Q: Pismo not booting, no chime

When you saw the internal battery, do you mean the PRAM battery? (located just outside the cage for the processor card on the lower right, best seen with keyboard off and right expansion bay empty).

A bad PRAM battery wil often not let you fire up, but disconnecting it will let you startup in some cases.

Other culprits are:

1) bad AC Sound Boards (you've probably experienced this with the Wallstreet, I know I did...) (But if you are getting a caps lock light and you are running only on AC power, then this probably isn't it)

2) bad Power Manager Board - this is is the guys thatkeeps the batteries charged - a quick check is to see if the batteries are being charged when computer is off and plugged into AC - (looks for the indicator lights on the battery - they'll light up on their own while being charged)

3) bad MoBo - just went through this on my service call Pismo, only I could get it to power up for a few seconds before it shut itself down. Best recommendation for this is to go over to eBay and buy a complete lower half of a Pismo from a reputable seller (one with a no doa guarantee) and transfer over the new hard drive, processor, memory, battery, optical drive, etc. While you have it open, always a good idea to replace the PRAM battery - just make sure you get one that already has the connectors attached because they are a pain to splice and shrink tube (Been there) - I got some reasonably priced Newer-branded ($22 or so) PRAM batteries about six months ago from OWC and they work fine.

Having the right tools always helps - a proper take-apart guide, T-8 torx screwdriver (about $4.00 at Sears), a #1 Phillips (three screws), a glue stick (for dipping the head of the T-8 driver to bettter hold the little tiny screws so they aren't bouncing all over the kitchen floor) and blue painter's tape to tape the screws on the part they came off of because after a while, you just can't remember where they all go - also very helpful for bottom case screws - I just fully loosen them and then apply a piece of tape over the whole trapping the screw in it's proper location. Success is not judged by if it works when you are done, but by whether or not you have any pieces leftover!

Hope this helps

Nick,

There are several components that can be involved in a no-boot:

DC/sound card
power supply card
logic board
microprocessor

If you can find a "headless" Pismo or an inexpensive working Pismo for parts, it may be cheaper in the long run than trying to guess the failed part.

These PowerBooks have VGA-style Display output on the back, so you can use any old display to get them going.

Nick,

I would remove the microprocessor card again and carefully examine the multi-pin connector on the bottom side with a magnifying glass...look for any bent pins. I only suggest this since you have done such a thorough job of troubleshooting. A bent pin can prevent the full seating of the card and/or its proper operation.

When you seat the card, do you hear a click as it snaps in place? If not, make sure the top memory module is removed, then press down very hard on the right side next to the HD and closest to the palm rest.

Since the 'book worked prior to the HD replacement, and you removed just the CPU card + HD...and I had to guess...it would seem logical that the microprocessor card is the problem. Possibly it suffered a static discharge as you were handling it during the swap.

The official word on the bottom memory slot on the PowerBook G3 series (of which the Pismo is the high end) is that it is a factory-only memory slot. Only Apple-certified technicians are supposed to remove the processor card.

I am not trying to malign your technique, only to point out that Apple sees seating the processor connector as troublesome, and did not want mere mortals to be removing it because it was trouble to get it back together again correctly.