05-29-2007, 03:12 PM

Hi folks.

A month ago or so, my PowerBook G3 Series (not WallStreet, not Lombard, not Pismo, but rather the model that's actually called "Series") laptop was up and running with a Cisco Aironet PCMCIA card plugged into it; though not in use (I suspect a prob with the DHCP service on the access point). I yanked the card out to try using it in my Linux machine, but since the PowerBook was nearly closed I didn't see the "Hey I was using that, put it back!" message box, not until like 10/15 minutes later. By that point, the system was totally frozen up, and I ended up unplugging it from the wall and then ejecting the battery (later of course I would discover the "Reset" button). But I've done this cut-off-both-power-sources thing before to achieve a reset and gotten away with it. Not this time. The PowerBook has refused to power up ever since.

I tried posting about this at macfixitforums but received naught but a faceful of "all your posts make things more difficult than necessary" or some such vitriol.

It is a PowerBook G3 series with a 9GB hard drive, 192MB RAM, 233 Mhz processor, and OS9.2.2. No USB or FireWire ports.

Anyone know where the problem might lie, and is it salvageable?

05-30-2007, 09:03 AM

Originally Posted by WindsorKnot

Hi folks.

A month ago or so, my PowerBook G3 Series (not WallStreet, not Lombard, not Pismo, but rather the model that's actually called "Series") laptop was up and running with a Cisco Aironet PCMCIA card plugged into it; though not in use (I suspect a prob with the DHCP service on the access point). I yanked the card out to try using it in my Linux machine, but since the PowerBook was nearly closed I didn't see the "Hey I was using that, put it back!" message box, not until like 10/15 minutes later. By that point, the system was totally frozen up, and I ended up unplugging it from the wall and then ejecting the battery (later of course I would discover the "Reset" button). But I've done this cut-off-both-power-sources thing before to achieve a reset and gotten away with it. Not this time. The PowerBook has refused to power up ever since.

I tried posting about this at macfixitforums but received naught but a faceful of "all your posts make things more difficult than necessary" or some such vitriol.

It is a PowerBook G3 series with a 9GB hard drive, 192MB RAM, 233 Mhz processor, and OS9.2.2. No USB or FireWire ports.

Anyone know where the problem might lie, and is it salvageable?

The "Wallstreet" & "PDQ" are the two PowerBook G3 models which were released under the "PowerBook G3 Series" name. Your model is probably the PDQ at a guess. The PDQ is basically a 2nd gen Wallstreet, AFAIK.

Do you have the original install media that came with the PB? I don't know much about these older machines and hopefully there's someone else out there who is willing to help out on this tricky situation ...

05-30-2007, 01:57 PM

Mind you, it's not that the system is failing to _boot_; it's simply not even powering on.

I picked this thing up on the ebay from Issaquah, Washington some years back. OS 9.2.2 was installed on the hard drive; I got no installation media.

As a last gasp, anyone recommend a reliable Mac repair shop (brick-and-mortar-like) in the SF Bay Area?