Pb 3400c wont startup!!

[Papichulo]

Hello yesterday my powerbook 3400c was working great. Now today i plug it in it chime then just black screen with the hard drive running. What is going on?? I also tried taking it apart starting up without  hard drive etc still nothing. There are a bunch of capacitors but i cant tell if thats the problem. Thank you

 

[Byrd]

Probably time for a power manager reset, and PRAM reset - pull the battery as well and leave the entire system unplugged for 30 mins

http://www.jacsoft.co.nz/Tech_Notes/PP_Manage.shtml#faq7

 

[AlpineRaven]

Has the PRAM battery been removed and checked the logicboard is clean and clear of any leakage?
Cheers

AP

 

[Papichulo]

The pram battery was removed months ago. The logic board is clean. There was little leakage from the battery but its.been working. I tried pram reset not working 

 

[EvilCapitalist]

It might be that the backlight has gone out.  Does it still sounds like the machine is booting up after the chime?  Power on the machine and leave it sitting long enough for it to boot up, then shine a flashlight at the screen and see if you see anything.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

If it's the backlight, you should still be able to make out an image in various ambient lighting situations, cranking up the contrast might help in seeing it.

Have you got a Video Cable cable to localize the problem to the LCD assembly if that's the case?

Might be a good time to cycle the ribbon wire connection on the logic board as well.

edit: have you tested the A/C converter's output or swapped it out if you have another?

 

[Papichulo]

I dont think its the backlight becuase the hard drive just hangs and no sound is coming except the startup sound. Even without the harddrive its still blank. I tried with lights and didnt see anything 

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

As you mentioned, caps could very well be the issue. But I'd be surprised if they're all that bad from POST/Bong and the HDD activity.  At this point, I'd very highly recommend sourcing a video cable to localize the problem to the display if indeed that is your problem. Anyone with a video out capable 'Book or expecting to collect one should really have that cable adapter in their bag of tricks. You've been poking around in the 3400, so open it back up again to check for proper LCD cable connection and a possible tear in the ribbon cable.

Have you tried running it in SCSI Disk Mode from another Mac? If it shows up on the desktop that would indicate at least low level function. If you install a music file, name it "A" an put an alias for it the desktop items folder(?) you should be able to power it up, hit A and then return to play. Music to your ears would be just that, localizing the problem to the lid.

If it doesn't come up in SCSI Disk mode, I'd think you have a serious problem. SCSI Disk Mode cable should also be in 'Book owner's go bag. Including the wonderful PB100 NoteBook, every 'Book made between the awful first gen PB100 series and G3FW should have that feature, no?

 

[Papichulo]

I just tried hooking to external monitor and disk mode nothing. It just starts up and the hd spins with nothing else. I know its not booting becuase no sound coming except boot sound.  If i put the mac os 9.0 hard drive in another model what would you recomend? 1400, 5300, or g3 ? Thanks

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

iCrap! What did you see, if anything, on the external display?

5300 is too slow to bother with and even a 1400/166 is sluggish. OS9 almost requires a G3 upgrade unless you need its features on a borderline machine, so go with the G3? Maybe it's a disk corruption problem? Not likely the main cause of concern though as you'd see | ? | when it all but boots.

When you take the drive out, hook up the 1400 or 5300 in SCSI Disk Mode to the 3400 to see if you might achieve startup? If the 3400 boots off its SCSI Bus and the IDE drive boots any of the machines mentioned. that would localize the 3400's problem to the logic board's IDE bus/support chips/controller etc.