Brand New Battery and its many Problems

Hi all,

Sorry is this is in the wrong place, feel free to move if necessary.

I've got a problem with the brand new battery I bought for my G4 Powerbook (12"). The Powerbook itself is almost four years old, but the battery I bought in January on my last trip to Canada.

I am based in Hanoi, Vietnam and on Valentine's Day my logic board crapped out for good. I took my laptop into the Apple repair people here (yes, it exists but it sucks). They had my comp for ONE MONTH and returned it working fine, other than my battery, which from Jan to Feb 14 worked perfectly, now does not charge.

I downloaded coconutBattery and it tells me there is 0%, no charge and only 7 load cycles!! Yikes!

I've tried resetting the PMU and no luck. I've also cleaned the contacts and still nothing. Anyone have any other advice???

Taking it in for more repairs here in Vietnam is a terrifying prospect!!

I'm thinking one of two things happened: Repair shop damaged something during the repair (like the charging circuit) or just a bad battery.

I purchased a new aftermarket (generic) battery on eBay a while back for $60 USD and it was DOA (Dead on Arrival). It was fully charged from the factory, but never took a charge. The company sent me a replacement and that one worked fine.

If I had to do it again, I would purchase a battery from Newer Technology called NuPower. Higher quality control, higher capacity & considerably longer battery time.

Automatic shutdown syndrome

Well, it's definitely f-ed up. Now not only isn't the battery charging, the comp routinely demands a reboot if too many programs are running.
I'm guessing the Hanoi repair people screwed up the installation or it's just a bad board. Either way, I have to bring my computer back in and I'm dreading it.


Anyone know what my recourse is with Apple if these dudes just can't get it fixed and won't return my $650 (as is likely)?