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Repair information for PowerBook G3 laptops from Apple.

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Trouble booting up, logic board on its way out?

I have 2 problems with one of my Pismos that may or may not be related to each other. First my Pismo would not boot. The start up chime would sound but nothing would appear on the screen. Also the hard drive would spin until I unplugged the power cord and battery. I swapped out the daughter card, and it worked for a while, but after a couple of weeks it is 50/50.

Also. On this same Pismo, I tried to reinstall OS X but it would refuse to boot from the DVD drive or an external DVD drive. It only boots from the internal hard drive, if it boots at all.

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The first thing I would try is to disconnect the PRAM battery. If that clears your problem you have two choices. Replace the PRAM battery or reset the time and date each time you boot. As to the DVD drive it may be going bad but is very easily replaced. Good luck.

PowerBook G3 Pismo PRAM Battery Replacement

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Actually I have tried it both ways with the PRAM battery connected and disconnected. Same results. Sorry, I should have mentioned that.

As to the DVD drive. I thought that too, so I used a spare DVD drive (I have 2 and a half Pismos) same trouble booting from install disc. Also the original drive works when I watch DVDs or play music from a CD.

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What OS are trying to install. Your computer will not run anything over 10.4.11 and for that I would recommend maximum ram. Also just to be safe remove and reinstall the daughter card.

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Oh. I am trying to reinstall 10.4.(whatever the disc is). Essentially the retail version of Tiger. Yeah I will try to remove and reinstall the daughter card.

Failing that, I'm actually planning on playing a sort of musical chairs with my 3 daughter cards between my two working Pismos. Hopefully something good comes out of it.

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