# Apple G3 Clamshell iBook issue



## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

I have a first generation tangerine G3 clamshell ibook.
I had MacOS 9.2 installed on it and it was working fine. I decided to sell it and so I ran Dban 2.0 on it to wipe out the hard drive.
After that I tried to reinstall the original MacOS 8.6 software and here is the issue...
The MacOS 8.6 logo appears and it seems like the "desktop", or whatever apple calls it, appears and then it suddenly shuts down.
I reset the PRAM and no go either.

It does not make sense to me as it had been working.
I burned a copy of Ubuntu 7 for powerpcs and run a hardware scan and it came out fine.
I was unable to do a normal install of Ubuntu because i had to download the alternative install since the ibook only has 192MB of RAM...my unix skills are bad so I did not have luck running the debian installer...so i could prove it works.

I would like to buy MacOS 9.x and make sure it works before I sell it. I would think it should work fine but I am puzzled.

Does anyone have any ideas about it? have you experienced something like it?
Suggestions/ideas appreciated.

Thanks


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Is this while you are trying to boot off of the CD, or after you have reinstalled the OS?


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

It happens when the system is booting from the MacOS CD. I am trying to reinstall MacOS at this point.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Okay, next question, does this iBook have a Firewire port on it?


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

no, the first generation of clamshells did not have firewire.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

What happen when you hold down the shift key as it boots?


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

The little mac icon appears...the progress bar fills up and just when the desktop or GUI is about to appear it shuts down.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

I have to ask this just so that it can be marked off of the list of possibilities, but are you sure it's turning off, and not just the screen backlight going off? That is the point when the last screen setting it remembers activates, like if you had the resolution, brightness, or contrast set to something different, so if the brightness was off, then it'd turn off at that point. Also, have you ever done a firmware update on it? You said that it has OS 9 on it, do you still have those CD's to try to boot from?


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

I am sure it is shutting down as I can hear the CD-Drive stops spinning, the power light going off and no hard drive either.
I have the MacOS 8.6 CD which is what I am attempting to install and no I do not have a MacOS 9 CD.
I dont think I ever did a firmware update unless that is part of the Apple Updates done thru the OS.
I am really not an Apple person so I can't pin point everything but I am trying.
My wife was the user of it...I barely used it.

But I know for certain that it was running MacOS 9.2 fine before I run Dban on it.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Wow, this is a puzzle. I have copies of all the OSes that it can run, and if it were me, I'd just try a different OS. But you don't have that. The next thing I'd do is hard reset. First do a PMU reset, instructions here, only do steps 1 thru 6. Then turn it on, and without waiting hold command+option+p+r, and it should restart and bong. Keep holding that until you have heard the bong at least 3 times. Then after that hold down the c key, and hopefully it'll boot. If that doesn't fix it, then something when wacko with the iBook, and it'll need a regular Apple service center to look at it.


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

I will try that tomorrow and report - thanks


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

Ok, i tried these steps using the software install and the software restore CD.
In both cases, it comes to the welcome screen then it says starting up and you can see the progress bar filling up and then the "desktop" appears and you see the battery icon at the top with a red X since there's no battery and then it shuts down. :4-dontkno

I am going to spend the money and buy MacOS 9 and try...

If that does not work then I'll just have to get :upset: and then get over it.


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1835

Thought this was an interesting piece of info for myself.


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Yes, that is interesting info. But I'm still puzzled, as my experience has been that if it is not support, it won't even boot. The fact that you are getting to the desktop has got me wondering. Well, if OS 9 doesn't work, then feel free to ship it to me, as now I want to mess with this thing and figure out the issue. Now that I've said that, while thinking of what'd I do, does it have a wireless card installed? And have you pulled out the RAM upgrade? This thing will run on just 32Mb of RAM in OS 8.6, which is on the motherboard. I'd pull the RAM out, and the wireless card and try again with the OS install CD.


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

i'll try the MacOS 9.2.2 and see what happens.
It does not have an aircard so no wireless. I opened it before to check where to put it.
I can also mess with the RAM and try with only the integrated ram.
I work extensively on PCs so I am not afraid with hardware tinkering.

Thanks for all the help/advice so far.


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

voila!

The MacOS 9.2.2 CD did the trick...I noticed that I had to initialize the hard drive before the install maybe 8.6 was not able to see the hard drive?

No clue - but the point is - it worked!!

Thanks for all your help!


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## sinclair_tm (Mar 11, 2005)

Well, good to know that. It would seem that you have to have a very special copy of 8.6 to work with an older iBook. Glad you go it going.


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## wayliff (Mar 24, 2002)

actually seems like that is correct - check the link i posted above. The ibook has a (3) on the column for MacOS 8.6. However i would think they shipped the factory version with the iBook ... perhaps that was the reason for the issue.


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