cursor stuck on Powerbook Kanga......

[radiosanchez]

Here's a good one.........

This is my first post, so bear with me as I 'get used' to things...

Got myself a sweet Powerbook G3 Kanga....Only problem was "trackpad does not work".

Great right, so I bought it anyways, and got it.....Turned it on, and plugged an ADB mouse into it....

...and....

...still nothing....

I can't move the cursor with the mouse, either.....It is stuck on the top left hand corner...

Help, anyone??

 

[cheesestraws]

Does an external ADB keyboard work?

I'm not terribly up on those machines but: the trackpad on them is, I believe, an ADB device, so it sounds like ADB might be broken for the whole machine. On other machines, there's a fuse, and if that goes out, no power gets to any ADB devices: I'm wondering whether that, or something like it, is wrong with your Kanga.

Sorry this isn't very helpful - hopefully someone who knows those machines better will post here!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Check the PRAM battery - it’s a Varta battery on these that leaks. Don’t know this for sure but I’ve heard this same issue happening before and I suspect it’s related. My guess would be that some of the ADB related stuff is right under the battery - which I do believe to be the case because the external port is located right there under the battery. I hope it’s not the case for you but the issue might be corrosion.

You can use this tutorial to get that battery out fast. It’s for the 3400, but the process is the same for the Kanga.

 

[radiosanchez]

Check the PRAM battery

Done.......and removed......No evidence of 'foul play', to what I can see (phew). Pics below of it connected, and then, freed....More to come..

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Glad to see it probably hasn't caused damage. A photo of the board under where the battery was could still be useful though.

Not sure what your problem could be unfortunately. I do know that I've seen this issue talked about before though, don't think they solved it. Doesn't mean you shouldn't try though, start with a reseating of all the connections inside and see if that helps.

 

[Arbee]

As far as I'm aware Kanga is a PG&E machine. PG&E hooks up to a matrix keyboard and a quadrature trackball/trackpad (the same interface as the M0100 mouse) and fakes them both being ADB, in addition to handling any real ADB devices plugged in and some other stuff.

One thing I've learned emulating nearly all of the 68K Macs model-by-model is that if the mouse pointer doesn't move on 68k and Old World PPC Macs, it's either the input itself or the vertical blank interrupt from the video. You need both for the mouse pointer to move. So if the machine boots all the way to Finder and the clock in the menu bar updates I would at least provisionally assume PG&E is working, and the issue may be with the video. I don't know if Kangas are prone to capacitor problems, but that would be a reasonable suspicion.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I’d expect a capacitor issue on one of these to produce no power or other power issues, not something like this. Can’t hurt though.
They have 7 caps total (assuming the same as the 3400). 4 are LCD/inverter related, two power related, and one near the CPU. If your system is posting and displaying video, it’s probably not that. Could try it though.

 

[MacUp72]

It also just can be a dodgy install on the old hdd, I had strange errors/probs.. after a fresh install it was ok.

 

[Arbee]

The easy check there is if the pointer moves when the screen first comes on after POST and then doesn’t after Welcome to Macintosh.

 

[GRudolf94]

@Arbee PG&E machines with trackballs use ADB for that internally. Ditto for trackpads on 190cs and up.

Thus, the whole of ADB not working would result in those symptoms (no pointing device) without interfering with keyboard operation.
I would check that the ADB data line isn't shorted to ground by a faulty MLCC cap, broken solder joint at PG&E, or whatever else.

 

[Arbee]

Oh, interesting. PG&E does have a quadrature interface and there's code for it in the ROM, but Apple's kind of famous in the 90s for hardware capabilities that MacOS ignores.

 

[GRudolf94]

Yeah. Apple was weird. The PowerBook Duo standalone battery charger (what clips on the side of the power brick) is essentially PG&E by itself in a case with some power electronics. But that's derailing the thread

 

[radiosanchez]

Thanks for your input so far....And again, apologies and bear with me as I (mostly) 'learn' my way through this.....

'nother question: about how different is a Kanga internally from a 3400?? In the case that I would need a 'parts unit', would a 3400 be good enough?? Or, and (supposing it is an ADB issue all the way through, for example, which I am somewhat leaning towards), will only another Kanga suffice?

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Motherboard is different and the Kanga has additional structuring around the hinge mounts to the base, those are the two differences I’m aware of. There may be more.

 

[GRudolf94]

In the case that I would need a 'parts unit', would a 3400 be good enough??

I wouldn't bank on parts being exchangeable. Apple has always been annoying about one or another thing not fitting (I learned the hard way some 15" Aluminum PowerBook memory doors aren't!). Your existing machine should be fixable, anyway.