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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop System
Two weeks ago, I purchased my daughter a brand new 15" iBook. She had no trouble with it until about a week ago, when we had a severe wind storm with gusts up to about 60mph. All the lights were flickering on and off, and I decided to shut everything down. She was about to turn the iBook off when it just blinked out. Later, she tried to turn it back on and there was absolutely nothing. No disk sound, no lights, nothing.

I tried a number of things, but all with the same non-successful result. It was late, so I was going to call Apple in the morning, but then remembered something that I used to do with my old Power Tower Pro and power management. I unplugged the iBook, took out the battery out, and left it overnite. In the morning, after putting it back together, the iBook worked perfectly and has ever since.

I did recently get her a small APC battery backup that also has line conditioning, just in case...
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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: trig33k on Feb 13, '06 08:33:59AM

This worked for me last summer with a friends Toshiba laptop. We thought the power outlet in my car fried it, but 10 minutes with no AC/battery power and it booted up fine.



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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: boredzo on Feb 13, '06 09:14:47AM

this hint is members-only…



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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: attheriverside on Feb 13, '06 09:21:59AM

yes what is up with member only hints? I had to register, because I was curious. I didn't even know that there are member only hints.



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Yeah, those Members-only hints suck
Authored by: PopMcGee on Feb 13, '06 03:16:32PM

Particularly, because the site doesn't let people be signed in indefinitely, and if one subscribes the RSS feed, you get the listing and can't follow the story link. Very bad. Good site, but bad concept.



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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: piscinero on Feb 13, '06 09:52:40AM

Members only? Not cool. 15'' iBook? Not cool.



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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: ghay on Feb 13, '06 12:02:32PM

You likely had **ked up your power management unit (pmu) and your course of action reset it.

You could also have tried Shift-Control-Option-Power button which is the quicker way of resetting the pmu.



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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: gaoshan on Feb 13, '06 12:28:36PM
That is actually a really good point as PMU is something not so many folks are familiar with.
FYI, when having to reset PMU on a Desktop there is a small button inside the case on the motherboard that resets it physically (Apple had me doing this during a support call once).

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One possible fix for a totally dead laptop
Authored by: riffraf on Feb 13, '06 03:03:05PM

Unplugging from the wall and removing all batteries seems to be a universal, last ditch effort, fix for all things electric.

I had a 'dead' iPod which came back to life after I let the power go to 0 and sit for a day.

I had an 'irreparable' Gas Range ($600 repair) which became and remains fully functional after being disconnected from power for 2 days.

You ran an article about this sometime last August or September.



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iBook is a laptop (with a builtin battery backup!)
Authored by: Rainy Day on Feb 13, '06 05:12:05PM
If you're on a laptop when a storm is raging, disconnect the A/C Power Adapter (and any other cables, like EtherNet, phone lines, etc.) right away! Laptops have built-in battery backups, after all, so there's no need to wait on the computer to do anything before pulling the power plug. Certainly don't wait for the iBook to shutdown.

Unless it's going to bed for a long time, in which case the battery might be drained and data lost, you really don't need to shut a laptop down. Just put the book to sleep.

In all likelihood, the Power Manager just needed to be reset (as was previously noted). A simple Shift-Control-Option-Power will do that.

A high quality surge suppressor is always a good idea, but during an electrical storm, don't count on them. A direct hit on your powerline could take out even the best of them.

 

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iBook is a laptop (with a builtin battery backup!)
Authored by: designr on Feb 13, '06 10:52:48PM

One time, when I was renting a house, the electrician my landlady hired accidentally crossed both hot legs off the pole effectively making the house current 220v -- just for a moment until the distribution panel exploded throwing him on his a**. In that short moment, all the surge protectors exploded -- two caught fire -- causing my maid to run screaming from the house screaming and flailing her arms in terror...

Note to self: NEVER get the landlady's electrician drunk before he finishes playing with the live wires.

All computers, TVs, etc. survived and are still in good working order. Good surge protectors!

OK. You had to ask...



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