Powerbook 520c no longer boots?

maffoo
Intelligent Battery Recondition (IBR) and VST's EMMpathy can often do in tandem what neither can do alone to revivify the PB 500 series batteries. It is more than probable that not being able to charge your batteries yet has caused the internal (deep) 616-0021 rechargeable backup battery to drain to the point that:

1) it no longer buys the three minutes of time after the main batteries reach last gasp in which you can swap in a charged battery, or shut down gracefully, and
2) cannot maintain PRAM settings, such as 'where is the startup volume?', and
3) allows the Power Manager to get very confused indeed.

With batteries out and AC adapter disconnected, allow the PB to sit for 10min. Hold down the command-option-control-power keys together (the 500s lack the reset/interrupt switches of other PBs and desktops) for 20-odd sec. to reset the Power Manager. Reconnect the AC adapter, start up and immediately hold command-option-p-r to reset the PRAM (and point the PB at its hard drive). If the PB successfully boots from its hard drive, you can insert the batteries, but don't attempt to power the PB from them. Let them take what charge they will as you use the machine and after shutdown.

If they show no sign of charging after 24hr of opportunity to charge from the adapter, begin the head-banging exercise of resuscitation. EMMpathy gives more info. as it diagnoses battery condition, but it is not more successful by itself than is Apple's app. in overcoming the first hurdle: the microprocessor (EEPROM) in the battery. Start IBR with a battery half-inserted into the right bay. When IBR asks 'wheresabaddery', push the battery right in. With luck, IBR will then fast charge the battery to the point that the microprocessor will remember that it is intelligent, and perhaps continue to charge the battery. If IBR tells you to return the battery to Apple, resist the urge and repeat the process several times until ...

EMMpathy can be employed when this initial phase of reanimating the zombie is over. It will give you a dossier on the battery's present state, show the current proportion of full charge as the battery continues to charge, and install the Sleep Drain Bug Fix that supposedly supplies an antibiotic after the boil has been lanced. Above all, however, nil desperandum. Just leaving the PB on the AC adapter night and day may also help in the reanimation. In the meantime, the PB 500 will be a snappy performer on the adapter.

The backup battery reputedly recharges only as the main batteries reach full charge, but often much sooner, such that you may find that the PB remembers its hard drive's whereabouts at the next startup. While the batteries are reawakening (and permanent return to health is only about 50% likely at best) you can proceed to test the HDD with Disk First Aid, reinstall the HDD's driver with Drive Setup (both from a suitable '040-savvy Disk Tools diskette) and re-install or upgrade the OS. How far depends on your RAM complement, which is 36MB at maximum.

maffoo
The significance of Quizzical Floppy is that the system cannot find a valid (blest) System Folder from which to start up.

There may be none, because there is no startup volume 'present', which includes physically not present as well as non-functional. That isn't your case. The partitions or software on the startup volume may be corrupt, pointers to the drive (in PRAM), pointers to software (boot blocks, disk directory) may be corrupt, or the software (System Folder) may be absent or corrupt. One or other of these may be your present difficulty.

An install set of System 7.5 will allow you to explore these possibilities systematically, using Disk First Aid and Apple HD SC Setup on the Disk Tools diskette. Use the latter first to ensure that the HDD can be 'seen', if it does not mount on the desktop when you boot from that floppy. Reinstall a HD driver for insurance, and then run DFA to gauge any other difficulties. Run DFA repeatedly until no errors are reported. If the HDD does mount, you can look at the existing System Folder (if there is one), or About This Macintosh, to discover your machine's present RAM complement and installed System.

With that knowledge under your belt you can then proceed to use, reformat, reinstall, or whatever else you choose to do.

Matthew
RAM upgrade (by replacement) cards of useful size are scarce. For example, a 32MB card sold recently on eBay for close to GBP30, and that was one of two only that I have seen on eBay in several years. They can be had new from some sellers, at all-but-prohibitive prices, of which this is the cheapest, at USD80 for 32MB. I have seen USD190 asked.

The PB 500s can support up to OS 8.1, which also allows use of HFS+ disk format if your HDD is large enough to make it worthwhile (say >2GB), but OS 8 is a struggle without enough physical memory. With only a 4MB expansion card, System 7.5 (or better, 7.5.3) will suit your machine, but it will oblige use of virtual memory if the PB is not to run out of puff. Even a 16MB card would be a significant boost to your PB.


Apple IIe; 15 x 68K; 7 x PPC; 5 x G3 System 6.0.8 to OS 10.4.x