SOLVED: PowerBook boots to black screen

[MrCheeto]

Sounds hopeless, but worth a shot.

It's a PowerBook G4, 15" model A1046, and this is what's going on.

Powers on, checks combo drive, gongs, no flickering or lighting on screen, period.

Tried a PRAM reset several times but it NEVER gongs a second time. I tried booting to Open Firmware and typing mac-boot, blind, but nothing. The keyboard clearly works, as the caps lock light works.

The hard drive spins up, the fans run at normal speeds, so everything else is clearly functional.

[kepner]

Can you plug in an external monitor to see if anything shows up? (Closing the lid immediately after powering it on should force it to use the external as the main monitor. A USB keyboard/mouse might be handy in this case.)

Does it shut off by itself, or are you saying that it (possibly) boots normally and you just can't see anything?

[MrCheeto]

I'll plug it up to an external display when I find an S-Video cable. (If I remember correct, it's right next to my Laserdisc player in 1997.)

Once it starts up and gongs, it does nothing more. I have no way of knowing what's going on because it won't reboot after "mac-reboot" command or respond at all to a PRAM reset.

[MrCheeto]

I solved the issue! I wrote about it in my blog, if you need a hand.

[MacMaister]

Originally Posted by MrCheeto

I solved the issue! I wrote about it in my blog, if you need a hand.

How did you fix the issue? What's your blog's website?

I got the same problem with a 7 year old Powerbook G4.

[oat9002]

Where is the blog?

[MisterKeeks]

Originally Posted by oat9002

Where is the blog?

I would send a PM; he probably won't return to this thread.

[iThinkergoiMac]

Originally Posted by MrCheeto

I solved the issue! I wrote about it in my blog, if you need a hand.

[sarcasm]VERY useful! We ALL know what the address for your blog is![/sarcasm]

Honestly, though, it's not even in your profile. How are we supposed to get there? And if you took the time to write it on your blog, why didn't you take the time to copy over the relevant bits, instead of forcing users to visit a different site to find the answer? You've marked this thread as solved, but the solution isn't in here. That's very misleading.

[PowerPCMacMan]

Maybe he was a scammer.

Originally Posted by iThinkergoiMac

[sarcasm]VERY useful! We ALL know what the address for your blog is![/sarcasm]

Honestly, though, it's not even in your profile. How are we supposed to get there? And if you took the time to write it on your blog, why didn't you take the time to copy over the relevant bits, instead of forcing users to visit a different site to find the answer? You've marked this thread as solved, but the solution isn't in here. That's very misleading.

[Falstaff]

I think this might be his blog...but not 100% sure...

http://idecker.posterous.com/pages/about-mac-services

Looks like it's tied to a computer repair business. Also, I don't see anything from back when this thread started.

[MrCheeto]

Up til recently, I lost my email and login for this user. Your requests ended up in the great dev/null in the sky...

OK, I'm not a scammer. At one point I had a blog and at one point the post was in that blog. Receiving messages almost literally every day with people crying that I somehow owe them an answer was really, really aggravating.

So, to the issue at hand:

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If your PowerBook has a black screen and the sleep indicator is on, you either have a narcoleptic Mac or logic board issues. There are too many posts about NAPS, so use the search and somebody will have answered your questions.

As for the PowerBook that had no indicator, I shut the laptop down and did a PMU and PRAM reset. With the laptop powered off, I then press the power button and immediately close the lid and leave it for five minutes. When I opened it, the display was alight with a glory like that of an angels slick waxed bottom.
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If this doesn't solve your problem, I regret that I can't help more.

Wow, I got more emails about this than any other issue besides iBook GPU's...