350MHz Power Mac G3 Chimes but Won’t Boot

[linguae]

Hello. I have a 1999 350MHz Power Mac G4 that I haven’t turned on since 2013. It has two hard disks and a DVD burner, all installed in 2009 when I first acquired the machine. Today I replaced the PRAM battery and turned it on. At first, it was working. While one of my hard disks appeared to have failed, it booted into my other hard disk with Mac OS 9.2.2 just fine.

While I was copying files to a USB thumb drive, the system hung. I decided to do a hard reboot. The computer chimed, but there was no display. I tried booting from my CD-ROM drive (which worked earlier today), but I couldn’t boot from it. I tried Option+Command+P+R, but that didn’t work. It seems my keyboard is no longer being recognized by my Power Mac G4.

I wonder what’s going on? The computer chimes and it powers the IDE devices and the USB ports, but it’s not booting from my IDE devices, and it’s also not recognizing startup key combos from my keyboard. I am afraid the logic board probably gave out in the brief moment it was running today after 13 years of sitting unused.

 

[pizzigri]

Remove and reseat all RAM. Remove and reseat all cards. Clean connectors if necessary. Check all caps for leakage, and also check the ones in the VRM. Check the PSU, measure all rails. I'd start here

 

[linguae]

Thank you for your suggestions. I reset the logic board, removed the motherboard and the attached cards/RAM, cleaned the connectors, and reattached the cables, RAM, and cards, but I’m still running into the same problems.

I found a repair manual, and I also paid attention to the LEDs. DS1 (ATA drive activity) doesn’t illuminate despite having an optical drive and two hard drives attached, as well as DS4 and DS5 (both for USB), despite a USB keyboard being attached. DS6 (Ultra ATA activity) does stay powered on for the first 20 seconds or so of booting, and both DS7 and DS8 (power indication) stay on for as long as the computer is powered on. DS9 (CPU bus request) is only on for the first few seconds of booting).

If I had better electronics skills, I’d move on to diagnosing the logic board itself, as well as the PSU. I didn’t notice any leaky capacitors when I pulled out the motherboard.

 

[beachycove]

Sounds like a HD issue to me. Are Master/Slave settings still okay? Maybe your original drive was Master and got removed?

 

[linguae]

Sounds like a HD issue to me. Are Master/Slave settings still okay? Maybe your original drive was Master and got removed?

So, it turned out my failing hard drive was set to slave. I removed the failing hard drive; the master drive has Mac OS 9.2.2 installed. Unfortunately it still didn’t boot, though the machine powered on. I also tried unplugging the hard drive (both the power and IDE cords), leaving just the optical drive. Still no boot, even after resetting the PRAM with each change. I notice I’m able to open and close the optical drive, but if I put a disk in it, nothing happens, not even when pressing c while restarting.

 

[ppcoutlaw]

I presume your battery is new?
Maybe check it to see if it has a full charge?
Hit the reset button a few times as well.
I had that problem in my B&W and it suddenly started working again with no problem since.