On 18-May-05, at 4:57 AM, Kocijanski wrote:
>From: "John Kocijanski" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>Subject: Powerbook 1400 Weirdness
My newly acquired PB 1400 is acting a bit weird. If it is shut off when I
plug it in, it starts automatically without me hitting the start button. When
it comes up all the way the screen goes black and I have to press the
brightness button to get it to come back. All this happens after I zap the
pram with Tech Tool. The reason I used Tech Tool is because I can not zap
the pram using the keyboard. When I try that the screen goes black after a
restart and the sleep light comes on steady. After I reset the power manager
it works fine until I unplug it. When I plug it in again the sleep light
comes on steady and I have to restart it with the power manager button. If I
leave it plugged in all the time it starts up fine. I have reset the power
manager several times with the battery in and out as well as plugged in and
unplugged for up to one minute. I also replaced the pram battery. The clock
does not reset itself but other settings like the memory cache and highlight
color get reset sometimes. I'm not sure what else I can do. I think it is a
hardware problem. Any suggestions?
Thanks. John
John, the problem sounds exactly like a low PRAM battery. You said that
your put in a new PRAM battery, was this battery new or used?
I have purchased a used but good PRAM battery and it did not help.
I finally put in two new PRAM batteries (the 1400/166 uses two).
This solved my problems.
I also had a Wallstreet acting weird, and when I replaced the PRAM battery,
all the weird went away.
Ken Vann
Thanks for the reply. The pram battery is used and I was afraid of that. Would the lack of a good main battery have an effect on the power manager reset?
John
John and Ken, this is just to confirm that I had the exact same problem on my 1400 a few years ago and it was indeed the PRAM battery. Once I got a new PRAM battery (one that really was new) the problems ceased (I was in the university service shop and the guy there said, "Oh, I can get you one of those" and he did and put it in - no problems thereafter). I'm not sure how the main battery interacts with the system, and don't want to confuse the issue inadvertently so will leave it for others to respond.
Best, Rick
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