Hi John,
On the PowerBook G4 Titanium Mercury (400 MHz),
I did the procedure in your video for disconnecting and then reconnecting the PRAM Battery connection, which worked and so I was able to start up successfully (thank you), and then shut down and restart it again several times, however, after a few days, I was not able to restart it again with the PRAM Battery connected.
So, I disconnected the PRAM Battery again, and was able to successfully restart it again, but this time I am going to leave the PRAM Battery disconnected and wait a few days to see if it will restart again with the PRAM Battery staying disconnected...
Do you know of any problems that may be caused by leaving the PRAM Battery disconnected permanently?
Thank you for all your help,
Max
Comments
A laptop should function with the PRAM battery removed, however you won't have the benefit of any of your PRAM settings being saved, such as default screen brightness, default volume level, time and date settings, etc. This generally gets annoying, so most people would prefer to have a PRAM battery installed.
Per our previous conversation, you stated that the main battery was not charging. Most of the time battery issues are simply caused by bad batteries, so I'd encourage you to buy a new battery on eBay for $20. Having a functional main battery will keep the PRAM battery charged, and then you're all set.
The PRAM battery only has a very limited capacity, and it makes sense that it would lose a charge after several days. So basically, I don't think your computer really has a problem -- you probably just need a working primary battery to keep the PRAM battery charged. And certainly I would start with a working primary battery, and then you can move on to replacing the PRAM battery if you still have issues at that point.
Thanks,
John