Can't Boot Up - Logic Board or Dead Drive?

I must say that my battery has served its 3 years is completely flat and needs a replacement. But I continue to use it just so it keeps the time on the OS.

The 17" Powerbook has an internal battery, different from your 3 year old external battery, to keep the date and time current. Of course if that battery is dead, cutting all power will reset the time.

You might try resetting the Power Management Unit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431

Have you tried booting from your OS X disc? Insert it and boot holding the C key, which will cause the system to boot from it.

Your description sounds like a logic board issue more than a disk drive issue. If the PMU reset doesn't help, you might check with your local Apple store to see if they offer a 'fix everything' service. Others have reported Apple stores offer this for around $350. Note if it turns out to be a hard drive problem, Apple will keep your current hard drive in trade for a new one, a practice some people object to due to personal data on the hard drive.

Sometimes a period of several days of low usage on A/C power will pump a little life into the backup battery. My PB17 had been off all power for months when I got it and would not hold date/time. After running it on A/C and leaving it plugged in for a couple of weeks, the backup battery is again working. Your mileage may vary.

could be bad power adapter, battery or a logic board.

maybe try running the PowerBook form the adapter only, with the battery removed.

if works that way, could be a bad battery.

since the power adapter and the battery were ruled out, could be the logic board.

possibly could be a hard drive or DVD issue (unlikely though)

Douglas, what happened with your PB, I am having a very similar issue with mine. I really don't use it much and most of the time it sits and is on standby with the power adapter plugged in. A few times I have had some issues with the power adapter not working. Plug it in it turns green then shuts off. I would leave it for a day or 2 and comeback and it would start working again. I always thought it was a bad power supply because of how flaky the power supply has been. So the last time it went black and no amount of waiting would bring it back I went out and got a new one. Now when I boot my PB all I get is the fans going full bore for about 3 minutes then it shuts down again. I have tried this with and without the battery in the PB when I first started it I got the grey Apple logo screen then it shut down after about 5 seconds. It has been doing the bit with the fans ever since. I am hoping you will be able to shed some light on this problem for me or at least point me in the right direction to get it fixed.

Thanks