Powerbook will not boot just from mains with no battery, if i have battery in and charge it while it is switched of then it charges, if i try charging it when on it turns itself of instantly. this is the first time i have come across this so anybody have a clue. i am going to change pram battery as the clock goes back to 1970 when its off.

Replace the hard drive. You have a bad hard drive.The battery problem could be because it is failing.

try booting with disk select option.


hold down option key and power up. Try resetting pram.


Look up key commands on apple support.


Try safe boot with holding down s key


etc....

Are the contacts for the battery on the laptop good, no corrosion or anything?

If you need further help, I’m available over the phone at https://www.6ya.com/expert/erik_3934b541f17c4e99

Does it do this with the mains charger connected or only on battery power?

The plugging in the mains charger if not already, wait a couple of minutes and then try switching it on.

If the boots up fine you more than likely have a battery problem.

If it still doesn't start then you either have a power supply problem on the laptop itself or your main charger is faulty and not charging the battery.

You can also remove the battery and try booting it with only the mains charger connect.

Please provide the results of these queries

power button switches are usually very reliable and very unlikely to fail. However, sometimes the button that presses on the switch can become stuck in the on position - if it is stuck in that position the mboard cannot boot - make sure it isn't stuck. next check the AC adapter is working and is capable of charging the main battery? Most laptops will not boot when just the AC adapter is connected, and the main battery must be capable of being charged to at least a minimal level and be charged to at least that level in order for the AC adapter to work to help boot the computer. hope this helps

well..it should on power along..seems that perhaps the motherboard is unhappy..here's something to try..remove battery..flip over the computer, open the panel with memory..ground your hands on metal..then remove and re seat memory sticks(be careful to NOT touch the gold fingers). close it back up..plug in wall ONLY, try it again.

It sounds like the system is corrupted. What I would do is to get your instal disk and boot up holding down the c key on your keyboard. Once you have booted up go to the file menu and run disk utility to verify and repair the hard drive if necessary. Then go to the instal menu and instal a fresh system remembering to preserve the users data so you do not wipe anything. Hopefully this will work.

There is no internal Battery. As you said its a capacitor to hold Pram settings while you change the battery.

Replace your battery (or borrow one) that should solve your problem

Sounds like a motherboard problem to me if you can't get it to turn on. You did all the steps I would have done. If your laptop is under warranty call Apple. If its not then call Apple and get the part # for the motherboard and shop around and try to find a halfway decent price on the motherboard.

Hi, sorry to hear you are having problems,
Are you saying that your Mac was working fine with the dead battery but then when you put in the new battery, the Mac died?
Well, if that is the case it might be possible that the battery ran down to ZERO and the mac's internal battery also is dead so, it does not even know what hard drive to boot into...
So, with the Mac Shut Down, hit the power on button and then VERY QUICKLY, press the ( alt ) key and hold it until you see a blue screen with a Big right pointing blue arrow and a circular arrow.
You can let go of the key, and the mac is now looking for suitable startup volumes to boot from...
You should see your harddive appear after a minute or so... If it does not appear, then either your system is damaged or your disk is KAPUT...
How old is your Mac? It is very very common for PowerBook drives to die after 4 years without advanced warning... :(
Good luck