How do I find out why my iBook G3 Clamshell, not charging,

Although hard to remotely diagnose in a setting like this where your fellow end users can neither see nor touch your computer, there are diagnostic you can try as tests at home:

—Obviously you first need to find out if the charger is still putting out power. They do fail or break, as Jan points out. A multimeter will detect current and voltage at the "barrel" end of the charger cable if the charger is working.

—From your description of a fall, I also think the more likely suspect to be damaged "DC-in" board. This is one version used in the Clamshell G3s;

It is common in old Mac "barrel connector" notebooks for the DC-in board to get seriously torqued by the plug during any form of impact. Torsional forces applied to the plug stress the solder joints used to secure the DC-in board to the logic board.

That loosens the internal electrical contacts, and power loss can be intermittent or total. To test, plug in a known-good charger and GENTLY move the plug up and down and side to side, watching for any indication that power is being momentarily restored. Usually the solder joints come loose from the underside of the logic board so, if intermittent, contact may be restored if the DC-in board is slightly lifted.

If you find that is the case, you may be able to fix that at least temporality. When this happened to a friend's PowerBook G3, I simply wedged a very thin sheet of plastic between the DC-in board and the logic board. That pulled the DC-in board's leads up and back into contact with the conductive traces on the logic board.

The jerry-rigged repair, intended to last only weeks or months, outlived my friend. by at least two years.

Try those tests and tell us what you found. Then we can see if we can offer further help. BE ready to hear that, given the sorry state of spare parts for your model today, buying a working used Clamshell may be the most cost-effective option.

Do you mean that the iBook G3 Clamshell is working when running from (an already charged) battery only, but not from the power adapter (when the battery has been removed)? Could be a broken connection in the power adapter's DC cable/plug. The wires in the Yo-Yo adapter's DC cable are delicate.

>A multimeter will detect current and voltage at the "barrel" end of the charger cable if the charger is working.

Hi Allan,

Unfortunately, one problem with the yo-yo power adapter (big barrel model) used for an iBook G3 Clamshell is that a multimeter voltage test is very difficult to perform. Inside the barrel is a plug that looks like one for stereo headphones. There is almost no room for test probes of any kind (without running the risk of a short circuit).

I have been able to carry out resistance tests with thin hook-shaped probe wires on a yo-yo power adapter disconnected from the mains, but I would not try to get a DC volt reading that way, inside the barrel, with an active adapter. Ideally, one would need a spare inlet jack for such tests. The remaining alternative would be to temporarily use another known-good power adapter for a comparative test with the iBook G3 Clamshell.

Since the OP mentioned accidental tripping, a damaged DC cable or plug cannot be ruled out, but a DC-in board problem is of course another possibility, as you pointed out.