Dead Powerbook G3 firewire (Pismo) -- battery issue?

[snowleopard]

Took mine to a authorized Mac repair. They told me my Pismo was dead. So I put it in a closet where it sat...for the last two years.

I came across this thread, tried it, and the battery trick works! Whoohoo! It's like Christmas!

 

[anesbitt]

worked for me

No need to even replace the backup battery. Remove the keyboard & right hand slot device (DVD/CD usually) and there is a battery in there (your backup battery). Simply unplug the battery from the logic board, plug in the power adapter and press the power button. Should boot up (did when I had this problem a year ago) and then you should plug back in the connection on the backup battery and leave the machine on for a while so as to recharge the battery.

Thank you! Brilliant tip - just saved my old G3 PowerBook from the bin.http://cdn.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/smile.gif

 

[sossy]

Old Pismo reborn

I would never have believed it! There was I thinking the old Pismo was long since dead when I found this thread. Could hardly believe eyes and ears when PRAM battery disconnection worked and it came back to life. (It was a bit of a shock seeing all kinds of stuff I had not seen or thought of for 3 generations of laptop though....)

 

[reddrag0n]

Well, i have one for you guys. Bought it fully working, 128 mb ram, 400 mhz cpu, and 40 gb hard drive, pulled out the cpu to swap in more ram, and put the cpu back into place, now i get a chime, but no video. Black screen.
Now i can hear the hard drive kick up, i have a light on the caps lock button, but thats it. unplugged the cpu, pressed it back in with some force, same outcome.
tried the pram reset keys, still same outcome.
i have tried the pram battery unplug, nothing, same outcome. chime, but no video.
have put the original ram back in, same outcome.
press the reset button in for 10 seconds on the back of the laptop, same outcome.
tried different lcd screen with inverter and display cable. same outcome.
even shone a flashlight on the back of the lcd, and no logo when booting. it chimes, but no video.
i put an os9 cd in and booted from that, i can hear the cd spin and access/read, but no video.
i have hooked up an external monitor and no video to that. still just chimes and no screen. i have torn this computer apart, put it all back together after several months, and still the same outcome, chimes but no screen.

am i missing something here? the pram battery is still unplugged and thats all i'm getting.

*edit*
pulled out all the ram, and reseated the cpu. i got a single tone stating no ram was installed, and nothing on the screen.
i put a single stick in on the top ram slot, and it chimes, but no screen. the hard drive is still doing something but i can't see for the life of me what it's doing.
i'm going to see if TDM works, and if not, then i know to get a new logicboard.

 

[reddrag0n]

Well, yet another update, after i posted the last post, i closed the laptop lid and let it sit for a few days.
I came back so see the sleep LED pulsing, so there is something going on. I lifted the lid and heard the cd spin up and read, but still nothing on the screen or the external monitor. i pressed the brightness keys to no avail and the volume keys sound for volume up and volume down. tracing on the trackpad did nothing from what i can tell (due to me not being able to see whats on the screen).

 

[AphoticD]

Is there an image on screen if you shine a torch through the logo at the rear of the display?

If that’s the case it could be a failed backlight. I would try reseating the backlight cable at the logic board and looking for capacitor failure at the inverter board.

Otherwise, if no display at all, it could be either the logic board or cpu card (rom failure or similar). Try sourcing another cpu card first (preferably 500mhz), then at least if that doesn’t resolve it and you need to replace the logic board, you’ve got yourself a cpu upgrade.

Out of interest, I would suggest removing the HDD, install into another PowerPC Mac to boot OS X, enable screen sharing, reinstall back into the Pismo and boot up again. You can then remote/VNC in to the Pismo over Ethernet and check system profiler for video card details.

Edit: for OS9, you can try os9vnc, set it up and put an alias in Startup Items.

 

[reddrag0n]

Is there an image on screen if you shine a torch through the logo at the rear of the display?

If that’s the case it could be a failed backlight. I would try reseating the backlight cable at the logic board and looking for capacitor failure at the inverter board.

Otherwise, if no display at all, it could be either the logic board or cpu card (rom failure or similar). Try sourcing another cpu card first (preferably 500mhz), then at least if that doesn’t resolve it and you need to replace the logic board, you’ve got yourself a cpu upgrade.

Out of interest, I would suggest removing the HDD, install into another PowerPC Mac to boot OS X, enable screen sharing, reinstall back into the Pismo and boot up again. You can then remote/VNC in to the Pismo over Ethernet and check system profiler for video card details.

Edit: for OS9, you can try os9vnc, set it up and put an alias in Startup Items.

i tried the light on the back of the logo, cant see much but i didnt see anything. as i stated before, i tried a new lcd and inverter (not installed into the lid housing) and there was no image. i think i will try the hdd in a different mac. i have a pb g4 i can toss it into and enable screen sharing. i already have a new cpu and lobo coming from usedmac. if anything, those parts should work.

 

[reddrag0n]

well, i pulled out the hard drive, still chimes and nothing on the screen. still black. going to install the hdd into my pb g4 and do the whole remote login and see what that does

 

[reddrag0n]

well, i will say i think it's boiling down to a fried lobo. screen sharing could not see it, put in the right address, had made sure it had a specific address i could log into, nothing. the firewall i made sure was off, all sharing and vnc settings were correct and still nothing. even target disk mode resulted in no results. good thing a new board is coming in the mail (i hope)

 

[reddrag0n]

Well, i got some good news and some bad news, replaced the lobo on my pismo and it works. Booted right up but now my inverter board is fried. i get a display but i need to shine a flashlight onto the screen in order to see whats on it. At least it works, i am happy about that.

 

[reddrag0n]

Well, i ordered an inverter board, waiting for it to come in the mail, but since i have it hooked up to an external monitor, almost 4 out of 5 times when i boot the pismo, i get this screen... (see attached photo).
It looks like a KP, but it doesn't fully load and it immediately shuts down afterwards. Only way i can get it to boot properly is to do a PRAM reset then it will load fine after. Once shut down or restarted, it will do the same thing again.

I'm lost, any help would be helpful.