iBook G4 transformer overheating -- solution

Greetings,

Just posting this in case it's of use to someone else. Recently the transformer for my iBook G4 (1.42GHz, running 10.4.11 -- yes, thank you, I know it's old ) cut out, because it had overheated. (Thank god for the cutout switch!!) It had not been charging the battery, simply feeding the machine from the mains. From memory I was using my email client -- hardly processor intensive.

I unplugged the transformer, and half an hour later it had cooled down sufficiently to test whether it still worked -- it did, whew. After searching here and elsewhere I decided to try resetting the PMU, just in case that helped. I suspected it might well, because the machine took a l-o-n-g time to recharge the battery after the half-hour cool-down period, and it had been asleep for that half hour! Also, the battery menuling couldn't seem to calculate how long it would take to recharge it.

So, later that day, with a nice cold transformer, I reset the PMU, and spent a nervous couple of hours checking the temperature -- it got hot, but nowhere near the temperature it had been when it cut out.

Several days later and it hasn't cut out again. Seems that the machine was simply drawing waaay too much current through the poor old transformer.

As I say, just in case this is of help to someone else.

I'm assuming that what you're calling a "transformer"...is what Apple calls the "Power Adapter" (the thing that plugs into the wall).

Thanks for the tip...it's great when a DIY solution is successful without spending any money!

- Nick