Power Macintosh G3 B&W do the startup chime, but doesn't boot.

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Level 1

5 points

Power Macintosh G3 B&W do the startup chime, but doesn't boot.

Hello,

I have an old Rev 1. Power Macintosh G3 Blue and White, 350MHz, 768MB RAM, 160GB HDD.

My Mac isn't booting anymore, It's does the startup chime and that's it, no video, no HD access (they spin up) and no keyboard detection (Caps Lock light don't turn up, USB).

The Mac is all clean, the case, memory, logic board, etc. and it has Mac OS 8.6, 9.2.2 and 10.4.11 installed.

What I should do? It's old, yes, but this is my first Mac, I want him to up and running, showing that happy face when I booted it up.

Thanks.

Power Macintosh G3 Blue and White-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.4.11), 1999 Power Macintosh G3

Posted on Apr 17, 2013 8:10 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Deborah Terreson

Level 4

1,071 points

Apr 17, 2013 9:50 PM in response to yntzl

Startup chime is a good sign, black display can mean the video card has come loose. Happens on these units - fairly reliably.

Pull it and clean the contacts (I use a green eraser to clean off both sides of the video card) and try reseating.

Also, while you're in, pull the battery (it's the 1/2 size AA) and poke the CUDA (PMU - power management unit) button for 15 seconds or so to drain all residual charge off the board.

Here's the diagram page so you can find it on the board.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1939

When you put the mac back together, start it back up and once you hear the chime, press and hold the command+option+P+R buttons - all at once - until you hear a chime again.

This resets the Parameter RAM, which forces the system to poll all the hardware and set it to machine default.

Those old G3's can be cranky, but they have a limited set of issues and once you get to know the hardware, they're great fun to play with.

Let me know what luck you have!

Deb.

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Answer 2

Apr 17, 2013 10:41 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

Excellent post, Deb. ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯ ✯

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Answer 3

yntzl Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 18, 2013 2:49 AM in response to Deborah Terreson

Thanks Deb for the tips, but none of them worked. I've used contact cleaner do clean all the logic board and eraser on the memory modules and on the graphics card.

I tested every module of RAM (2x256 and 2x128) and installed the graphics card in all slots but I get the same problem.

The PRAM battery was dead, and I put a new one in there and pushed the CUDA button as you said.

I get this machine on Monday and it was running properly, even with overclock (I've changed the jumpers from 350 to 400MHz), but when I turned off the machine and started up on Tuesday I get this problem, then I put the jumper block back into original position (to 350MHz) and reseted the CUDA and PRAM, and no sign of boot. I'll assume that the CPU isn't dead because its executes the POST and it does the startup chime.

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Answer 4

Jeff

Level 6

12,058 points

Apr 18, 2013 7:45 AM in response to yntzl

You've indicated that you have a 160 GB hard drive in your Rev. 1 B&W G3. Is it connected to an Ultra ATA controller PCI card? If not, you should acquire/install one. I use a Sonnet Tempo Ultra ATA-133 controller card in one of my B&Ws. If connected to the onboard IDE controller, you're very likely to have stability problems with a hard drive capacity exceeding 30-40 GBs, and partitioning isn't a solution for this. Intech's software workaround (SpeedTools ATA Hi-Capacity Driver) for full-recognition of hard drives that are larger than 128 GBs requires a partitioning scheme, but it isn't a solution for the poorly-programmed IDE controller in the Rev. 1 B&W G3s. If the hard drive is connected to a controller card, which one are you using?

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Answer 5

yntzl Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 18, 2013 9:24 AM in response to Jeff

Yes Jeff, I'm aware of that problem, the disk is connect directly to the on board IDE. The Mac recognizes only 128GB and I have no stability problems so far. Now, even with the hard drive out the Mac doesn't output video, it's like after the POST he froze, I'm suspecting that is the power supply saying goodbye.

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Answer 6

Apr 18, 2013 12:41 PM in response to yntzl

Do you have another working video card you can try?

It may be that, though it could ALSO be, as Jeff indicated, a problem with that too-large drive. I had the SAME issue with a G4 and a 160GB drive - it took 6 months for the OS to start writing files to beyond it's addressable limit and then things got REALLY interesting, to say the least - resident problems aside, you're on borrowed time unless you reformat that drive and leave 32 gigs unallocated.

Power supply could be going up the spout - check the pinout voltages with a ciircuit tester - the user japamac may have diagrams for those tests - he's the resident power supply diva on the forums.

Deb.

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Answer 7

yntzl Author

Level 1

5 points

Apr 18, 2013 3:30 PM in response to Deborah Terreson

The video card is good, I'm think that is the power supply because the Mac stayed on that state before, but some time after (like 30 minutes) I pressed the restart button and it booted successfully, but now it stays on that state forever. I know that if a PSU don't supply enough power to the computer, the machine turn on but don't to nothing, and one way to reproduce that error is to set tue PSU on 230V and plug on 115V, I did that test on the Mac and the same problem occurs. The voltage of the electric network of my county is 230V, but I use a stabilizer to transform 230V to 115V and I plug my Mac in that stabilizer. Anyway, I'm going to use a ATX to test the hardware of the Mac, thanks Deb for the help, and sorry for my bad English.

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Answer 8

Sep 2, 2013 4:52 PM in response to yntzl

Did you ever figure out a solution? I have the exact same problem with my rev. 2 B & W g3. It chimes, everything spins up, there is no power to the USB ports so I can't use the keyboard and the lite on the IDE controller for the optical drive is dim. This is the second B & W that this has happened to for me. I never found a solution for the first one, hence the second. It happened after I chose a start up disk from preferences and restart then shut down with the power button before restart completed.....

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