About this replacement
Apple PowerBook G3 1998 Wall Street — 14.4V Li-ion Replacement Battery (661-2069)
This 14.4V, 4500mAh Li-ion cell replaces the original battery in the Apple PowerBook G3 1998 series, including the Wall Street model. It fits machines listed under OEM part numbers 661-2069, M4685, M6138, M6383, M6385, and MC-G3I. Install it when the original cell no longer holds a charge or fails to register with the system at all.
- Wall Street G3 compatibility: The 1998 PowerBook G3 Wall Street models share a common battery bay form factor, connector pinout, and 14.4V charging rail. All OEM part numbers listed above draw from the same hardware spec, so one cell covers the full 1998 lineup.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this cell through charge, discharge, and BMS handshake cycles on a PowerBook G3 chassis. The protection circuit responded correctly at both low-voltage cutoff and full-charge termination with no false trips.
- First-cycle recalibration on the PowerBook G3: After installing, run one full discharge to hibernate cutoff, then charge uninterrupted to 100%. The PowerBook G3 BIOS tracks cell history and will show a degraded health warning until it completes one learn cycle against the new cell's actual capacity curve.
Why the PowerBook G3 reports poor battery health immediately after a cell swap
The PowerBook G3 stores battery health data in EEPROM on the logic board. That data reflects the old cell's degraded capacity, not the new one. The system reads the stored values first and flags the battery as poor before it has gathered any real-world data from the replacement. Running one complete discharge-to-hibernate and uninterrupted recharge cycle forces the BIOS to overwrite the stale EEPROM values with accurate readings from the new cell.
PowerBook G3 shutting down at 20–30% charge remaining
This is a voltage cliff symptom, not a fuel gauge error. Under combined CPU and display load, the cell voltage drops sharply below what the logic board will sustain, triggering a hard shutdown even though the OS still shows charge remaining. The fuel gauge IC has not yet calibrated its discharge curve to the new cell's characteristics. Complete two full discharge-to-hibernate and full-recharge cycles, then verify the shutdown threshold moves below 10% — if it does not, check that the charge termination voltage is reaching 16.8V during the recharge phase.