I recently acquired a B&W G3, looks stock from what I can tell. At power-up, it chimes but does not get farther than that. USB ports not sending power. It recognizes reboot command from ADB keyboard. I tried booting without video and only one stick of RAM, still refuses to boot from CD or HD. What might be the problem? Is it possible it's the PRAM battery? Tried resetting PMU, but I can't zap PRAM because I'm not getting the second chime.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Blue and White G3 - Chime but no power
- Thread starter tattar8
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Could also be a bad processor or logicboard. I had the CPU in my first B&W G3 fail. Its been about 8 years since then, but the symptoms sound similar to what you're seeing as best I can recall.
Im pretty sure its the pram battery but its possible its the board cause one of mine died a few years back.
Check the memory that you are using, if there is no video out put and there is a chime, it is either your video card or the hard disk. Check the hard disk it should not be set to cable select. The boot disk should be set to master and all others to slave.
The Yikes and B&W are almost identical. I once have this problem, it would chime on my Yikes but would not boot. After I have set the boot disk to master did it booted fine.
My .02.
The Yikes and B&W are almost identical. I once have this problem, it would chime on my Yikes but would not boot. After I have set the boot disk to master did it booted fine.
My .02.
I just got a B&W machine recently. It booted into Mac OS 9 when I got it and told me that the clock needed to be set. Did that then restarted it, got the chime and no video. So I replaced the P-RAM battery and it boots every time.
Now I know on 68040 machines you need to have a good P-RAM battery to boot, but didn't think the PowerPC machines did too. :/
Hugh
I'm not sure about the chime, I just thought it wouldn't sound if the logicboard was fried. I don't know a lot about the G3s though.
I think that the startup chime is in the firmware so you may be right about the logic board being fine.... I did have a G3 tower, however never had this issue.
I think that the startup chime is in the firmware so you may be right about the logic board being fine.... I did have a G3 tower, however never had this issue.
If you need a ati rage 128 card or radeon 7000 I could give it too you for the cost of a stamp
I have a 15" PowerBook G4 that, at the moment, produces the exact same issue you described.
I can fire it up and it will give me a chime, and it will attempt to boot (harddrive spins, optical drive checks for content) but it won't give me any graphics. The screen just remains black.
Also, its PRAM battery was indeed dead since it would ask me to reset the time/date every time it would boot up in the past (although it'd get graphical glitches every now and then, so the graphics card was most definitely failing). One day it'd just refuse to boot.
I have ordered a new logic board, which will be here tomorrow, so I'll try and see if it was indeed the graphics card and I'll keep you updated
Also, I just checked and it seems like I indeed have the exact issue you're having: USB devices aren't getting any power and I also can't zap the PRAM since it only gives me one chime.
Last edited:
Wrong.
Titanium PowerBook G4, dead PRAM battery, machine will refuse to power on. Unplug PRAM battery, unit turns on, plug battery back in while unit is on and it usually will recharge. Same goes for Pismos and tons of others.
His issues DO NOT however sound like a PRAM battery problem, but you're spreading misinformation.
Not wrong and not misinformation. I have worked on many early G4's and G3's that work with a dead or missing PRAM battery. Even a few Ti books. All of which don't give a hoot about the PRAM battery status. What could cause a Ti book to not start with a dead PRAM battery would be a bad terminal voltage on the main battery. The PRAM battery won't charge until the main battery has reached its terminal voltage. If the machine won't start without a working PRAM battery, then it means that there is an underlying problem not directly related to the PRAM system.