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Pismo Startup - 2009/05/21 07:17 Hi Everyone, thanks for being accepted to the forum and I hope I can add things in the future, rather than just get advice!

My current problem is this: I have a G3 Pismo 400Mhz that went into a "no start" mode. Everything was dead. This happened after a cat let go some wee on the desk the Pismo was on, but beside it, not on the keyboard. (BTW, Pismo was on and in sleep mode when this happened) I took out the battery and CD drive, gave it some warm air let it dry for a day or two and had no luck on start up. Still, everything dead.

I then started looking for advice and found the Li-ion battery was holding a full charge (four lights) and the AC adapter is giving correct voltage. I then let the battery discharge fully (AC adapter out), which it did, re-plugged the AC and the battery fully charged again.

I then went into re-set mode via the button at the back of the Pismo, using the instructions provided by Apple - no effect. I then used instructions provided by a member of another forum which included removing the main battery, disconnecting the PRAM battery, disconnecting the AC supply, then doing a reset by the rear switch and waiting for 24 hours, reconnecting the AC only and doing another reset and then trying to power up the Pismo. BANG! Fired up perfectly. All files were intact and the computer functioned normally.

I then suspected the PRAM battery was at fault and replaced it with a brand new one from a very reputable supplier (and at quite some expense) I allowed the new battery to charge for around 8 hours before powering up, but when I did so, the Pismo went into a cycle of starting and getting to the Apple screen with the pinwheel spinning, and then shutting down after 2-3 seconds. It does this repeatedly for 7 or 8 cycles, then I simply pull the plug and disconnect the battery to make it stop.

Then I reconnect all power sources, do another reset at the back of the Pismo. Leave it for an hour or so. Press the power button and hey presto it starts perfectly. It also goes to sleep and wakes up from sleep perfectly. This problem occurs when I then attempt to restart.

Another interesting angle is that if I attempt a full shut down, it won't and instead goes into the same cycle mentioned above, as though I had asked it to restart.

Also, prior to this incident the clock on the Pismo was out of whack and returning to something like 1/1/1970 everytime a restart was performed. I presumed the new PRAM battery would fix this, but it hasn't.

The only other thing I have done (in desperation) is reset permissions.

Here are the Pismo specs:

CPU: POWERPC 750 (83.0)
CPU SPEED: 400Mhz
L2 CACHE: 1MB
MEM: 512MB (2x256)
BUS SPEED: 100Mhz
BOOT ROM VERSION:3.24F1
OPERATING SYSTEM: OS X 10.3.2

If anyone can shed some light on this, I would very much appreciate it. Sorry for being so verbose, but these seem to be a peculiar set of circumstances.

Kind regards,

Jamie
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      Topics Author Date
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Pismo Startup
Impreza23 2009/05/21 07:17
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davidreid 2009/05/21 20:07
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Impreza23 2009/05/22 17:21
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davidreid 2009/05/23 10:29
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thread linkthread linkthread linkthread linkthread link Re:Pismo Startup
Hiddenevil 2009/06/15 13:39



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