"New" Powerbook G3 problem at start up

The spinning ball sounds like it has OSX on it. Try holding down the SHIFT key during start-up and see if it boots. If it does, look at "About this Mac" under the Apple menu to see what OS is installed and how much RAM you have.

Thanks for replying, Allan.

I held down the Shift key while pressing the power button, but the same thing happened - spinning ball. Any other ideas?

And I still can't shut down the computer. The only way to get it to stop is to unplug it and eventually I guess the battery wears down so it stops?

BTW- I had to re-register to post a response to you - that's why I'm now Nina301. I don't know why this forum wouldn't recognize my other user ID and password? Weird.

-Nina

Nina:

Congratulations! You are the proud owner of PowerBook Series otherwise known as the WallStreet. The article Your Mac won't start up in Mac OS X (Mac OS X 10.3.9 or earlier) lists some of the common startup issues and suggested approaches. Take a look and post back with further questions.

Meanwhile, hopefully your friend also provided you with the install disks for the computer. If you do have the disks, try this:
Repair Disk
Insert Installer disk and Restart, holding down the "C" key until grey Apple appears.
Go to Installer menu (Panther and earlier) or Utilities menu (Tiger) and launch Disk Utility.
Select your HDD (manufacturer ID) in the left panel.
Select First Aid in the Main panel.
(Check S.M.A.R.T Status of HDD at the bottom of right panel, and report if it says anything but Verified)
Click Repair Disk on the bottom right.
If DU reports disk does not need repairs quit DU and restart.
If DU reports errors Repair again and again until DU reports disk is repaired.
If DU reports errors it cannot repair you will need to use a utility like Tech Tool Pro or Disk Warrior

Good luck.

cornelius

Nina,

If your Wallstreet freezes or is non-responsive (stuck on the blue screen in your case), just unplug the power adapter and then release the main battery. Once turned off, reconnect the power adapter and re-seat the main battery.

If you are not familiar with the media bays on this model, there are two levers on the front edge of the body, one for each bay. Pull the levers towards you to release the media bay devices with the battery being on the left side; the end of the lever is at the corner of the 'book.

You can download the manual here; you want the "PowerBook G3 Series User Manual 06/08/2004 94 pages 2.4MB".
http://www.apple.com/support/manuals/powerbook/

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I tried starting up in the various ways mentioned on that link:
Safe Mode and Single-User Mode.
I also tried resetting: Shift/fn/Control/power button.

I've still just got the spinning ball w/ blue screen.

I was told there's a password needed to access the computer, but a window never comes up asking for the password.

Also, when the grey screen with the face changes to the blue screen with the Mac OS X logo, an image flashes on the screen that looks like a double bar code.

No, I didn't receive any disks with the WallStreet. My friend said a friend of his gave him the computer and he could never get it to work (he's a pc guy) so he gave it to me. Since I have an emac and an old imac, he thought I might be able to figure it out.

Maybe it's just broken?

-Nina

Nina:

Sorry that none of the suggested remedies worked for you.

I suggest that you try jpl's suggestions.

Good luck.

cornelius

nina,

If you get the startup chime plus some progress on loading the OS, you may have nothing more than corrupted software on your HD. One way to test for HD problems is to boot to a CD.

You have an old eMac and iMac, both with System Software CDs (I imagine); some machine-specific Mac CDs will start other computers. The Wallstreet requires a minimum MacOS 8.5 (retail CD) and a maximum of MacOS X 10.2.8. If you have any MacOS CDs that meet those requirements, then try booting them even though they may have eMac or iMac on the label. Do not try to boot CDs that say "Restore" on the label...they will not boot.

You can open the CD tray by pushing an opened paperclip into the little hole next to the button on the tray. Load the CD, then start while pressing the 'c' key.

I'm with ya, jpl.

I have these cds that came with my emac for OS 9 and OS 10.2.8

eMac Mac OS X Install Disc 1
eMac Mac Os X Install Disc 2
Apple Hardware Test eMac

Which one should I try first?

-Nina

I booted up using the eMac Mac OS X Install Disc 1, and the computer started up just fine. I went to Disk First Aid and clicked on Repair the hard drive in the computer. I did that twice. Then I restarted the computer holding down the Option key to boot from the hard disk instead of the cd, and I got a screen with a gray circle with a strike through it.

What's next?

Thanks-
Nina

Nina,

The 'option' key during startup is not supported on the Wallstreet, only the Pismo and newer. The Wallstreet can be quite cranky when running OSX, so here are a few suggestions and comments...

-Sometimes, at least on my Wallstreet, once you are booted to an OSX Install CD, it will always restart to the CD. I work around this problem in this manner: When you click Restart from the menu or force a restart using 'control-command-power' (this is the least desirable restart), have your opened paperclip ready. Once the display goes black and the CD-ROM drive has spun down, immediately eject the CD tray with the paperclip...it should now start to the HD.

-Even if you had a successful First Aid run, the Wallstreet may not start for any number of reasons. First Aid makes directory repairs but cannot fix corrupt or missing software.

-It may be desirable to erase the HD and install a fresh copy of OSX from your CDs. Don't worry...OSX is machine-neutral...the same software is installed on all models.

There are a few requirements for installing OSX on the Wallstreet:

-a minimum of 128MB of RAM
-if the HD is larger than 8GB, it must be partitioned in this manner:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=106235

See if your 9.x CD will boot; you can then get details on RAM, CPU speed, and HD from the System Profiler. (I forget...you may be able to access the System Profiler when booted to the OSX CD.)

Not knowing your expertise in these matters, if you have any questions about installation on the Wallstreet, please ask.

Thanks for offering the help, jpl - I do need it.

Here's the info:

Mount Point: /Volumes/Macintosh HD
Format: HFS+
Capacity: 2.02 GB
Available: 1.04 GB
Used: 1,003.47 MB
Number of Files: 16,826
Number of Folders: 6,565

The info came up fine using the OS X disc.

Would I need to erase everything in the HD before installing the new system? I read in one of my manuals that you can install a new system and still retain the old one? Would there be a reason to do that - if it's corrupted?

Thanks-
Nina

Nina,

The only information missing is the amount of installed RAM. If you have less than 128MB, it will run molasses-slow; if you have less than 64MB, it will not even run. I believe there is a way to find the amount of installed RAM when booted to the OSX CD using Terminal but I have no background in using Terminal and keyboard commands (this is OSX's Unix foundation). If you can boot to one of your 9.x CDs, Apple System Profiler will report this info.

You have a 2GB HD and it is probably the original HD (1998) since it was the smallest HD shipped in the Wallstreet. My Wallstreet is also the bottom model which came with a 2GB HD, 233MHz CPU, 32MB of RAM, and 14.1" display. If you look at the bottom of the 'book, it may still have the sticker that has the specifications. If you have the 12.1" passive-matrix, dual-scan display, you will be disappointed with OSX, but it will run. If you have only 32MB of RAM and none has been added since, OSX will not install...64MB may be successful.

Your 2GB HD is too small to Archive & Install, nor would you want to do so. First select the topmost name in the left column of Disk Utility (this is the HD's manufacturer's name/size/model number). You will want to erase the HD using MacOS Extended Format, check the option to install the MacOS 9 HD Driver (it uses very little space and will allow you to boot 9.x if you ever install 9.x in the future). If your Jaguar CD is version 10.2.3 or newer, it will have the option to 'zero all data' in the Erase window; select this option to thoroughly clean the HD and force sparing of any bad blocks.

I was able to install most of version of 10.2.x on my 2GB HD by selecting 'Customize' in one of the Install windows...I think it was the Select Destination window. There are two large items you want to uncheck:

Additional Printer Drivers 500MB
Localized Files 350MB

This will use about 1.5GB of HD space. Please remember you need at least 10-15% free space for OSX to run without problems.

If you choose not to install the Additional Applications (280MB), you will probably not get iTunes, iPhoto, or iMovie, and Adobe Acrobat Reader will not work.

Installation will take quite a while, especially at the end where OSX is Optimizing. When you restart, eject the CD as I described in a previous post. Booting the first time to OSX will also take a long time...I would give it 10-15 minutes before giving up. If it appears stalled, force restart (command-control-power) and let it try again. Some users report 2-3 forced restarts to finally get the Wallstreet up. It may then ask for Disk #2...this can be loaded in the drive and run without booting to the CD.

Please feel free to ask for any clarification or help.

jpl:

Except as an experiment, installing OS X on such a small HDD makes the the computer pretty much unusable, even with Customization, in my opinion. I think the OP will be much happier running OS 9, as that will work much more efficiently. My suggestion would be to either install a larger HDD or go with OS 9 instead of OS X.

Cheers.

cornelius

Cornelius,

Yes, this is more of a test than anything else, just to see if the Wallstreet actually works. She may also have too little RAM for OSX but we just don't know. However, even with so little HD space, she can surf the Net, email, maybe a little word processing, but any iPhoto, iMovie, etc, is beyond the little HD's capabilities.

You guys aren't going to believe this......

I don't know what I did, but this puppy is up and running - she's actually purring!

Here's all I can remember doing:

I booted up using the install disc I got with my iMac - OS 8.5. The HD from the WallStreet came up on the screen, so I clicked it, but I couldn't get anything to open I clicked on an icon "Cleanup". I don't know if that did anything. Then I disabled AppleTalk. Then I got frustrated and shut down the computer. When I started it again, the beautiful blue screen came up with the Menu bar, Dock and everything. All the apps are working.

Here's the info that comes up for the computer:

Mac OS X 10.1.2
Memory 160 MB

It seems to be working fine on OS X. Go figure! Any idea what I did that fixed the problem?

Another question:
There's no USB port on the WallStreet?

Thanks for being there for me through my frustration!

-Nina