Kanga Death Chime

[LCARS]

Chime..it's more of a jump-out-of-your-seat glass smash sound. At least that's what I did when I plugged mine in for the first time in at least six years.

First some backstory: I used it on and off from 2008 to 2013. It fell when I was moving and amazingly, survived with only a cracked case. I don't recall if I used it after that so I don't know if the fall is a direct cause of this issue:

Today I tried a PRAM and PMU reset to no avail. I opened it up and tried to boot it with and without RAM. No luck (and more broken glass). The monitor doesn't even power up, despite a properly seated connector. What are the likely scenarios, other than bad RAM, where it would cause the death chime? Unseated processor?

 

[Franklinstein]

I have one that kind of went out like that about 10 years ago: it became unstable and had problems with boot and then just quit. I never figured it out. Could just need a power supply board recap/repair or it could be more severe.

Anyway the processor is soldered on those which limits troubleshooting and upgrade options. Usually the broken glass sound is a hard crash early in the boot process. Possibly a fault with cache memory? I figure the machine would just continue to boot while ignoring cache (as many Macs will boot with bad RAM, simply ignoring it) but maybe the Kanga is too old to do that (it was the first G3 PB after all).

 

[Concorde1993]

Count me in as another Kanga owner with boot problems. Mine will reach the welcome screen, try to load, and then hang indefinitely. Restart sometimes results in chimes of death or a return to the welcome screen with the same hanging problem. 

I really don't want to dig too deep into this thing given how fragile older PowerBooks tend to be with shoddy plastics. 

 

[LCARS]

I'm sad/happy to know that I'm not alone with a cranky Kanga. If it's not the RAM, HD, or OS, it does seem to indicate a processor/cache culprit. I had forgotten that the chips are soldered in place. When I opened it up, the comparison of the internals to the 3400 is interesting. The Kanga seems crammed and as soon as I saw the heatpipe, realized that I didn't want to mess around with it.

It's interesting that the following G3s all had upgradable processors. I'm sure Apple didn't want to invest much into a stopgap machine. Franklinstein - do you still have Kangas that boot?

 

[Franklinstein]

I have one that works (or at least, did a couple months ago) but its display plastics are a bit ruined so I don't use it much. 

 

[LCARS]

It's such a shame that an otherwise clean and functional unit can be brought down by poor plastics. Is it the hinges?

It sounds like I won't a use my time fiddling with it if others have had similar issues. Now that I think about it, if it's not the cache it might be a capacitor. Mine worked perfectly until it sat in the basement (never froze) for years.

 

[Concorde1993]

 Is it the hinges?

It's everything. Screws, trap doors, top/bottom cover, etc. These PowerBooks are a pain in the ass. Nothing like an old ThinkPad that you can just leave for months on end and it will work again with little fuss. 

 

[LCARS]

Yikes, I'm sorry to hear that. Its very disheartening when with good care, they just fall apart on their own. I've essentially given up on my 8500 because so many plastic retainers have broken. Same with a 1400c. It's become a desktop because the hinge destroyed the plastic retainer.

ThinkPad are certainly robust- made to be worked on. It seems like the only problem with the older ones is the rubber becoming sticky.

 

[Concorde1993]

ThinkPad are certainly robust- made to be worked on. It seems like the only problem with the older ones is the rubber becoming sticky.

If you are referring to the rubber texture on the back of the screen, they generally tend to wear out quick around the corners and are very scratch-prone so some care is needed. Otherwise its fairly durable. The only *real* issues that I've had with ThinkPads are the hinges, batteries, and keyboards that get shiny quick (A-series are the worst). 

I've essentially given up on my 8500 because so many plastic retainers have broken. Same with a 1400c.

I had to sell my 5215CD Performa because the plastics were becoming notoriously brittle along the front bezel and near the back where the motherboard sits. My Multiple Scan 17" monitor and 160 also began to suffer from deteriorating plastics and were sold off. The first-gen iMacs and final Apple CRT monitors were pretty junky too. 

 

[MattB]

The biggest killer of these machines seems to be plastics and PRAM batteries. I have two Kangas that both suffered leaks from the PRAM batteries. I cleaned both boards and was able to save one, though the other just makes a click noise and displays the green sleep light. I’ve got replacement hinges for one with weak hinges but I’m afraid to open it up with the notoriously brittle plastics. Even the one that works doesn’t always boot. Sometimes it hangs on the welcome screen with no rhyme or reason. But let’s be honest - Kanga was a rush job to get a G3 portable out the door. I like it because it’s an oddball but it definitely has its issues.

 

[MattB]

Count me in as another Kanga owner with boot problems. Mine will reach the welcome screen, try to load, and then hang indefinitely. Restart sometimes results in chimes of death or a return to the welcome screen with the same hanging problem. 

I really don't want to dig too deep into this thing given how fragile older PowerBooks tend to be with shoddy plastics. 

How far does yours get on the welcome screen, and will it boot with extensions off? Mine seems to crash on the actual loading screen itself from time to time, though it boots properly after hitting command-control-power to force a restart. I think I’ve traced it to a software problem with some of the extensions on the machine since it doesn’t ever crash on boot with extensions off.

 

[Concorde1993]

I've tried booting without extensions; doesn't seem to make a difference. If I ever get really motivated, I might attempt to remove the hard drive and try it on my Quadra 950 or G3 tower. 

 

[LCARS]

Testing out the drive sounds like a good place to start. I'm tempted to make another attempt at finessing mine to boot.

OR, here's a prototype Kanga...and the plastics come pre-broken!

Proto Kanga

 

[Concorde1993]

Driven hard, put away wet.