PowerBook G3 PDQ won't start

[glynjones]

Hi All,
Took a punt on a PowerBook G3 PDQ with no power adapter for spare or repair.

When I plug it in the light turns green and the fan spins up for a couple of seconds and the everything goes off. It won't switch on.

Tried the reset (FN-Ctrl-Shift & Power) that didn't do anything.

Any ideas? Lots of posts on the internet saying disconnect the PRAM battery but I'd have to take the whole thing apart just to get at it.

Thanks in advance of any assistance.

Glyn Jones.

 

[glynjones]

Is there a way to disconnect the PRAM battery without a complete disassembly?

 

[glynjones]

Well disconnecting the PRAM didn't work. Quite an easy machine to work on though.

 

[Franklinstein]

These things are not unknown for being a little difficult to troubleshoot. It's easiest if you have multiple spares to swap parts around until stuff works. Also try an external keyboard if you have one.
There could be a few problems here: logic board, power board, charge card, and/or PMU board. Did it come with a battery? If so, does it look like it tries to charge? Sometimes even dead batteries will flash a couple times before giving up, which should at least indicate that you're getting power through that far.

Anyway if resoldering the power jack and/or reseating modules doesn't get it to power up, I'd shelve it for parts until I got another unit and then do a little swapping between them until something works.

 

[Spidey01]

Mine periodically refuses to start, typically locking the HDD LED on or turning itself off. When that happens I just reseat the RAM module and it’ll usually come alive with the force power on keystrokes. Also very slow to put anything on screen, but the chime helps ease the tension.