Please help!!! Laptop won't come on...just beeps three times!

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Sham1986 Author

Level 1

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Please help!!! Laptop won't come on...just beeps three times!

I took my laptop to the apple store to get the internal ac adapter fixed. When I went to pick it up the guy told me that it might not come on because the battery was drained. So I get home and immediately plug it to charge and try to turn it on, but the fan only came on for a brief moment and I heard the laptop beeps three times. The screen didn't come on or anything. The light on the part you push to open the screen blinks three times as well. I didn't think anything of it at first so I kept it charged for an hour but when I checked on it I noticed it was very hot. I immediately unplugged it and tried to turn it on. Nothing but the beeps and blinking lights. I have tried everything including resetting the pmu. Can someone please help me?

Powerbook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.10)

Posted on May 3, 2008 9:11 PM

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Answer 1

BGreg

Level 6

17,552 points

May 4, 2008 6:22 AM in response to Sham1986

Welcome to the Apple discussions.

Return your Powerbook to the Apple store. 3 beeps means there are no good banks of memory found. The blinking sleep LED blinking is part of the boot process, and it blinks the error code the beeps also indicated. FYI, the beeps are:

1 beep = no RAM installed
2 beeps = incompatible RAM types
3 beeps = no good banks
4 beeps = no good boot images in the boot ROM (and/or bad sys config block)
5 beeps = processor is not usable

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Answer 2

abeitzel

Level 1

0 points

Aug 1, 2008 10:14 PM in response to BGreg

hey, i have a 15" powerbook with a similar problem. It had 2 - 512mb sticks but there is one strip I am sure is bad because I checked both sticks seperately in another 12" powerbook i own. I took the 512 stick out of my 12" that I know obviously works and put it in the 15" and I still get a beep saying "no valid ram". (1 beep) Please help, I love this laptop

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Answer 3

eww

Level 9

53,028 points

Aug 2, 2008 12:50 PM in response to abeitzel

Hi, abeitzel. The PC2100 RAM from your 867MHz 12-inch Powerbook is incompatible with the 1.5GHz 15" Powerbook, which requires PC2700 RAM modules.

RAM with the correct spec for the 15" may also work in the 12", but the opposite swap won't go.

Note that this forum is devoted to 17" Powerbook models, rather than either of the ones listed in your system info.

Message was edited by: eww

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