Odd issues with PDQ

[BetaC]

So I am in the process of getting the 300MHz G3 PDQ Powerbook that I got recently up to speed, and I am encountering a few strange issues. First and foremost, I am unable to get OSX 10.2 installed, as it both forgets to keep the backlight on, and it freezes moments later. It also froze moments in to the setup that starts after installing OS9. The same crashing seems to happen if I attempt to look at startup disk, and if I use the network control panel in OS9. I have reduced the ram to 64MB, and when I have time I will switch which RAM stick is on the underside of the processor card to see if that affects anything.

I have removed the PRAM battery, which was completely dead. I am also unable to boot it without connecting it to power, but once it receives external power it can usually work on the third party battery that came with it. that issue isn't super high issue, as I don't really know if I am going to be using this as portable for now.

 

[avadondragon]

The backlight turning itself off is a very common issue on OS X - Jaguar with with Wallstreet/PDQ Powerbook G3s. I find that Jaguar and Panther are total garbage on these machines. I run Tiger on my PDQ - it has the maxed out 512MB of RAM though. OS 9 is so much faster on it I rarely switch to X unless I have something I specifically need it for which is seldom. Strange that yours is crashing in OS 9.

 

[BetaC]

The backlight turning itself off is a very common issue on OS X - Jaguar with with Wallstreet/PDQ Powerbook G3s. I find that Jaguar and Panther are total garbage on these machines. I run Tiger on my PDQ - it has the maxed out 512MB of RAM though. OS 9 is so much faster on it I rarely switch to X unless I have something I specifically need it for which is seldom. Strange that yours is crashing in OS 9.

Yeah, the crashing is perplexing. I may try my extra CPU card at some point to see if it's that.

 

[BetaC]

Updating my thread, as I am still facing similar issues, and my thread is one of the google results when I try to look for myself. I am mostly able to get a stable system when using OS9, but I am completely unable to install OSX using the same disks that I used on all my other 10.2 compatible machines. I have upgraded to an mSATA drive and 256MB of RAM, but I still get stuck on "writing files" when trying to install OSX. is there something I am missing, or is the processor card the problem at this point?

 

[s_pupp]

What were you using prior to the mSATA drive? I’ve had problems with my two PDQ’s just like you described on a PATA SSD, CF-IDE converter, mSATA-IDE converter, and m.2 SATA-IDE converter. I’ve only had luck with hard disk drives. I have 40GB in the one and 60GB in the other. Even then, Startup Disk freezes at times in OS9.

 

[BetaC]

What were you using prior to the mSATA drive? I’ve had problems with my two PDQ’s just like you described on a PATA SSD, CF-IDE converter, mSATA-IDE converter, and m.2 SATA-IDE converter. I’ve only had luck with hard disk drives. I have 40GB in the one and 60GB in the other. Even then, Startup Disk freezes at times in OS9.

I was using a generic SD to IDE converter, which i have since gotten rid of as it was struggling to do anything beyond booting OS9 to begin with. At this point, I just want a version of OSX on here so that I can file transfer with my more modern machines, nothing much else. OS9 is what it'll actually be running. I might be hitting my point of no longer caring, as I can no longer even start installing Mac OS 9.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

As for your OS X problems, I can't help. But the other ones related to freak backlight forgetfulness and not cold-booting off the battery, that's due to the lack of a working PRAM battery.

 

[s_pupp]

You might want to try installing OSX to a compact flash in a PCMCIA adapter pushed into the PCMCIA slot. I recall now having success with that about three or four years ago, but wanted both slots free so abandoned that path.

As for your OS X problems, I can't help. But the other ones related to freak backlight forgetfulness and not cold-booting off the battery, that's due to the lack of a working PRAM battery.

Great tip - thanks!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Worth noting I'm not 100% sure that's what's behind the backlight weirdness but mine and many others all do the same thing when booting into OS X especially and I suspect it's trying to pull the user setting from the PRAM data which will get all scrambled without a working battery, so I'm about 95% sure it's that.

 

[BetaC]

Yeah, I assumed it would be something like that with the backlight, and have learned to just boot OS9 before attempting an OSX install. I'm also just confused as to why my system is now refusing to install anything from CD. both my CD and DVD drives outright fail to start the restore process for the universal 9.2.2.

 

[Dude.JediKnight]

Not sure what install media I used on my G4-upgraded PDQ, but it has 10.2 installed and I never noticed any backlight problems… It’s got a non-stock spinning drive with one partition for 10.2 (within the first 7.4?GB (if I remember correctly), and the rest is an OS9 partition that is also data storage.

I think I may have used the grey restore disk from the G3 Dual USB iBook to install everything, but I’m not sure (gotta be close to a decade ago at this point).

I know I tried installing 10.4 at one point, but the stock CD drive did not like my burned Tiger CD set… even with XPostFacto, it just would not boot from that first burned CD. Lacking any other SCSI drive options, or any other ideas, I stuck with 10.2 and OS9, mostly OS9.

I do have a PCMCIA to CF adapter, so maybe if I cloned the first (bootable) Tiger CD to a 1GB CF card, that might be bootable through the PCMCIA slot? Might be worth a shot… have to remember to try that at some point.

 

[BetaC]

Not sure what install media I used on my G4-upgraded PDQ, but it has 10.2 installed and I never noticed any backlight problems… It’s got a non-stock spinning drive with one partition for 10.2 (within the first 7.4?GB (if I remember correctly), and the rest is an OS9 partition that is also data storage.

I think I may have used the grey restore disk from the G3 Dual USB iBook to install everything, but I’m not sure (gotta be close to a decade ago at this point).

I know I tried installing 10.4 at one point, but the stock CD drive did not like my burned Tiger CD set… even with XPostFacto, it just would not boot from that first burned CD. Lacking any other SCSI drive options, or any other ideas, I stuck with 10.2 and OS9, mostly OS9.

I do have a PCMCIA to CF adapter, so maybe if I cloned the first (bootable) Tiger CD to a 1GB CF card, that might be bootable through the PCMCIA slot? Might be worth a shot… have to remember to try that at some point.

Along those lines, I was able to install OS 8.6 via CD, then was able to install 9.2.2 via copying the contents of the CD while booted off of the HDD. So I think it's an issue with the bus, of all things. When it's booted off of a more complex CD than 8.6, it struggles to not freeze while moving files to the SSD. I'm pretty sure that I won't be able to install OSX from the HDD, and I don't think I want to wipe my G4's 10.2 install just to be able to do a network install, but I at least have a mostly working system again.

 

[just.in.time]

As someone with a Wallstreet, I agree it’s very temperamental.

Couple of ideas:
Make sure RAM is decent quality.

Confirm that metal cover plate over CPU is screwed down all the way as I believe that’s how CPU dissipates heat.

For OS 9, I believe I did a retail 9 install then updated to 9.0.4 (don’t remember why I didn’t at least do retail 9.1).

For OS X, I used Xpostfacto4 to install 10.3.9.

Much like the Beige G3, to use OS X you must have a partition that exists only in the first 8gb of the disk, and either have OS X installed on that OR use it as a helper drive in Xpostfacto (I usually aim for 7.9gb on that partition to be safe), and install OS 9 on that partition with OS X on a larger partition.

I started up my Wallstreet to check what Options I have set.
Mode: nothing checked
Video: only “use old NDRVs” checked
Debug: nothing checked.
Open Firmware:
Auto-boot? Is checked
Input:keyboard
Output:ATY,RageLTPro
CPU:no check, throttle at 0

Hopefully that helps. This has me with a decently stable 9.0.4/10.3.9 system on 128mb RAM and 9.4gb hdd.