Pismo won't start up

Did you make sure the PMU was seated properly? thats the board under the trackpad/button, right on top of where the CD/DVD connects to the motherboard.

I'm thinking something is not connected properly.

Here's some helpful laptop sites.

Fix It Guides for Mac Laptops & Mini
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/
The guides can be viewed on-line or you can download a PDF file.

How to Upgrade, Repair, Disassemble an Apple/Macintosh Laptop or Notebook
http://repair4laptop.org/disassembly_apple.html

PowerBookTech
http://www.powerbooktech.com/

Cheers, Tom

Here's some info from the Service Manual

Power Computer won’t power up

1. Restart computer by pressing the reset button on the back of
the unit. Wait five seconds and press the Power key.
2. Try known-good power adapter.
3. Try known-good, firmly seated, charged battery. Repeat.
4. Connect power adapter and restart computer in 3-4 minutes.
5. Disconnect internal keyboard completely and try powering up
unit. If unit powers up, replace keyboard.
6. Verify microprocessor card is firmly seated.
7. Replace sound card.
8. Replace power supply card.
9. Replace microprocessor board.
10. Replace I/O logic board.

Sometimes when I let my G3 Powerbook run all the way down and sit for a while (maybe a week or two) without charging, it's D.O.A.

I've found that removing the main battery and then leaving it plugged into the wall adapter for 2 days or so usually snaps mine back to life.

Hi David,
We had a bunch of Pismo's that would not turn on where I used to work... almost all of them were actually fine. Here is the trick.
1. Leave the main battery in the bay
2. Unplug the PRAM battery
3. AC adapter plugged into both the laptop and the wall
4. Ready Get Set Go - press the power button over and over as fast as
you can until it turns on (average is 10 times or so)
5. I suggest immediately pressing and holding the following four keys
until you hear the start up chime two or three times
"alt/opt"
"apple"
"P"
"R"
PM to let me know how it goes, I'm just passing through looking for tips on repairing G3 iBook Logic Board. This trick works 99% of the time. ~J

Thank you everyone for all of the very informative and helpful suggestions. I ended up replacing the Power Card (got to love ebay) and, whether that was the problem or I reconnected something correctly this time in the process, the trusty old Pismo is working fine.

I really must apologize for not reporting back sooner. Thanks again to all who posted suggestions. This is a great thread to keep on file (so that hopefully I'll never need to refer to it!)

David

I am having this problem except I have a 3400c. I am currently following the first set of methods, but is there anything else I can try? The light on the top of the display glows solidly green when it is plugged in, even after a reset.

Beyond the usual Power Manager reset, unplugging the PRAM battery is probably the single most useful action for these sorts of symptoms.

dan k

when you unplug the pram battery do you leave it unplugged or do you unplug then plug in... because if its the problem, i do need to get another one, right?

.

Sorry for the all caps - but WOW! I have had a dead g3 pismo for 2 years and took it to a couple shops and ran it through my parents school system tech department and everyone said it was toast. I forgot about it and my parents returned it to me about a month ago. I was getting ready to sell it on ebay for scraps and had heartache getting rid of this gorgeous old machine. So I did a search and found this thread and it worked. 2 years without my old workhorse and now she's alive!

I unplugged the PRAM and plugged it in and hit the powerbutton a bunch of times and it booted and it is running. My question is do I replace the PRAM battery or leave it unplugged or plug it back in? Any help would be appreciated.

And thanks a ton!

Glad we could help.
Plug the PRAM battery back in and mayhap it will charge. Leave the machine on the AC adapter for a few days and see how it goes.

dan k

Ok - I only discovered that my pismo was dead a couple of weeks ago, after a few months of not using it, and I also thought it had gone to laptop heaven.

Unplugging the PRAM battery and then booting brought the pismo back to life. This is definitely obscure, unusual, and _exceptional_ !! This is _really_ amazing!

Thank you, with a capital "Thanks!"!!!

p.s. a bit off-topic: I decided to try booting the Pismo because of the frozen keyboard/trackpad problem on my MacBook Pro - I'm considering installing linux on the Pismo to try it out. You wouldn't happen to know of a solution to the keyboard/trackpad problem, would you? The firmware update and 10.5.2 didn't help - I've actually had to downgrade to 10.4.5...

dankephoto wrote:

Glad we could help.
Plug the PRAM battery back in and mayhap it will charge. Leave the machine on the AC adapter for a few days and see how it goes.

dan k

Hi, as far as I can tell the pram batteries are not rechargeable. We've been able to bring most dead Pismo's back to life by unplugging the pram battery and hitting power and or the reset button on the back. Punching the power button repeatedly isn't nessessary.

The other weak spot on the Pismo is the AC connector on the back. If you're won't see the adaptor and that connection has always been a tight fit there is a good chance that the soldier joint where the plug is attached to the power supply card in the Pismo has let go.

It's a fairly involved strip down but pull the card and resoldier all the joints and that should solve the problem.

Kevin

OK, here I go, being pedantic once more, but I can't help myself . . .

All PowerBooks* are equipped with chargable PRAM batteries.

*The sole exception to that rule is the 12" G4 PowerBooks, which are more closely related to iBooks (none of which have PRAM batts.) OK, well not the SOLE exception, the PowerBook 100's PRAM batts aren't rechargable either.

dan k

Interesting dankephoto, you are right I checked and the cells used in the Pismo batteries are rechargeable. I had wondered this once a long time ago as I was sure I was able to recharge a 'dead' pack. However that 'good' pack seemed to loose it's charge when I swapped it into a Pismo with a bad main battery. Once a good main battery was installed the pram battery seemed to recharge again.

A check with a co-worker who was a former apple tech yielded an interesting answer, he said 'the pram batteries in Pismos are not rechargeable' and that apple used to pay $5 a pack in bulk...... go figure, if you look at the actual cells technically they are.

Kevin