was the logic board. We were told that it would be at least a week until a new logic board could be located as this was an issue with the ibook. When a logic board was finally found and installed the hard drive crashed. So a hard drive was ordered and installed. All is well now, and it was all covered by the AppleCare warranty except the information on his hard drive. It cost $55 to have the info retrieved and transferred to the new hard drive. Lesson learned to back up iTunes!

[SunkenCiv]

...so instead, some MS-fanboy comes in and makes an obvious comment.

[jdm]

This is the very same problem my son had with his g4 ibook last month. While I was using his laptop cruising Free Republic it just stopped. It turned itself off and nothing we could do ourselves or by troubleshooting with Apple by phone would turn it back on. The suspicion was a bad power cord but it was the logic board. We were told that it would be at least a week until a new logic board could be located as this was an issue with the ibook. When a logic board was finally found and installed the hard drive crashed. So a hard drive was ordered and installed. All is well now, and it was all covered by the AppleCare warranty except the information on his hard drive. It cost $55 to have the info retrieved and transferred to the new hard drive. Lesson learned to back up iTunes!

I appreciate your post to this thread. Thank you very much.

Yes, he backed up iTunes, although I'm not sure how long it will take to transfer (from DVD-R) 3 gigabytes worth of songs back onto the iBook, if the iTunes library is shot. Hopefully not more than an hour or two.

Hopefully there's no hard drive issues after the logic board is replaced either. That really stinks for you and your son -- as if the logic board going wasn't enough! I'm glad it's all back to normal now, at least.

Thanks again for writing.

[kmiller1k]

One other odd thing that happened about a month before my son’s g4 crashed was that the keyboard became a bit bloated...like it had a bubble underneath pushing it up. Did you have any experience like this with the keyboard? Not a lot and you would have to be the primary user to really notice but he showed me and I felt it too.

[dalight]

This thread is frightening. First, an Apple technician has already decided this was a hardware problem. This means that the attempt to connect to any specific network is beside the point. The Apple techs are very good and very through, and don't request the unit back unless its something that cannot be handled locally. (Hardware) This was presented at the beginning.

I have to admit, I was thrown by the hourglass cursor and green light details.

Lets stick to problems that haven't already been solved.

[tje]

You couldn’t be farther from the truth, but think what you will...

[TheBattman]

Folks —— don’t forget that any wireless network (routers in particular) can be named anything - and many people use initials or names with “network” added. So, even though the porn-hosting network of “jdnetwork” may very well be what you say, it is just as likely that the person this thread is about may simply have a hardware problem that coincided with this lack instance.

In fact, my guess (I have an iBook as well) is that he has it set up to look for open connections when the “preferred” one is not found. I have seen a very similar message before (although not jdnetwork). I suspect that a hardware issue just showed up at a poor time - not that there is ever a “good” time for hardware problems.

But I could be wrong. But I am 99.999999979% confident that his iBook was not “compromised”....

Some thoughts:

1 - what “green power light”? Mine has no green power light. The only green light is when the power adapter is plugged in and the battery is fully charged. Has no bearing on the power-on status.

2 - Hourglass? What hourglass? Macs use a “spinning beachball”. Unless that is what you meant to say.

3- Having never had to remove the battery (never a good idea while the computer is on and not plugged in to the AC adapter), I don’t know what to expect when that is done. I would suggest that maybe the battery isn’t connected properly? Have you tried with the AC adapter?

4- Press and hold the power button for several seconds.... any signs of life?

5- Remove the battery for 20 minutes or so without the AC adapter plugged in. The plug it in and try to boot...

6- Any sounds at all when you press the power button (hard drive spin-up, anything?

7- If there is an Apple Store nearby - that might be a good starting place if none of the above does any good.

[jdm]

Thanks for your post. The problem is with the logic board. The iBook was shipped to an Apple Care Center on Friday. It’s all under warranty and he should have the iBook fixed and returned within a week or so.