Need advise w/ ibook laptop computer

[Ken Louie]

My daughter just got a free 12" G4 ibook laptop computer. The reason why it was free was that back-up battery needs replacement and the apple retailer dealer told my friend who gave my daughter the computer said it would cost too much to fix. So I went to apple website and it states that 12" G4 ibooks do not come with backup internal battery. So my questions is: do this computer has internal backup battery or not and can I repair this computer myself? The computer works fine when i have the power cord attached to the computer. thanks for the help. ken

[HardDrive]

Does this recall effect you?

https://support.apple.com/ibook_powerbook/batteryexchange/

[svandamme]

are you talking about the internal, CMOS battery on the motherboard

or the external, removable "workin" battery??

if it's the former, then i would think on laptop not from the stone age, that it would be some sort of pill battery that is replaceable, but Apple might have kept that part backwards since they generally don't like people doing DIY on their stuff

and if it's the latter, i would think there are plenty of sources for batteries, like this one

http://www.bizrate.com/batteries/oid535920599.html

and even if it is the CMOS battery, i think it would work by simply having a working main battery, that should keep the cmos running too

the CMOS battery is only there, to remember it's own settings when all other power fails... you can even do without, but it would require entering the settings , each time you boot after a main power failure(AC or battery)

[Aurel]

I don`t know about ibooks, but I replaced the CMOS battery on my powerbook G4 myself. The problem when these die is that the computer does not know on what power to run: battery or outlet. If your CMOS battery is dead and and your Li-ion battery is dead, the computer will not be able to start on the outlet. The temporary fix: recharge the Li-ion battery on another mac. Apple says it costs too much to replace, because I am pretty sure they designed it it that way so that people have to buy a new laptop when their CMOS battery dies. I`d stil open the laptop and see how easy it is to replace. It was free, after all...

Aurel

[stomachmonkey]

Yeah, your problem is not clear.

Your power cord reference indicates main battery is not holding a charge.



What makes you think back up battery.

Scott

[Gogar]

As stated above, check the serial # of the battery that's in there and see if it qualifies for the "recall" program. Start there.

There's also a button on the battery that you can push to see if it's charged or not. If you push it and no lights light up, your battery is toast.

I don't think there's a small internal replaceable battery, but I could be wrong.