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DIY power adapter ok for Tiger, not for Leopard

Bilunty

Bilunty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 14, 2024
18
15
Australia
I recently detailed (in another thread) how I’d made a power supply for my Pismo using a stereo plug, an RCA plug, and an old Dell powerbrick.
It’s still working fine, however when I installed Leopard on another partition the other day I noticed that there was an “x” in the battery icon and while the battery still powered the machine it wasn’t recognised by Leopard nor the power supply.
My theory is that Tiger may be more forgiving than Leopard in terms of power supply (the Dell brick only supplies 19volts, not the standard 24v), although this doesn’t explain why the battery still isn’t recognised even without the charger plugged in.
Maybe Leopard needs a good 24v kick to get the power circuit going properly—it works fine otherwise, just a bit clunky.
I have found and ordered a properly spec’d power supply which will arrive in the next week or so, so I’ll know for sure then.
I wonder if there are any other theories as to why the charging circuit works fine under Tiger but not Leopard?
 
My only thought is maybe Leopard is looking for something from the extra segment on the power pin found on later chargers. Maybe?
 
An interesting problem. I don't have solutions to offer, just a few observations.

First, IIRC Tiger was the last Mac OS to ship with separate binaries, meaning you could either have a PowerPC version or an Intel version - not both. So whatever code your PPC Mac is running in a Tiger installation is only PPC code. Leopard OTOH was shipped as a universal binary, meaning your PPC Mac is running fat binary code executable by both PPC- and Intel-based systems. No new news there.

However, the earliest Intel Macbooks - maybe all Intel MacBooks, I'm not sure, but certainly those that shipped with Leopard - have a System Management Controller (SMC) which automatically downclocks the CPU if a battery is missing. So something in the universal code is communicating information on the state of the power system to the hardware, which can result - purposefully - in adverse effects on an Intel Mac's performance. I suspect this is what's going on here: your PowerBook has a nonstandard power system and Leopard's power management detects it and doesn't like it; hence its refusal to recognize the battery. Leopard would probably slow down your computer if it could.

Another wrinkle is this is happening on a machine unsupported by Leopard. I don't endorse your "undervolting" the power to your Pismo, I wouldn't try that on such a sought-after and increasingly rare machine, especially one in working condition. But since you're already doing it, I can't help but wonder: how would the community builds of Snow Leopard for PPC, available in this forum, react to your nonstandard power system? Or, maybe the community builds of Leopard for unsupported Macs (also available here)? I don't necessarily expect anything different, I'm just curious. I'd also be interested to know if anything changes when you have the properly spec'd power attached.

Anyway, FWIW. Thanks for sharing this with us.
 
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Amethyst1 said:
This applies to the client release. Tiger Server 10.4.7 is a universal release.
Click to expand...
Wonder what would happen if he tried that UB Tiger Server? If his Pismo acted the same way with that, it's a pretty sure bet the behavior is specific to Intel-oriented code, and not something peculiar about Leopard. Hmmmm...🤔
 
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My Pismo G4 dual boots to Tiger and Leo; with Tiger one or two batteries (2nd one in the optical drive bay), and both are recognised.
However, Leopard only recognises the battery in the optical bay, and if I only have the one battery in the left side it doesn't exist according to the system, but still actually works.
All the above have the same result with two separate Apple power supplies, so it seems to be a peculiarity with Leo, that was never designed to run on a PowerBook G3.

Cheers :)

Hugh
 
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Thanks (Raging Dufus, Hughmac, Amethyst1) for your informative and detailed replies, I was surprised (and very happy) to find there are people with such enthusiasm for these older machines.
The Pismo was my first laptop and came after I'd owned several desktop Apple machines which I'd have to search out pictures of to recognise now. I do remember taking my first "portable" Mac, that I had to keep swapping disks in and out of, to the newspaper office I worked in at the time and being told to remove it immediately.
It was a bit of a risk trying to power the Pismo with the under spec power supply, but I'd already gone so far as to make a plug out of and RCA and stereo jack plug, so by that time I was ready for just about anything. I was very relieved when I found a properly spec'd power supply for sale though and look forward to it's arrival next week.
I'll be interested to see if it makes a difference, although having read Hughmac's experience I doubt it.
I may look out for a right-hand-side battery case to restore with new cells (which I've already done for the left-hand bay), as I just can't get comfortable with that "X" on the battery icon in Leopard.

Before it was packed away (fifteen or more years ago), I'd done a bit of work to the Pismo, including (from memory):

Bigger faster hard drive - which I've now replace with an even larger one, as the old one had died.
A NewerTech 500mhz G4 upgrade - for which I had to perform heart-stopping (at the time) surgery.
A new screen/backlight - I can't remember where I purchased it, but I'm so thankful now as the old screen had had its day way back then.
Upgraded DVD/CD burner slot-load drive.
Sonnet Aria Extreme card - which cost me an arm and a leg at the time, but for which I'm now truly thankful as I can have internet anywhere (with portable pocket-modem or phone hot-spot).

...and I have another 512mb RAM on the way - I think I nicked the extra one I had in there for something else...

Currently I have bootable 9.2.2 and 10.4.11 on one partition, and 10.5.8 on the other. Leopard runs ok, and I'll be interested to see what difference the extra RAM makes.

Do I need Leopard? Hmmm... It's always been about "perceived" need rather than actual need for me, that's how we got to the moon after all... so, we'll see.

I did try "Sorbet", and I do like the idea of a "better" Leopard (and yes, I've read pretty much all the commentary), but I'll see how I go with the "standard" Leopard which, as I said, works ok at the moment.

So, in summary, nice to meet you, thank you - I'll report back on my progress.

Any further advice or commentary is more than welcome.

Bill

P.S. TenFourFox is great, I've also started using InterWeb.
 
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When I tried Sorbet in my Pismo it didn't make any difference in performance, and I therefore dropped back to stock Leopard with all the enhancements already documented on the PPC forum.
The biggest gain was from putting in a 128GB PATA (IDE) SSD ;)

Cheers :)

Hugh
 
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Hughmac said:
When I tried Sorbet in my Pismo it didn't make any difference in performance, and I therefore dropped back to stock Leopard with all the enhancements already documented on the PPC forum.
The biggest gain was from putting in a 128GB PATA (IDE) SSD ;)

Cheers :)

Hugh
Click to expand...
I didn’t run any proper tests but my experience was similar Hugh.
I’ve been looking out for a compatible SSD but no luck so far and the SD card interface I tried didn’t do the business so I’ll keep looking for an IDE SSD.
 
Bilunty said:
Forgive me all, I’m still working through all the details of the above replies and I hope my appreciation is evident.
Click to expand...
I mean, nothing I said actually applies to your problem with the DIY power adapter. :D
 
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Update: very tidy little power supply arrived the other day—in use, seems no different to my DIY one but the plug is “real” and the “brick” is quite small and slips easily inside my laptop bag.
Actually there is one other thing; my home made plug seems to be a better and more secure fit than the new “proper” one, though I did chop up one of my best RCA cables to get the plug I used…

Oh, and as I think we all expected, no change in Leopard.
 
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…and extra 512mb RAM (which also arrived the other day) spruced things up a bit. Tiger and Leopard noticeably snappier, Tiger more-so.
Leopard is “useable”, but Tiger obviously has the edge so it’ll get the most use.
I also have bootable 9.2.2 for old time’s sake—I may have mentioned this already…
Also I have a networked USB SSD so I can transfer files from my newer machines wirelessly—and fast!
 
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IMG_1145.jpeg

…and now I’m just showing off.
I had the batteries replaced in this pair of 30Gs about nine years ago and they’ve not been used for probably five, and they’re holding their charge very well.
One belongs to my wife who now has Alzheimer’s and can’t manage it, but I’ll keep them both for the time being and sync with the Pismo.
 
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Have been having intermittent but increasingly common startup glitches. Today three times, so booted from install disk (after several attempts) and ran disk repair—hard drive fine.
Unplugged pram battery and started fine. I remember I did replace it in the distant past (when such things were readily available), but I guess it’s DIY time again.
 
Bilunty said:
Have been having intermittent but increasingly common startup glitches. Today three times, so booted from install disk (after several attempts) and ran disk repair—hard drive fine.
Unplugged pram battery and started fine. I remember I did replace it in the distant past (when such things were readily available), but I guess it’s DIY time again.
Click to expand...
Apologies to the pram battery… it just happened again while pram was disconnected.
Hard drive is new and didn’t show up as bad in disk utility.
I’ve had iPod connected to USB and a FireWire drive connected intermittently while starting up—I’m going to start with nothing connected for a while to see what happens.
 
Amethyst1 said:
Can you elaborate? Any insightful messages when booting verbosely (hold [Command]-[V] after powering on)?
Click to expand...
From memory there was something about the Rage graphics card being wrong—not a direct quote. I’ll have another go in a little while.
 
IMG_1183.jpeg

Well, the “just like new” keyboard I bought arrived from across the ocean this morning, wrapped in not much more than brown paper and sticky tape, and (of course) broken.
I can’t imagine why the “Fragile” sticker didn’t save it from the parcel handlers.
As it turns out, my original keyboard is in much better condition anyway so I just swapped in the keys I had missing, and voila!
Am currently having lots of fun adding album art to several million tracks imported via data dvd(s) burnt from my Apple Music library—all legal I believe… at least I think…
 
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