I have an iBook G3, and I have the 65W Power Adapter. Today, all of a sudden, it stopped charging my laptop. It will work as an AC power source, but it won’t charge the battery. The battery charges fine with another adapter. Is there anything I can do about this, or am I out $80 for another crappy adapter?
I found a nice closeup of the G3/G4 power adaptor plug. It looks like a coaxial type with a two-conductor central pin. If I had to guess, I’d say one of the center pin conductors is for charging the battery and the other is for powering the unit, with the outer barrel as the ground. I doubt if there’s anything you can do–it could be bad circuitry in the adaptor, a broken conductor or any number of other possibilites, none of which is easily fixable. From the reviews on the page you linked to, it sounds like a crappy design.
I meant to link to the photo.
Yeah, that’s the one. This is the second one that’s died/stopped working.