PowerBook G4 suddenly the chime doesn't work but sound does

[nickdalzell1]

I had my PowerBook G4 in storage most of the summer (busy at work haven't had much energy or time to even mess around) and when last I used it, I was using the Mail app to pick up Gmail and I know the chime worked then. I also recall it making the chime waking from sleep.

I got it out again beginning last week to try making it a daily driver for small tasks such as quick searches and some forums, and reddit (seeing as my MBP has deemed Reddit unsafe and no way to work around that, something about HSTS or something).

It powered up fine, although it took a few hard shutdowns and restarts to get it up again (the hard drive hates memory cache with 128MB RAM causing it to beachball and click). the chime isn't working! At first I thought I had it muted. But I checked and volume is up 100% and testing the sounds works fine. It plays Podcasts fine so the speakers are fine. What killed the chime?! It's one of those little things I enjoy about it!

 

[swamprock]

Hold alt-cmd-p-r on boot up. Let it cycle/reboot three times, then let go of the keys. This clears the PRAM and you should hear the chime on the first reboot.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I pulled the PRAM battery back in 2014 to make the thing power on (it was stone dead before that) back in 2014. That means it clears itself every power-down and bootup. In fact, the only way the clock is correct is via NTP sync.

 

[DeltaMac]

Did you leave the PRAM/backup battery out (not installed for years?) Those were rechargeable on many older powerbooks, IIRC. Battery pack installed, main battery out, plug in the charger and let it sit (without the main battery) for 24-48 hours. Might charge, and could help. (In some ways, the backup/PRAM battery is more important to be installed and working than the main battery.
Do you ever get a boot chime during a PRAM reset? Hold Opt-Command-P-R immediately after you press and release the power button to boot your system. If you don't hear a boot chime, keep holding the same 4 keys for 60 seconds. Might take a couple of power cycles before you hear a boot chime, so hang on the keys for a minute or so before giving up. Do you ever get a boot chime?

 

[nickdalzell1]

Haven't tried. Right now I don't want to interrupt what I have open (paused podcasts, website reading comments on Reddit, etc). If I install the PRAM battery it immediately shuts off and won't power on again. Doesn't do anything hitting the power button--won't even charge the battery pack with it installed. It's dead shorted, a multimeter shows 0.0 volts DC. It's been out of the system since 2014. What's odd is it boots fine, and the sound works. Any issues I've seen online also have issues with speakers/sound not working or the system not booting. It worked fine in 2019 December.

I just started using it again since last week. I've had to force-shutdown and restart (hold power button until it turns off, wait 5 seconds, turn it back on) due to hard drive memory cache beachballing and it never chimed once. It just shows the grey screen with Apple logo, the circle animation below that, Welcome To Mac OS X and it boots normally.

It will never power on, battery pack in or not, with the PRAM battery installed. It won't do jack, not click, no lights, no anything. Stone dead. I left it a week when I first got it all plugged in, going by info online before reading a post saying pull the PRAM battery out and try again. Worked then.