Wallstreet Powerbook Wont Boot From CD

Ben,

Does the machine boot from the internal hard disk? Any icons or messages on the screen?

Have you tried holding down the four keys Command(Apple) + Option + Shift + Delete(Backspace) when attempting to start from a CD?

It may be worth trying to reset the PRAM and the Power Manager.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431

The Wallstreet does not appear to be NetBoot capable.

http://support.apple.com/kb/TA21344

Alternatively, the computer could possibly boot from a Mac-formatted CompactFlash card (in a CompactFlash PC Card adapter in one of the PC Card slots) with an appropriate system folder.

Jan

Does the disc drive read other CDs OK?

 Cheers, Tom 😉

The PowerBook apparently does not boot from the internal HD, nor from a CD. How did you find out that it reads (other) CDs? Anything at all on the screen? Any sounds or lights?

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/PowerBookG3UserManual.PDF

Jan

Please pardon the intrusion…

Hi, Jan!

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Hope to see you there soon!

Hello Ronda,

Many thanks for your kind message. I shall try the Lounge link once it appears.

Jan

Ben,

Since you have two PowerBook computers of the same model, an inexpensive PC Card adapter for CompactFlash could be a useful investment. A CF card is normally a good way of transferring files, and can be used for backup purposes. As indicated earlier, the computer may even be able to boot from a Mac-formatted CF card with a suitable system folder, something that would be of interest here.

Alternatively, you may want to test whether the hard drive moved from the second PowerBook (with its already installed operating system) would allow the first machine to boot. Of course, there is always a certain risk involved with this; any faulty circuits/components inside may damage the hard drive. See pages 75-84 in the manual (link above) for hard drive removal instructions.

Jan

Hi again,

The CompactFlash memory card itself can be found in many stores (selling digital cameras et cetera). These stores may also have the PC Card adapter, which allows a CF card to be used directly in one of the PC Card slots of a laptop computer (pages 42-45 in the manual above for the Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series).

The CF cards are PC-formatted when you buy them, but can easily be reformatted to Mac.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CompactFlash

Jan

Ben,

If the computers do not boot from the internal hard disks, nor from CDs in the CD-ROM drives, it would become necessary to remove the hard drives. One would then have to use another similar/appropriate Mac in order to try to get a working system (either a temporary drag-copied system folder, or a universal system installation from a suitable system CD) onto the removed hard drive. With correct operating systems on the re-installed hard drives, it should be possible to start the computers.

A USB-to-IDE/ATA adapter can be useful for the handling of removed hard drives. Just one example:

http://www.newertech.com/products/usb2_adaptv2.php

With an existing working/bootable operating system, there may be other possibilities (see page 9 in the document below).

http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/macos9_installing.pdf

Jan

Whether the software for networking and file sharing would be available when a system CD is used as a startup disc is not known to me. But if you replace the CD-ROM drives anyway, why not boot and install directly from the CD?

Jan