PowerBook G4 mysteriously shuts down

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Aug 9, 2006
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I'm not sure if this is a switcher issue or not.

I have a PowerBook G4 with only 2 months of use on it. I was starting to type an email reply, when I may have accidentally hit a wrong key.
Suddenly and without fanfare, the screen went completely black, and the lights on the laptop went dead.
Yet it was still faintly humming. The only way I could get it to show any signs of life was to shut the lid, at which point the pulsing LED by the latch would come on. But it would turn off again when I opened the lid. No other response to anything.
I took out the battery and waited for the residual charge to die out. The LED turned off, the PC quiet. I waited a few more minutes, reinserted the battery, opened lid, hit the start button, and very briefly glimpsed a faint, foggy screen with a panel "Are you sure you want to shut down the computer?" then the screen went black again. No other response. As before, the LED would only go on with the lid closed.

After a lot more fiddling and hitting random keys, I finally got the thing to shut down, and was then able to start it again. It seems to work normally now.

I found the email I had been writing in Drafts. I had started to write "Thanks! Although I have never..." What the draft said was "Thanks![]opjjhnljbhjkbh"
The gobbledygook was presumably from when I was randomly hitting keys toward the end.

What happened there, and what should I do next time?
 

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