[HOM]

First the tech specs.

12" PowerBook Rev A
867 MHz G4
640MB RAM (Factory Installed)
60GB HDD (Factory Installed)
AirPort Extreme Card (Factory Installed)

Mac OS X 10.3.6

No Haxies or Hacks installed.


Ok, now the problems. Sometimes I'll move the PowerBook, while on, from one room to another. At seemingly random points the screen will go dark. The computer is still running and I can interact with it, but the screen is completely off. I can resolve this by putting the computer to sleep and waking it up. The screen will power right back up again. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to why it's doing it, but it's pissing me off.

Second problem. The battery is no longer reporting accurate information. I'm not talking about the Energy Saver Menu Item, but the LED's on the battery itself. I'll click the button the LED's will report 3 of 5, but then seconds later, without an on-screen warning, the computer will put itself to sleep due to lack of power. Go back to the battery LED's and it will now flash the last one indicating no charge.

I've reset the PMU and PRAM multiple times with no effect on either situation.

I'm completely at a loss with both issues and would like an help you guys can give.

[Brad]

Definitely sounds like a hardware problem. Take it to an Apple Store or an authorized Apple repair center and describe the problem in detail. The first one sounds like there could be a cable loose inside. I don't know about the second.

Please say you still have AppleCare on your PowerBook. That should get repairs taken care of for free.

Be sure to back up everything before dropping it off for repairs, though. If you are a lucky soul, you might get back a whole new (and faster) machine. I've heard of legends like this before...

[naren]

Originally Posted by HOM The battery is no longer reporting accurate information. I'm not talking about the Energy Saver Menu Item, but the LED's on the battery itself. I'll click the button the LED's will report 3 of 5, but then seconds later, without an on-screen warning, the computer will put itself to sleep due to lack of power. Go back to the battery LED's and it will now flash the last one indicating no charge.

What does your Energy Saver Menu Item report concerning your battery status? Also try this command, "ioreg -l | grep -i IOBatteryInfo", while charging and check your battery status at regular, frequent intervals while it's charging up. If you see a sudden big jump in charge level you have a serious battery hardware issue.
For instance my output for this command was: | | | | "IOBatteryInfo" = ({"Capacity"=4244,"Amperage"=0,"Current"=4218,"Vol tage"=12510,"Flags"=838860805})

What you should look at is the "Current" field and any extreme changes there.

You know, I seem to remember a very similar issue with my Rev. A 12". You should check the Apple Discussion pages to see what's being said there.

[torifile]

You've got a bum battery for one (I had this problem myself a while back. I got a replacement and everything was peachy after that). The screen problem sounds like hardware to me. Sorry.