PowerBook G4 - it's dead Jim!
in [UK Mac]
|
Prev: Setting a double click on a mouse
Next: Pop!
From: ray on 12 Jul 2010 04:08 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > I think my PowerBook G4 may have just gone the way of the Dodo - whilst > using it the screen went black (except for a faint grey line at the > bottom of the screen about where the top of the Dock would be). > > Did a force power off, then on again - zilch. Did a force power off > followed by battery removal and reinsertion - zilch. It isn't even being > seen on the network - attempts to contact it remotely are failing. It > still shows up in the main machine's Finder, but I think it's just > remembering it from earlier. Connection attempts (both file sharing and > screen sharing) fail. It -sounds- like it's starting up - it bongs and > there's disk activity but the screen never seems to do anything. > > Any thoughts? There's nothing on it I need urgently, but it's been a > good machine and I'd rather not condemn it. > > > I think it's doing this out of spite because the iPad gets used more... > > Jim Have you tried booting from a dvd, or an external hard drive? -- http://www.dream-weaver.com/email.php Web development promotion and seo http://www.spaldingcomputers.co.uk http://www.overseasmovingsolutions.com/
From: Jim on 12 Jul 2010 04:26 ray <datasmog(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > I think it's doing this out of spite because the iPad gets used more... > > > > Jim > > Have you tried booting from a dvd, or an external hard drive? Yes (DVD) - no deal. Plus I now can't get the disk out... Jim -- "Microsoft admitted its Vista operating system was a 'less good product' in what IT experts have described as the most ambitious understatement since the captain of the Titanic reported some slightly damp tablecloths." http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/
From: Dr Geoff Hone on 12 Jul 2010 04:30 On Sun, 11 Jul 2010 20:06:38 +0100, flavio_mataniTAKETHISBITOUT(a)mac.com (Flavio Matani) wrote: >ray <datasmog(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > >> Flavio Matani <flavio_mataniTAKETHISBITOUT(a)mac.com> wrote: >> >> >-and it doesn't warn you it's going to die >> > and go to sleep when it runs out of juice like the original battery, it >> > just switches off without warning... >> >> I have a MacBookPro with the original battery that does that, so I don't >> think you can blame the replacement. > >Ah, ok, data point noted. I hadn't seen that before; every laptop I'd >had would tell you it was running on reserve and send itself to sleep >when it 'thought' it was getting a bit close. Now I have a G4 TiBook with a Chinese replacement battery and I get a warning sound just (as in JUST) before it goes into shutdown. Not quite enough time to save the work or plug in the charger. It also seems to take several minutes before the symbol that the charger is plugged in, changes to to the symbol for "charging". But it still feels much quicker than my IBM T42 laptop with 4 times the processor speed. That's unless I am trying to do some quick photo editing of course. Geoff
From: Woody on 12 Jul 2010 06:41 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > ray <datasmog(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > I think it's doing this out of spite because the iPad gets used more... > > > > > > Jim > > > > Have you tried booting from a dvd, or an external hard drive? > > Yes (DVD) - no deal. Plus I now can't get the disk out... It doesn't respond to the mouse down on start? I thought that was a really low level function that didn't need the OS to start? I guess that would be a motherboard problem then -- Woody www.alienrat.com
From: David Empson on 12 Jul 2010 07:08
Woody <usenet(a)alienrat.co.uk> wrote: > Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > > > ray <datasmog(a)hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > I think it's doing this out of spite because the iPad gets used more... > > > > > > > > Jim > > > > > > Have you tried booting from a dvd, or an external hard drive? > > > > Yes (DVD) - no deal. Plus I now can't get the disk out... > > It doesn't respond to the mouse down on start? I thought that was a > really low level function that didn't need the OS to start? That action is recognised around the time the OS starts launching. It sounds like it isn't getting that far. A possible way to eject the DVD even if just the screen isn't working: 1. Force power off. 2. Hold down Cmd-Option-O-F (for Open Firmwware) while turning on the computer. 3. Keep holding those keys down for a few seconds then let go. 4. Type (blind) the command eject cd and press return 5. Cross fingers Given that Cmd-Option-P-R isn't working, I'm not hopeful. The symptoms sounds suspiciously like what happened to my PowerBook G4 (667 MHz DVI model) back in 2007, when it was almost 5 years old. One symptom I noticed is that while turned on, if I pressed the F5 key it toggled the Num Lock light, even through F6 is the Num Lock key. I suspected it had scrambled keyboard controller setings and thought it was using a different language keyboard. In which case, god only knows where the P R and O F keys actually are. It might have been a flat PRAM battery causing the PMU to go haywire, but that didn't look to be an easy part to replace. I gave up with mine, pulled out the hard drive, cloned it and bought a MacBook Pro. (That one died after nearly three years due to the NVIDIA 8600M GT chipset design fault; fixed under warranty that time but I bought a new one anyway and sold the old one.) -- David Empson dempson(a)actrix.gen.nz |