Tried upgrading my Auminum PB; now it won't start

[tthoms]

Howdy!  So I bought an ALuminum PB (1.5MHz),  The hard drive was small (80 GB) and only registered 512 MB of memory.  I Bought 2 GB memory and the MSATA to ATA Adapter with Samsung EVO MSATA.

Opening the memory, there was actually two 512MB sticks; I don't know why one wasn't recognized.  After opening up the notebook (not an easy task), I swapped out the ATA drive with the substitute, buttoned her up, and turned it on.

It beeped three times, and a light near the hinge release began flashing three times.  I put in a MACOS 9.2.2 cd and waited.  More flashing, but nothing else.

Tried rebooting and holding C.  Same response.  Tried ejecting the CD. Nope.  Flashing the PRAM.  Nada.  I finally opened it up and put all of the original parts back.  Same response.

Any tips?

 

[nglevin]

Three beeps usually implies something's wrong with your RAM.

I don't think 9.2.2 works on that machine, or at least not unless it's a hacked version. The Aluminum PB was one of those machines that shipped with a Classic setup CD-ROM and Panther or Tiger. Still works great with Leopard, that's what I have running on mine.

 

[tthoms]

Three beeps usually implies something's wrong with your RAM.

I don't think 9.2.2 works on that machine, or at least not unless it's a hacked version. The Aluminum PB was one of those machines that shipped with a Classic setup CD-ROM and Panther or Tiger. Still works great with Leopard, that's what I have running on mine.

I was trying to install a hacked version.  Regarding memory, I swapped in the memory that worked before, and even tried removing cards and swapping where they were plugged in.  Nothing.  I have noticed that in addition to the current issues, I get nothing at all if I try to run the computer without the battery installed (with the power cord).   Don't know if that is related.

 

[Unknown_K]

15" screen machine?

 

[Gorgonops]

Did you try running the system with only a single DIMM installed? The fact that the system was only registering 512MB of the original memory indicates it's suffering from the depressingly common "Lower Memory Slot" failure. (I believe I've had at least three 1.5Ghz 15" Powerbooks pass through my hands, and every single one of them got it, including the one I mentioned playing with SSD upgrades similar to yours on in a recent thread.) So far as I can tell there's no reliable fix for this problem, you basically have to just accept that your RAM ceiling is 1GB now. (Which I guess isn't the end of the world, that's as much as a G4 Mac Mini can take, but it's really annoying if you don't have any 1GB SO-DIMMs lying around...) Now when your system is broken like this it *usually* should just ignore the DIMM in the bad slot, but I have vague memories of seeing the case where having anything in the bad slot would give you error beeps after any reconfiguration. (IE, taking out the DIMM that was in it when it went bad and installing another one, etc.)

I'd say try it with only one DIMM in it. If that fails, well, it's possible both failed now. Apparently that also happens to these systems. I haven't seen it, yet, but I also got rid of all but one of these 1.5ghz machines years ago.

 

[AlpineRaven]

Its not 9.2.2 laptop its 100% OSX

Put everything back - RAM and HDD and do one thing a time.

What spec is that 2gb?
Cheers

AP

 

[Gorgonops]

It's not going to boot anything as long as it's throwing error beeps.

 

[tthoms]

Thanks all for your comments!

It does seem that I have a powerbook RAM slot issues.. 

.  After testing both slots, cleaning them, and removing and inserting the RAM back into them. I got the outer slot working again.  I can see 1GB of my 2GB installed.

Currently, the hacked 9.2.2 CD wont boot, so I was going to install OSX 10.4 onto it, but now I can't get the computer to recognized the MSATA to ATA drive (ABLECONN/Samsung 860 EVO) that I put into the computer.  Ugh....

Current status: OSX 10.4, W/O CLassic (which I miss) on the old hard drive, w/ half the ram.  I'm so glad I held onto my Titanium. 

 

[Gorgonops]

Currently, the hacked 9.2.2 CD wont boot, so I was going to install OSX 10.4 onto it, but now I can't get the computer to recognized the MSATA to ATA drive (ABLECONN/Samsung 860 EVO) that I put into the computer.  Ugh....

Huh. I didn't have any problem with the M2 adapter I stuck in my similarly RAM-slot challenged Al:



I used a dirt-cheap ADATA SSD instead of something "nice" like a Samsung EVO, I wonder if the problem is with your adapter or the drive. (I strongly suspect most of these M.2 and mSATA adapter boards use the same chip, or very close to it.)

 

[AlpineRaven]

I've got Crucial m.2 SSD in my 1ghz TiBook without any issues.

Cheers

AP

 

[tthoms]

I've had the adapter replaced, although I've abandoned the AL.  I'll see if I can fit it in my Titanium.

 

[Franklinstein]

It's possible to reflow the RAM slot holder to repair the lower slot failure. Same technique as fixing iBook GPUs. 

Also these things refuse to boot with more than 2GB of RAM, which made me sad when I stuffed 2x2GB in my 1.67 hi-res. I dropped it down to 1x2GB and it worked, so then I changed it to 2x1GB sticks (no point wasting a 2GB stick when I don't need to) and it works fine. 

 

[Quadraman]

Macs have always been very particular when it comes to RAM. You can't just slap generic RAM made for a PC in them and expect it to work even when the specifications are the same. You might get lucky, but probably not. Apple sprinkles some kind of patented, magical fairy dust on their RAM or something to make it work. That's why they charge so much for memory upgrades. I just bought two 8gb sticks of DDR3 for my new to me Macbook and made sure it was made for Mac from a reputable seller located in a first world country and not generic PC junk RAM from a seller in China. It cost more than the generic PC stuff, but less than OWC and works fine. 

You also have to make sure with laptops that the memory is seated firmly in the slot before you reassemble. It sucks to find out that the hidden memory stick wasn't fully inserted when you put it together and power up for testing and then have to take it all apart again just to reseat it. 

 

[Gorgonops]

Macs have always been very particular when it comes to RAM. You can't just slap generic RAM made for a PC in them and expect it to work...

I do in the general case agree with this, based on a long track record of Macs telling sticks of RAM that work fine and dandy in PCs which have the appropriate specs printed on them to get bent, but for this particular instance it's almost 100% certain it's a fault with the memory slot in the laptop. My previous estimate was three, but thinking back I think I actually had four of these 1.5Ghz Als counting the trashed one I played with converting to a desktop at one point, and every single one had a slot go bad.

 

[IlikeTech]

Huh, I guess I must be lucky.  My 1.5 GHz Al PowerBook has other issues, but it does detect its full 1GB across 2 512 MB sticks of ram.  Interesting.

 

[Gorgonops]

You are indeed blessed. One of my machines (the one I still own) I was particularly disappointed with because I'd managed to finagle it a motherboard swap out of Apple right before its AppleCare expired due to an unrelated power issue, I figured if any machine was going to have a "fixed" motherboard it'd be that one. But nope.

 

[CC_333]

I must be lucky too, as my machine (.67 GHz A1106) is working perfectly. It did start out life as a 1.5 GHz, and it did have a bad RAM slot at that point, but I upgraded via logic board swap, and it's been perfect ever since (both slots working).

c