3400 recessitation?? :-(

[Lateralus]

I picked up a 3400 on eBay a week or two ago. It was sold w/o an ac adapter but w/ a charged battery.

When it arrived, I played with it a bit, booting it up on two occasions.

After shutting it down following the last time I tinkered with it, I removed the CD drive just for shits and popped it back in. Later, upon attempting to power it on for a third time... nothing. Removed the batter and put it back in, removed the CD drive... etc. Nothing.

So I figured maybe the machine wouldn't attempt to power on once the battery was below a certain point. So I waited until my ac adapter arrived today.

Plugged it in, left it for a minute... nothing.

What could have possibly gone wrong w/ this machine after it arrived and during the light use I gave it that would render it inoperable?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[equill]

There are quite a few possibilities. Just for one, the battery was barely-charged, and the presence of the CD-ROM drive (which is constantly polled by the system 'in case' there is a CD inserted) depleted the battery, especially on top of its normal power consumption, too far for booting from cold.

The PB should be able to boot from the adapter alone,, which will assure you that the PB is functional. If it does not, you may have to reset the PMU. A few minutes on the adapter will achieve precious little recharge, so allow at least 24hr for an unknown battery before expecting significant improvement. Do you have a VOM for testing the battery's terminal voltages? They do not equate with full charge, but are indicative of battery-condition.

de

 

[Lateralus]

When I powered down for the final time, the battery still had well over 30% charge and it was no more than an hour later when I attempted and failed to boot it up again.

I reset the PMU earlier to no avail. And even with the battery and CD out, it still wont power on.

 

[Lateralus]

Anybody.

 

[equill]

There is no magic bullet but persistence, and even that will fail if the PB is unserviceable.

Check the AC adapter, for output voltage and temperature, after 5min and 1hr. Is it warm or ridiculously hot? Is the battery warm or, again, ridiculously hot after the same intervals. 30% of full charge is vastly insufficient as a working charge.

Be prepared to reset the PMU ten times, if that is what it takes. If AC adapter and battery check out as at least adequate, and reset of the PMU does nothing for you, an inside job is in order, starting from de-fluff and de-dust, and proceeding by way of minute inspection, of ensuring the presence and integrity of all sub-boards and units, of reseating all connectors and verifying the integrity of all cables. Specifically, measure the voltage of the internal backup battery.

Then reassemble, and allow the PB to stay on charge for 24hr. If the battery and AC adapter are adequate to reach full battery voltage, leave the whole on charge for another 24hr to get the backup battery charged. Then reset the PMU again, and rebegin the process,

de

 

[Bunsen]

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:10 am ...

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:49 am

Anybody.

Not big on the ole patience there, huh?

First thing to check inside would be the power connector, specifically the solder points where the power jack connects to the motherboard. It's possible the seller knew this was bad and charged the battery in another 'book.

 

[Lateralus]

Thanks. I'll look into that.

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:10 am ...

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:49 am

Anybody.

Not big on the ole patience there, huh?

Uh...

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:10 am...

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:49 am

 

[equill]

Uh...

Posted: Tue Nov 11, 2008 11:10 am...

Posted: Wed Nov 12, 2008 11:49 am

You have just elegantly underlined Bunsen's observation.

de

 

[Lateralus]

Man, you two must be brothers or something...

He specifically bolded times, as if to say that I posted the messages 39 minutes apart, ignoring the date.

If bumping a thread in the 25th hour is against some kooky rule that exists here and only here, I'm sincerely sorry...

You two are a hoot, really.

 

[Franklinstein]

Not trying to referee or anything, but sometimes a day isn't enough, especially when dealing with temperamental old hardware.

Also, our Army has only about 1000 members, and not all of them are online at all times, while fewer may have experience with a particular machine.

For old Macs (and aged electronics in general), some machines are best dealt with by removing all power (including PRAM) and letting them sit for a week or two. Others can be revived by total disassembly and storage for a month before carefully inspecting and cleaning during reassembly.

What I'd do with your computer is to pull all power from it and let it sit for a week, at least two or three days. Then hold down the power manager reset switch for 60 seconds before plugging in the power, and waiting another 60 seconds before pressing the power key (unless the machine auto-boots first).

If that doesn't work, I'd completely disassemble it, let it sit for a day or two, then build it up to minimum (no RAM expansion, no Ethernet/modem card, no hard drive) and apply power. If it boots, add the HD. If it still works, add the Ethernet/modem card. If it still works, add the RAM. If it still works, close it up.

That's about all you can do, unless you manage to get ahold of a detailed troubleshooting schematic complete with individual test points and associated good values.

 

[equill]

You two are a hoot, really.

And you need to get that you are one out of 1036 or so, which predicts that you may get less than 0.1% of the available notice. If you earn more through the rationality of your discourse rather than your desire to have others solve your impasses, well and good. No-one here has any obligation to answer your posts. Earn your airtime by asking, by following advice as you choose or not choose, and by not complaining if the result does not work for you because you do not appreciate the values of co-existence, patience, persistence and experience. You have three times asked for advice about resuscitating older gear, and three times, seemingly, applied yourself assiduously to half-hearted practice and self-exculpation because you had not started from a secure and known base, or were not willing to devote the effort required. You will get ideas and advice here, but this is not the only potential source of either, and their application will come only from your hands and your learning. You are there. We are not, and cannot possibly know what you have not disclosed.

de

 

[Lateralus]

I'm relatively new by registration date, but I already like this board a great deal. I think there are excellent members here who make for excellent conversation and excellent information sharing.

I exclude you from that list though. You're incredibly rude to me and have been numerous times. An example would be that you already tried to embarrass me in an off-topic thread with something I had posted in my 9600 thread, which you claimed was incorrect, when in fact... I was correct. There's also the condescending attitude you've exhibited toward me.

That aside, I've tried to be the adult and look past your attitude and try to take your attempts to help for what they were. Except that in most of those attempts, you made it blatantly clear that you haven't read the information I've posted by suggesting I do things that I had done first-thing or things that are completely irrelevant to my situation. Which kinda leaves me wondering, in your posts, exactly how deeply a genuine desire to assist me lies.

I've been tearing down and tinkering with Macs for the better part of a decade. I love the machines and I love my fellow Mac users. And from tinkering with the machines for so long, I've learned a great deal, especially about 68k and Old World PPC machines. And yet your assumption is that since I have inoperable equipment which I haven't been able to revive on my own, I must either be a moron or be ignoring every bit of advice I receive. And I assure you... neither is the case. But continue believing whatever makes it easier for you to speak down to me.

I don't have a soldering iron or any electrical testing equipment; I'm sorry.

And I'll repeat it again since you've already ignored it once; please stop contributing to my threads. You've made it pretty clear you don't like me and I don't particularly like you either. So let's agree to avoid mingling.

I know it's not a request I can enforce but I'm hoping you'll still agree to honor it. If you're unable to get past the desire to berate me in my troubleshooting, at least take it to private message please.

 

[Lateralus]

For old Macs (and aged electronics in general), some machines are best dealt with by removing all power (including PRAM) and letting them sit for a week or two. Others can be revived by total disassembly and storage for a month before carefully inspecting and cleaning during reassembly.

What I'd do with your computer is to pull all power from it and let it sit for a week, at least two or three days. Then hold down the power manager reset switch for 60 seconds before plugging in the power, and waiting another 60 seconds before pressing the power key (unless the machine auto-boots first).

If that doesn't work, I'd completely disassemble it, let it sit for a day or two, then build it up to minimum (no RAM expansion, no Ethernet/modem card, no hard drive) and apply power. If it boots, add the HD. If it still works, add the Ethernet/modem card. If it still works, add the RAM. If it still works, close it up.

That's about all you can do, unless you manage to get ahold of a detailed troubleshooting schematic complete with individual test points and associated good values.

I've got the machine mostly torn down now and am leaving it for a while as I don't have the time to play with it endlessly at the moment. Hopefully a timeout will help.

As far as I knew, the only way to do a PMU reset was to hold down the reset switch for 20~ seconds.

But is there a CUDA switch somewhere on the logic board? I'm not the biggest notebook nerd and have been wondering if there's something a little more low-level than holding the reset switch.

 

[Franklinstein]

The reset button on PowerBooks essentially IS a CUDA switch - actuating the reset button on a portable Mac has the same effect as depressing the CUDA reset on a desktop; its effects are readily documented on this Apple support page.

In short, it forces the power manager to clear ALL of its settings, including date/time, and reload default values from ROM/the OS - pretty much the same thing that a CUDA reset does on a desktop.

 

[Rodus]

Shot in the dark mode: Have you tried the adapter with anything else? If the battery was dead and the adapter didn't work that would explain it. Unlikely but possible.

 

[Lateralus]

IT'S ALIVE!!!

All I know is that I put the battery back in and pressed the power button and it booted up. I don't know what happened. I don't care.

Yayz.