Lombard trying to come back to life...

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Level 1

111 points

Lombard trying to come back to life...

I've got a Lombard on 10.3 that I gave up on for a while... I suspect there is a temperature related issue here because it runs for a while and then goes down. What's the best way to verify that?

Also I NEVER see the fan come on. I booted into open firmware <<cmd-option-o-f>> but the fan still doesn't go on - My much newer iMacG5 always does - but I'm not sure if that's a feature of the hardware or the newer OS? How can I validate that the fan works?

iMac G5, Mac OS X (10.5.1), 1G, new keyboard, 3rd Gen nano 4G, iMac G4 DV

Posted on Sep 7, 2008 7:34 AM

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Answer 1

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Sep 7, 2008 11:18 AM in response to jarmeeder18

ZBurnett,

There are many causes for freezes/shutdowns on a powerbook and it will be a process of elimination to try and identify it.

When the problem arises, does it just freeze or actually turn off?

In either case, can you force a restart (command-control-power) or turn it on (power button) and have it continue to run?

Regarding the fan: The fans on the black G3s will seldom, if ever, run since they seldom get hot enough to trigger the fan, around 180ºF. I also don't know of any procedure that will test the fan.

Here are some possible causes:

-failing component: as the component heats up to normal temps, it causes a freeze or shutdown;

-cracked card or board: a hairline crack in the logic board or power card, etc, will heat up and open a circuit;

-solder joint: as the powerbook heats up, a loose or failed solder joint opens a circuit.

When you start the powerbook up, carefully lift the 'book with both hands and gently torque/twist it...see if it will shut down.

If the 'book is just freezing, you may have a failing memory module.

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Answer 2

jarmeeder18 Author

Level 1

111 points

Sep 8, 2008 3:06 AM in response to jpl

Well, it's not off. Since I wrote this, someone turned it on and when I came upon it the hard drive was spinning - but there was nothing on the screen... I didn't remember the cmd-ctl-power thing so I ended up pulling the battery and the power. Maybe not great for it. But it gets to a state where it won't do anything and there seems to be no other way to turn it off.

When I tried it this morning it came on went into MacOS and then froze before I could set the clock. After a forced restart it did that again and successively got worse and finally won't get by the grey Apple screen. The twisting thing is interesting - I couldn't get it to run long enough to see it it shuts down - but I was able to get farther in a boot sequence by twisting it.

The reason I don't just trash this thing is because I like the SCSI plug in the back it would all allow me to connect a drive from the ancient world of 9" screen Macs which I haven't been able to throw away yet.

I'm trying to explain how after months of sitting, the thing runs for longer than overnight. It would seem like a failed solder joint would come back to the same state overnight.

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Answer 3

Sep 8, 2008 12:20 PM in response to jarmeeder18

Can you use the SCSI port to look at the hard drive in SCSI mode? Do you have the right cable for that task?

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Answer 4

jpl

Level 7

28,285 points

Sep 8, 2008 7:41 PM in response to jarmeeder18

ZBurnett,

Do you have a bootable CD or DVD...9.x or 10.x? Test booting to the optical drive. If necessary, reset the PRAM, then try booting to the CD again.

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Answer 5

jarmeeder18 Author

Level 1

111 points

Sep 9, 2008 3:58 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man

Maybe - I've got a HDI-SCSI Adaptor this allows me to plug in what I used to think of as a printer cable. It's a 25 pin Dshell on one one end to 8 pin connector that goes into the old Printer/Modem port. Is this it? I've also got regular SCSI cables that will adapt to this square thing, and there might be a way to set up a chain between a hard drive and a Classic II that works. There's also a Powerbook 520c that works here...none of which has USB support. ( Hmmm I do have a CD burner - I wonder if I could get that to work ) from one of these. The SCSI connectivity seems really intermittent. But probably this is because I'm not sure how to set the numbers an work the power on order.

anyway - I'm not sure where you are heading with SCSI mode... I see this link talks about it:
http://lowendmac.com/tf/2k1129.html
But if the target Powerbook will only stay up for a few minutes - what would you do with that?
I had come to the conclusion before that the Processor board was bad - I think there was some discoloration on it - but why it worked longer this time is the mystery

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Answer 6

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

24,295 points

Sep 9, 2008 9:45 AM in response to jarmeeder18

Hi,

If you really have to gain access to files on the Lombard (and if the problem with that computer is impossible to solve), you could remove the hard drive and install it into an appropriate external enclosure (preferably FireWire, or perhaps USB 2.0). Thus the files can be read from another modern Mac.

It's a 25 pin Dshell on one one end to 8 pin connector that goes into the old Printer/Modem port. Is this it?

That sounds more like a modem cable. In any case, do not connect it to a SCSI port.

I've also got regular SCSI cables that will adapt to this square thing, and there might be a way to set up a chain between a hard drive and a Classic II that works.

A working PowerBook computer that supports SCSI Disk Mode (HD Target Mode) would appear as an external hard disk on the Classic II, providing that the setup and cables are correct.

There's also a Powerbook 520c that works here

The PowerBook 520c has a SCSI port, too. However, SCSI Disk Mode is not supported between two PowerBook computers. The PB 520c has built-in Ethernet (an external AAUI to RJ-45 transceiver is needed). With a PCMCIA Expansion Module you could even use a PC Card adapter for CompactFlash and a CF memory card for transfers. All this makes the PB 520c an excellent intermediary between old and new systems.

Jan

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Answer 7

Sep 11, 2008 12:25 PM in response to jarmeeder18

z,

Jan did a nice job with the overview of details. You asked what I had in mind. I would connect the laptop to a desktop machine and see if the laptop hard drive mounts to the desktop on the non-laptop computer.

If the system software is acting up, you might still be able to look at the hard drive in SCSI mode to poke around and see what is going on. You could move extensions out of the extensions folder and perform other house keeping.

Booting the laptop from an external SCSI hard drive or zip drive is yet another option.

Jim

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Answer 8

jarmeeder18 Author

Level 1

111 points

Sep 12, 2008 3:09 AM in response to Appaloosa mac man

I believe I had this booted from CD and it went down in the same way as if running from the hard drive. I think this pretty much assures that this is a hardware problem... I've got to dig up the old thread... Ah here it is: http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=6044821#6044821

It says I have a failed L2 Cache... My reason for bringing this up again is that I didn't think it would run as long as it did that one time. I guess I was exploring the concept of "failed". It might not really be the memory itself but some circuit near there. I see a processor board at iFixit.com for $80. But this discussion has been useful to explore why I want to do anything here. I might be back with more on SCSI mode to get my burner working.

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