Powerbook 3400c.

[Theiving]

I recently had a friend of mine give me 2 3400c Powerbooks along with half a dozen batteries, 3 cd roms, 2 powerpacks, and some cd's that my PC will not read.
If I plug one of the books into the powerpack it will turn on, I get a pointer, and what looks like a floppy disk in the center of the screen with a ? that blinks on and off, that is all I ever get. The pointer does move.
At this point I would think I need to load a cd to get things going, but that doesn't seem to do anything either.
Can anyone tell me what to do from here?
Also, as dumb as this may sound, where is the power button?
I am a pc guy, but I thought these Mac's might be nice to get my 4 and 6 year old boy's started out on. Start them out on the right foot.
Thanks!

 

[RacerX]

The main power button is above the delete on the keyboard.

As for getting to know your new 3400's... the user manuals would be the best place to start.

PowerBook 3400c User Manual​

From there, look around this forum and ask questions. There are still many of us using them actively... well, I still use mine actively at least.

 

[CanadaRAM]

The ? means that the machine is looking for an operating system on one of the accessible drives, and it is not finding one.

You can boot from CD or floppy, if you have an OS 7 (Hey team, that was current for this machine, yes?) bootable CD or floppy or SCSI hard drive.

Once booted, you can format and install the OS onto the internal hard drive, if it is operational.

Edit: Own question answered: OS 7.6 through 9.1 are compatible. Warning, the OS disk has to havbe a machine specific enabler to boot the machine, or must be a universal system. A factory 7.6 disk from a different model Mac may not work.

 

[0007776]

I think that the folder with the question mark is saying that it can't find the HD, so it may need a new one. someone else who knows more about them than me can correct me if I am wrong.

 

[CanadaRAM]

I think that the folder with the question mark is saying that it can't find the HD, so it may need a new one. someone else who knows more about them than me can correct me if I am wrong.

Well it may need a new one, or it may just need reformatted.

 

[RacerX]

Hey team, that was current for this machine, yes?

It shipped with a machine specific version of Mac OS 7.6 or 7.6.1 as I recall... so if you don't have the original installation media for the hardware, the minimum generic OS is Mac OS 8.0. It can run up to Mac OS 9.1 without issues as I recall, and there are helpers to get it up to 9.2.2.

I run Mac OS 8.6 on mine.

The specs for the different models can be found here:

PowerBook 3400c/180
PowerBook 3400c/200
PowerBook 3400c/240​

I think that the folder with the question mark is saying that it can't find the HD

The "folder question mark" icon was for systems like the Blue & White G3 or slot loading iMacs or newer.

 

[dpaanlka]

It shipped with a machine specific version of Mac OS 7.6 or 7.6.1 as I recall... so if you don't have the original installation media for the hardware, the minimum generic OS is Mac OS 8.0. It can run up to Mac OS 9.1 without issues as I recall, and there are helpers to get it up to 9.2.2.

I run Mac OS 8.6 on mine.

The specs for the different models can be found here:

PowerBook 3400c/180
PowerBook 3400c/200
PowerBook 3400c/240​

The "folder question mark" icon was for systems like the Blue & White G3 or slot loading iMacs or newer.

I believe the 3400c shipped with a special version of 7.6, and was compatible with the universal 7.6.1 and up installs... right through 9.1.

Blinking question mark floppy means hard drive is dead OR you have no system installed OR you have an invalid system installed.

Also, an old Mac is related to new Macs essentially in name only. Learning how to use them is still perfectly fine, but you'll still be fairly lost if you find yourself on any Mac running Mac OS X (10)... which could be any Mac made from late 1998-ish and up.

 

[Theiving]

Thanks everyone for the great replies!
At least now I know how to turn it on and off.
I will do some tinkering, and try out the disks I got with the books to see if I can get one going or not.
Does the Powerbook 3400c had a BIOS like PCs do? Where I can tell it to boot from the CD or Floopy (neither of mine have floopys).
I will keep you all posted and thanks again!

 

[dpaanlka]

Does the Powerbook 3400c had a BIOS like PCs do?

No

Where I can tell it to boot from the CD

Insert a bootable CD, restart and hold down "C" until it starts reading from the CD like crazy.