By way of a morning time-killing exercise, I'm going to try to translate the whole explanation from above - it might help someone give advice (I am stumped):
"On this forum, I understand that normally it would be necessary for me to post in English. But my English is at about the level of a grade schooler, so I am taking the liberty of posting in Japanese - please excuse my rudeness. I would be happy if someone could translate it into English."
[My reply was basically telling him that my Japanese is at the same level as his English, so I usually reply in English, but I encouraged him to keep posting his questions in Japanese.]
"I bought two RAM cards on ebay that go in the PDS slot. One is 6MB, the other is 7MB. Before inserting the card(s), I had 3MB, and the machine booted normally."
[The state of my Japanese/Portable knowledge is such that I am hazy on whether he means that he removed a 3MB card to put the larger one(s) in, or whether there is 3MB built in. Either way, it sounds like the machine boots normally when these cards are not in the mix, meaning it's not a battery problem, unless the battery is too weak to support an extra load.]
"Whether with the 6MB card or the 7MB card, when I insert it and (attempt to) boot up, the screen is scrambled and it doesn't boot. When I put in the 6MB card, a sad mac appears in the middle of the scrambled screen, and the code number keeps changing (?), so I can't read it. With the 7MB card, the screen is scrambled and the sad mac doesn't appear at all.
The logic board has been recapped, so I doubt that the problem is with the logic board, but I can't be sure. I suspect something is wrong with the contact between the slot and the logic board, but I am unable to (don't know how to?) check this. I am using a genuine/pure [i think this means original??] 1.5A AC adapter. Maybe if I used a 3.0A adapter, it would work, but I don't have one handy.
I was finally able to get my hands on this RAM, so I want to get it to boot somehow... not being able to is really frustrating. I would be happy if someone could give me some advice."
Do those sad mac symptoms mean anything to anyone else?