Chosen Solution
I have a PowerBook G4 15" late 2005 that I’ve been using for a while. It has a 3rd party charger because the original apple one broke. The charger is the right model and it has been working fine for about 7 months. But today I plugged it in and it wouldn’t charge. I took the charger out and plugged back in a few times, unplugged it at the wall etc. but still nothing. So I plugged it into the laptop again and it made a very breif sort of crackling sound. I took it out straight away and noticed that part of the connector was burnt. The power connector on the laptop is also burnt. So, do I need to replace the entire DC board or can the connector be cleaned or something? I haven’t taken a closer look at the laptop’s power connector so I don’t know how much it’s damaged. The laptop still works fine though and I was able to use it for a few more minutes until the battery ran flat. I realise it’s an old laptop but I’d love to keep it for a while yet if it can be fixed easily. It has maxed out RAM and a 128GB SSD so I’d be pretty reluctant to give it up just yet.
I had something like this with a MacBook Pro some time ago. It’s probably worth replacing your charger to see if that does the trick. In my case, despite the dramatic “phut!” and black on both socket and connector, it was only the connector/charger which had gone. It seems a bit hit and miss with third party chargers. Perhaps someone can recommend a good source of reliable ones… Keeping a PowerBook G4 going here too. It’s a lovely computer and does a few jobs well.
