TL;DR: Powerbook 170 boots to checkerboard and repeated chime, about 1s apart, doesn't stop.
Backstory: Got this powerbook 170 off of ebay for "untested/as-is" for cheap, no power supply. (For reasons, I thought it might work.) Got a power supply. Plugged in - nothing, no . . no nothing. Removed battery (only very mild beginnings of corrosion, easily wiped off, was a replacement NiCad). Then it powered on! Sort of.
I get the powerbook "checkerboard" and the familiar Apple chime (not the chimes of death, the standard "we're good" one), but the chime repeats over an