Screen dead on startup

[Andy G]

My kids use my old Beige G3 desktop with a Macintosh 16" screen for games and stuff.

Recently it froze on startup, and I had to pull the mains plug (ouch), since nothing would close it down.

Now, on startup, I get the chime, monitor light is green, but screen remains black. I have checked cables, and checked monitor on a different system and it works, so problem appears to be Beige G3 desktop machine. I have tried booting from Techtool Pro but still no picture.

Can anyone help? (Kids are eying up my G4 Powerbook!!!!)

Thanks,

Andy

 

[stoid]

If the monitor is not plugged into anything, and you turn it on, does it give you some diagnostic message to tell you that the monitor works, but is getting no signal? Sounds like you might have a fried graphics card. I don't know what kind you'd need, but unless it's some special old kind that they don't make anymore, I'd guess that you could get one for $50-75.

 

[Sayer]

Shut it down completely and press the power button, but be ready to press some keys on the keyboard.

After pressing the power button immediately hold down the Command-Option-P-R keys. Wait for a second startup chime to go off.

Let go of the keys and see if the monitor then comes up. The resolution may be wrong or some settings (clock) may be off, nothing really "happened" it just needs to be reset once again.

If this keeps happening the battery may be dead and needs to be replaced is all.

 

[Andy G]

Thanks everyone. I have not had a moment this weekend to try any of these, but will asap.

Regards,

Andy G

 

[Andy G]

I've tried zapping the pram but don't even get a second chime, despite holding the keys for about 5 minutes!

On normal attempts to startup via keyboard and button on desktop, I get the chime, and hear the drive spinning but get no response from screen. Screen works on another machine.

Any more thoughts?

Thanks again,

Andy

 

[emw]

I've tried zapping the pram but don't even get a second chime, despite holding the keys for about 5 minutes!

On normal attempts to startup via keyboard and button on desktop, I get the chime, and hear the drive spinning but get no response from screen. Screen works on another machine.

Any more thoughts?

Thanks again,

Andy

Try starting with extensions off (hold down the Shift key when restarting). If it locked up on startup, it could be a conflict of sorts (are you running OS9 or OSX?).

Also, do you have another monitor that you can attach to the G3 to make sure it isn't something strange with that monitor?

 

[applemacdude]

Open the G3 up and press the CUDA switch that is near the PCI slots, it is a red button...