How to boot a PowerMac G3?

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Georg Schwarz - 22 Apr 2006 15:28 GMT

I was given a beige PowerMac G3/233 desktop. It can be powered on via
the ADB power switch, I do hear the startup chime, the picture (it seems
at 640 x 480, but this is hard to tell) appears on the onboard video,
and the mouse pointer can be moved around the screen. But that's it
basically. The machine does not seem to boot from either the hard disk ,
the CD, or a floppy disk. When powering on with the mouse button held
down it does not spit out any CD or floppy (should those models do so?).
I've zapped the PRAM using option-command-PR, but this did not make a
difference. I can enter the OF screen and type commands. Is there a
command that shows me which attached devices the Mac has found?
How can I make that system boot?

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Georg Schwarz http://home.pages.de/~schwarz/
georg.schwarz@freenet.de +49 178 8545053

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Chuck Reti - 22 Apr 2006 23:22 GMT

> I was given a beige PowerMac G3/233 desktop. It can be powered on via
> the ADB power switch, I do hear the startup chime, the picture (it seems
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> command that shows me which attached devices the Mac has found?
> How can I make that system boot?

Have you checked or replaced the logic board battery (Tadiran TL 5101 or
equivalent)?

Is RAM installed and properly seated?

There is also the "CUDA" button on the logic board which can be used to
reset a number of logic board parameters. I do not have the information
on the proper startup sequence to follow when resetting the CUDA, so
others will have to jump in and add more information for you.

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Chuck Reti
Detroit MI USA

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Georg Schwarz - 23 Apr 2006 15:22 GMT

>Have you checked or replaced the logic board battery (Tadiran TL 5101 or
>equivalent)?

just checked it. It is empty. Could that cause the described behaviour of
not booting at all?

Is there a way in OF to display which potential boot devices have been
recognized?

>Is RAM installed and properly seated?

It is installed, and if it wasn't properly seated I don't think I would
get to a proper startup chime and non-black screen at all.

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Georg Schwarz http://home.pages.de/~schwarz/
georg.schwarz@freenet.de +49 178 8545053

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Chuck Reti - 24 Apr 2006 05:06 GMT

> >Have you checked or replaced the logic board battery (Tadiran TL 5101 or
> >equivalent)?
>
> just checked it. It is empty. Could that cause the described behaviour of
> not booting at all?

It is possible.

> Is there a way in OF to display which potential boot devices have been
> recognized?

I have not had the pleasure of deailing with OF, so, sorry, cannot be of
help.
Go to Google Macintosh http://www.google.com/mac
Enter Open Firmware search for a long list of OF resource sites.

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Chuck Reti
Detroit MI

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Barry OGrady - 13 Jun 2006 15:18 GMT

>> I was given a beige PowerMac G3/233 desktop. It can be powered on via
>> the ADB power switch, I do hear the startup chime, the picture (it seems
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>Have you checked or replaced the logic board battery (Tadiran TL 5101 or
>equivalent)?

The battery in my Beige G3 desktop was flat and the only noticeable effect was
that I had to set time and date each time I started it.
Against all advice I left it on charge overnight at 100 ma and have not had to set
the clock in two months.

>Is RAM installed and properly seated?
>
>There is also the "CUDA" button on the logic board which can be used to
>reset a number of logic board parameters. I do not have the information
>on the proper startup sequence to follow when resetting the CUDA, so
>others will have to jump in and add more information for you.

Barry
=====
Home page
http://members.iinet.net.au/~barry.og

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Mac Forum / General / Hardware / June 2006

How to boot a PowerMac G3?