We swapped our batteries and mine began to charge once it was placed in my friend's Pismo. I tried to boot with his battery… nada!!

We swapped our chargers, both yo-yo shaped and, again, nada. His Pismo will charge, but mine won't.

We tried the PRAM removal, the PM reset and… nothing happened.

I have removed the audio card and replaced it with the spare one i bought several years ago but still can't get any sign of the battery charging or the Pismo starting up.

I DO have the original processor -G3/400- that I kept when I upgraded to the 500, but I don't know if a bad processor can prevent the battery from charging, so I guess that I'll wait for your response before proceeding.

Thanks in advance!!

⟐ Commented May 13, 2025 at 3:01 MST

I have tried pressing the Restart button (PMU). I have also tried starting and holding down the apple, option P and R buttons and waiting for two chimes (tip from the PowerBook manual). Same result.

I have tried to start up with the PRAM battery removed (and Airport Card removed). I have also removed and reseated the processor.

The machine does seem to be making some sound (whirring of some sort can be heard).

Can anyone think of a particular failure which would give this result?

Pismo 400MHz, 512 MB Ram, OS X 10.3.9

UPDATE:This is a follow on to my question (Pismo will,not start).

I thought that I had got to the bottom of the problem (hard drive failure)but now something has happened to open it up all over again.

I have tried swapping parts from a second 'spares' machine. I have tried to use the hard drive from this but I have been getting the same result as before. When I took the hard drive from the original machine and put it into the spare, it fired up first time!

Any thoughts on what is stopping the first machine from firing up properly?

Anyone?!

⟐ Commented March 02, 2025 at 19:24 MST

⟐ Answered August 03, 2024 at 4:34 MST

⟐ Commented July 07, 2024 at 16:02 MST

⟐ Commented June 28, 2024 at 6:59 MST

I have my old PowerBook G3 that is unable to boot from its HDD or CD.

Not sure what is the problem, with it, the HDD can be read on my Linux computer through a USB dock, so it is working.

I also ran the Disk Utility in VM (installed Mac OS X) and it gave me success so the installed OS on it should be fine. I also double-checked under WIN10 with MACDRIVE 10/11 and it said nothing is wrong with it.

Now the computer has been sitting for around 10 years or so because the charge it came with back in 2002 died on me. So, now I bought a new one (apple-black) it is brand new, and surprisingly my battery that came with the machine is fully charged by this charger, and it can work without power from it fine. The button batteries inside also charged but will leave the machine on the charger for a few days having it plugged into the power outlet.

So, I got a new (brand new) 512MB RAM module and installed it into the lower slot but tried both the upper and lower with no effect on the boot.

The DVD super drive is detected in open firmware when I type to list devices, but it does not show up in the boot manager - when you use the option and power.

So, I wanted to see NVEDIT and it looks like runs the command but nothing happens, it does not bring up any file to look through it.

I tried the back reset and the three OF reset commands too, they worked fine but still can`t access the NVEDIT file.

Tried option + command + p +r and it reboots fine, but still nothing happens.

With the power and option held down, I see the blue screen with a refresh on the left and the arrow pointing to the right but no ROM or HDD option is present.

So, now I plan to keep the machine charged and wait for the button batteries to charge up fully and see maybe it will solve my issues. I tried unplugging it but nothing happened.

I found this official repair guide for the Powerbook G3 series maybe useful;

https://www.applerepairmanuals.com/the_m...

⟐ Commented June 03, 2024 at 23:07 MST

I plugged it in and I shined a flashlight behind the screen and is showed many lines flashing back and forth on the display. They were horizontal and then vertical but never both. I left it for a week to see what would happen. It turned on booted and the backlight turned off when it got to Mac Os 10.3.9. I couldn’t do anything because both the keyboard and trackpad were unresponsive. I left it for an hour and came back and it had turned off. Then I left it sitting for 2 months and it turned on with the backlight and a responsive keyboard and track button(The trackpad never worked). It worked with a mouse for about 20 seconds and then the backlight turned off. Then the track button and keyboard stopped working. I plugged in an external keyboard and mouse and they work just fine.

The backlight kept turning on and off for a while and then I figured out that the track button had started working again. But not the keyboard. I pressed the track button a few times and the internal keyboard started to work. Then it stopped. I figured out that my pressing the track button made the keyboard work. When the keyboard stopped working it would remain in whatever state it was in. If the caps lock was on it would stay on. Then it stopped working while I was typing and it got stuck spamming the T key. I haven’t been able to get the track button or internal keyboard to work now. It is just stuck spamming T. If I turn it off I don’t think it will turn on again for a long time so I will leave it plugged in overnight.

Sorry for the long story, this is the weirdest laptop I have ever worked on. I was wondering If there was anyway to narrow down what was wrong with it because I’m very confused by it. Also sorry if my writing was bad.

⟐ Answered May 30, 2024 at 4:29 MST

That's as far as I went, it just won't boot up, resetting the PRAM with Option + Command + R + P doesn't work neither, as you need the computer to boot up for that.

⟐ Commented March 14, 2024 at 9:44 MST

I want this Lombard restored to its factory software (Mac OS 8.6). How can I proceed? I have tried BootMania on a MDD G4, but I cannot add or create any disk image in BootMania for some reason (the CREATE IMAGE button is always grayed out).

How would I proceed?

Uhm, unless I misunderstand you, HFS+ was introduced with Mac OS 8.1 in 1997. The PowerBook G3 Lombard shipped in 1999 with Mac OS 8.6 so it supports both HFS and HFS+ drives natively. Also, don't worry, we can try anything you want with the 6GB IDE HDD, I've dd'ed it to a disk image, formatted the whole drive and flashed the disk image back in it and the Lombard still boots OSX just fine as if the drive was never formatted, so we're ready to try anything with that 6GB IDE HDD.

Tomorrow, I will try to go to a local electronics shop to see if I could find a 25 years old HDI-30 to DB-25 SCSI adapter or cable. This would enable me to use a PiSCSI or a SCSI2SD both of which I own. Even if such an adapter cost 30$, it would still be much cheaper and easier to buy than an unobtainium Lombard DVD-ROM drive that still reads anything lol

I found a HDI-30 to DB-25 SCSI adapter for the Lombard in an electronics shop that had very, VERY old parts. This was their last adapter and the box was as yellow as a banana! ;-) But it worked and I installed Mac OS 9.2.2 thru my PiSCSI. Thanks.

⟐ Answer unaccepted July 28, 2023 at 15:47 MST

How can I unlock it again without having to dismantle the whole thing, is there a way? At least, it seems to me that when you remove the heat shield you can see the interior of the module. But I don't know what to look for.

Any help is much appreciated. It's the first time this happens to me, and while I can still use the inferior slot, I would like to use them both.

Thank you!

Ok, after a couple hours I learnt that you can use the little hole beside the slot, not only to release a card but also, to release a locked mechanism. So I inserted the end of a paperclip, heard a noise "Ding" and it was working as always again…

Hope this helps someone.

⟐ Edited by author April 15, 2023 at 15:21 MST

Thanks,

Derek

⟐ Commented February 24, 2023 at 10:05 MST

⟐ Answer edited October 05, 2022 at 11:09 MST

Why would the module [drive?] read a CD and not a DVD?

am i having a software problem, setting problem, or hardware [module/optical laser?] problem>

any suggestions as to what i can do to get the dvd module to read a movie.

My System Profiler shows that a "LG DVD-ROM DRN-80808" is connected in my ATA device tree. It shows that the Drive is CD-ROM/DVD-ROM. The protocol is ATAPI and that it has "Removable Disk"

i tried using a CD optical drive cleaning disk even though it has been able to recognize a CD, just not a DVD. Doing so didn't help.

i have tried numerous movie DVD's, hoping for a miracle. those that were recognized before are no longer recognized. i tried two DVD's that were home-made [using blank DVD's] but they did not work either.

i don't have any data DVD's but i will most assuredly try one once i get my hands on one.

i am sorta flustered because the optical laser can recognize a CD but not a DVD. Why would this happen? i would think if it didn't recognize one, it would not recognize the other. [when i put in a CD, it opens up quicktime player, but it is supposed to open up DVD player when i insert a DVD].

Also for a few days, it recognized movie DVD's but then it stopped doing so. i find it amazing that it would tease me as working but then just stopped working - after only 1 and 2/3 movie. it seems as if i did something to get it to work but then when i had to force quit dvd player, it just stopped working.

i bought it from a private party through amazon, one who sells other products such as books, VHS movies, movie DVD's through Amazon but normally not computer parts. this drive is from a powerbook that went south on her. she doesn't have another to swap out. i also am thinking of keeping it for the CD player works and i don't want to put the old one [the one i swapped out] back in as it played neither CD nor DVD's and the outer door was becoming detached [also bad feng shui (sic)]

i thank you both - rdkline and machead3 for your imput.

machead3, i didn't mean to answer my own question. i just didn't know how to add additional information or make a comment as i am totally new to this website and i STILL don't see where i click to make a comment or add information. i have reviewed this entire page and still don't know how to do anything but answer.

i also see a thick line through my "answer" which obscures some of the text. i don't now where that line came from, why it appears, nor how to remove it. i am as flustered by this website as i am by my DVD drive.

⟐ Answer deleted August 04, 2022 at 9:07 MST

Does anyone have any OpenFirmware tricks to force this to boot?

⟐ Answered August 28, 2020 at 14:03 MST

Also, I read that two browsers I am unfamiliar with (Classila and Icab 3) are compatible here? Has anyone ot there had any experience with these or others that may be useful here.

Thanks,

Ray

⟐ Answer edited August 18, 2020 at 6:35 MST

⟐ Answer edited August 09, 2020 at 4:03 MST

I am having a pismo with 12GB hdd, tried to replace a 160GB, it goes smooth on the whole process of replacing from beginning till end. When finish everything, pressed the power buttom, then there's nothing happen, no chime, no sound, looks like completely dead, but the battery light and caps keys are full green and lighted, means there's power connection.

Tried to put back the 12GB hdd, again, nothing happen.

Also did the reset and no difference.

I guess something not connecting properly, any ideas?

⟐ Commented July 04, 2020 at 19:50 MST

I'm running os 9.0.4 and just installed an airport card. The laptop seems to see the router SKYWZGWQ but when I input the password I get its not correct. See attached picture.

I've just started upgrading my powerbook which I bought in 2001 and need any and every bit of advice….

Thanks

Martin

⟐ Commented May 10, 2020 at 9:43 MST