PowerBook G3 won't boot

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PowerBook G3 won't boot

I have a PowerBook G3 (M4753) that boots to a black screen. The battery is dead so the only way to power it on is with the charging cable. The fan spins at maximum speed and the hard drive sounds like it's spinning as well. Pressing the power button won't turn the PowerBook off, not until I pull the charging cable or when I press the PMU reset key combination. When I reset the PMU, I can't power it on again until I take the computer off the charging cable and plug it back in. I've removed the PRAM battery, replaced a faulty DC/Sound card, and I've tried switching the RAM modules but I get the same result. From what I've managed to find out so far, the PowerBook should at least manage to play a startup sound or show something on the screen, but I can't find anything about spinning fans that won't stop when booting to a black screen. Does anyone have an idea of what might be wrong with this computer?

PowerBook

Posted on Jun 10, 2015 12:25 PM

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Answer 1

Klaus1

Level 9

52,749 points

Jun 11, 2015 1:58 AM in response to osakamono

A new PRAM battery?

A replacement Power Module?

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Answer 2

osakamono Author

Level 1

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Jun 11, 2015 9:18 AM in response to Klaus1

From what I gather, a new PRAM battery won't affect boot up, not to mention that they're exceedingly hard to find online now. I have a spare power module, however after reassembling the PowerBook yesterday, I managed to get it to actually boot. Apparently, the daughterboard with the processor is finicky so I really had to force it down into the logic board, pushing it down a lot harder than I was comfortable doing. The thing is, now it starts booting into OS 9.2 until it gets about a quarter of the way when the computer throws a bus error message. Booting without extensions in turn throws an illegal instruction message. I think the RAM might be bad or there's something wrong with the hard drive, but I'm only guessing here. I tried booting to the CD drive but holding the C key doesn't do anything. I can hear the disc spinning in the drive but I don't see a way to boot to it. I can boot into open firmware but I'm not sure what I can do when I get there.

I have a second G3 arriving that allegedly boots properly, so I'll swap the parts around from the problem unit to isolate the issue. If anyone has any experience with bus errors or illegal instruction errors on a G3, I'd like to hear it since the messages don't tell me anything.

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Answer 3

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,696 points

Jun 11, 2015 6:13 PM in response to osakamono

The M4753 "Wallstreet", unlike the later G3 PowerBooks, needs the PRAM battery, the trick of disconnecting the PRAM battery to get a boot that works on Lombards and Pismos doesn't work on the Wallstreet.

I've replaced PRM batts in three Wallstreets for a friend over the last 7-8 years but there is a problem today: the trusted sources for new Wallstreet PRAM batteries--Other World Computing and iFixit--no longer sells them. You'll have a quite a search ahead of you, and will probably find that most such replacement batteries offered are used/pulled and are probably deader than Napoleon.

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Answer 4

osakamono Author

Level 1

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Jun 12, 2015 6:01 AM in response to Allan Jones

Ah, I see now. That's unfortunate. I stripped down the functional G3 and swapped in the RAM and hard drive from the nonoperational G3. Aside from a couple of hiccups, it booted up successfully. This one is a PDQ, so is it okay to disconnect the PRAM? The weird thing about the Wallstreet is that it looks like it came cobbled together with different parts from the G3 series. There's bronze paint on the edges of the shell where the keyboard sits, the monitor has the white Apple logo, but like you're saying, Allan, the nonboot symptoms are in line with a Wallstreet model. I'm going to try to find a PRAM battery as a last expense to get this G3 working again before giving up.

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Answer 5

Allan Jones

Level 9

68,696 points

Jun 12, 2015 6:41 AM in response to osakamono

Wallstreets (a "PDQ" was model M3553, not M4753) can act VERY strange when the PRAM battery is dead. Of the three I maintained for a friend, one would not boot from a valid OSX install CD but would from a third-party bootable CD when the PRAM batt was dead. The other would not charge the battery until I replaced its PRAM battery. We servived the third one proactively to avoid our discovering any more strange behaviors!

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Answer 6

osakamono Author

Level 1

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Jun 15, 2015 5:28 PM in response to Allan Jones

Okay, so in the end, I've managed to get two working G3s after shopping around for extra parts. The Wallstreet booted up right away after installing a new 256 RAM module without any of the previous hang-ups. The PDQ has been going steady for about a week now, the only difference being that it has the Wallstreet's original RAM and hard drive. I haven't actually had to replace the PRAM in either machine, after all the tinkering I did in the first days I had these computers. Maybe I've just gotten lucky? In any case, thanks for the tips.

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Answer 7

jim_e

Level 1

0 points

Aug 3, 2015 4:01 PM in response to Allan Jones

I think my question is similar, but the symptoms are not exactly the same. My Powerbook G3 Lombard does not complete boot at all. It chimes the startup chord, and then goes to gray boot screen, eventually to spinning wheel that goes on forever (I let it run for over an hour once). It seems to check in with the CD drive right at startup, but after a few quick CD sounds it does not start to spin for bootup.

Holding C or Option-C at boot does not result in CD boot to the Panther bootable CD (home burned CD). Booting to single user mode, the machine hangs with three failed extension errors: Failed to load extension com.apple.driver.AppleBmacEthernet, com.apple.driver.ApplePMU, and com.apple.driver.iokit.IONetworkingFamily. After about 2 minutes, it then hangs at the usual prompt, -sh-2.05b#, with a non-blinking cursor that takes no input, and cannot escape.

At any rate, I'd love to see if I can boot this Lombard to CD so I can erase and install operating system from zero. I pulled the PRAM battery, but the failed boot remains the same--gray screen that eventually goes to eternally spinning wheel and no action on the CD drive. . Any advice?

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