Mac Forum / General / Portable Macs / February 2004

I have just acquired an original Powerbook G3, AKA Kanga. The PB has a
power problem that I need help narrowing down. It originally would not
power up with either AC power or the battery so I did the power
manager reset per the apple troubleshooting guide and it did boot up
and run for about 6 hours without a hiccup. After powering off and
removing AC power, the laptop chimed when I lifted it (battery still
in)so I reconnected AC power to try to figure it out. No luck
intially. I was able to power it up but only after disconnecting the
PRAM battery for a couple of minutes and then reconnecting. It then
started and ran for about 10 minutes before shutting off abruptly. I
was able to restart by applying pressure to left of trackpad just over
the hard drive. Believe it or not, this pressure applied with ac
adapter in place and battery in place will start the book sometimes
without even pressing the power key. My question is where to start? I
know the PRAM is dead (no flashing light, dates/times lost when power
removed) but wonder if the problem is the PMU? It sits close to the
hard drive, so I don't know if the external pressure application is
helping to jumpstart the PMU or not. Could it be a hard drive problem?
Is the Laptop overheating and causing the abrupt cessation of life? I
have read about the aforementioned CPR technique on 3400's/kangas but
that did not explain the unit shutting down automatically like it
does. Any ideas out there?