PowerMac G3 B&W no signal

[ppcguy1]

Hello everyone,

So I got an old PowerMac G3 Blue and White off eBay. At first, I had problems with getting a signal. I reseated the RAM a few times and everything worked again.

Last night I was writing a text on Mac OS 8.5.1 and then I turned the Mac off.

This morning, I wanted to use it again and install Mac OS X Public Beta. But I couldn’t even get to that point, because I again had no signal.

I tried reseating the RAM again but this time it didn’t work. I’m also getting the chime but nothing else. I can also turn it off by simply pushing the power button once (?)

The battery still has 3.62V, so that should not be the problem.

What can I do?

 

[ppcguy1]

When I first installed Mac OS X 10.2 brw it always crashed when trying to use finder. Didn’t have that problem on Mac OS 8.

 

[Project Alice]

These things are some of the most finicky PPC Machines ever. Do you know which revision B&W you have?
RAM is one of the many things that can cause these types of problems. Also how old is that battery? It might not hurt to replace it anyways.

The other thing that causes these Macs to act up is the IDE Bus. I have a Rev 2 and even it has issues on Mac OS X enough that I use an ATA PCI card instead. Are the cables and drives original?

There is a firmware update needed to run Mac OS X on those which might explain the Finder crashes in Jaguar.

 

[ppcguy1]

These things are some of the most finicky PPC Machines ever. Do you know which revision B&W you have?
RAM is one of the many things that can cause these types of problems. Also how old is that battery? It might not hurt to replace it anyways.

The other thing that causes these Macs to act up is the IDE Bus. I have a Rev 2 and even it has issues on Mac OS X enough that I use an ATA PCI card instead. Are the cables and drives original?

There is a firmware update needed to run Mac OS X on those which might explain the Finder crashes in Jaguar.

How do I find out which revision I have? I don’t know how old the battery is, but I bought a new one on Amazon. Arrives today.

I don’t if these cables and drives are original though, how can I find that out?

 

[Wild Hare]

“Finnicky” is definitely correct and may even be an understatement. Especially if you have the Rev.1 board with the PCI646U2 CMD chip.

AND if you’ve installed OS X 10.2 without dual-partitioning your HD, keeping Mac OS 8.5.1 separate on its’ own partition (with OS X on another) ESPECIALLY with the Rev.1 board… yes you will have problems. I recently upgraded 3 B&Ws here to Rev.2 boards and with dual-partitioned HDs (plus SSD with the Rev.2). I’ve had no problems whatsoever since.

Previously I had gone the dual-partition route with a Rev.1 and it then became stable.

And yes, running with firmware updated to 1.1f4 / on all B&Ws here. *Not running OS 8.5.1 - but OS 9.2.2 and Tiger 10.4.11.

For years I could never successfully boot any attempted OS X Tiger install on a B&W, but then I began formatting the intended & separate Tiger partition with Tiger’s Disk Utility from the install disc (BEFORE actually installing Tiger) as HFS+ (Journaled) - and then suddenly my B&W Tiger installs worked without fail and continue to do so until this day.

*AND under OS 9, the ATI Video Accelerator needs to be disabled via the Extension Manager. You might also try booting with all extensions off (Shift-key boot) to see if you might possibly have some conflict(s). And then begin that detective work to find any possible culprit(s).

Have fun and the absolute best of luck.

 

[ahurst]

Try cutting down to one or two RAM sticks if possible, replace the PRAM battery (if you haven’t already), and try resetting the CUDA (there’s a button on the logic board) and the PRAM. If you have any extra PCI cards, try removing them for good measure.

When I have a PowerMac that chimes but doesn’t show an image, it’s usually fixed by removing one or two RAM modules. The slots on my B&W have given me quite a bit of headache, with modules needing to be reseated dozens of times before they’d work stable in my machine.

 

[Project Alice]

How do I find out which revision I have? I don’t know how old the battery is, but I bought a new one on Amazon. Arrives today.

I don’t if these cables and drives are original though, how can I find that out?

I would assume you actually have a Rev1 running 8.5.1. The rev 2 shipped with 8.6. But I would still verify which one you have. The only reason I asked if the drives were original is because sometimes previous owners have not always had things setup properly. And Being a B&W that can cause a lot of problems.

“Finnicky” is definitely correct and may even be an understatement. Especially if you have the Rev.1 board with the PCI646U2 CMD chip.

View attachment 1991396

AND if you’ve installed OS X 10.2 without dual-partitioning your HD, keeping Mac OS 8.5.1 separate on its’ own partition (with OS X on another) ESPECIALLY with the Rev.1 board… yes you will have problems. I recently upgraded 3 B&Ws here to Rev.2 boards and with dual-partitioned HDs (plus SSD with the Rev.2). I’ve had no problems whatsoever since.

Previously I had gone the dual-partition route with a Rev.1 and it then became stable.

And yes, running with firmware updated to 1.1f4 / on all B&Ws here. *Not running OS 8.5.1 - but OS 9.2.2 and Tiger 10.4.11.

For years I could never successfully boot any attempted OS X Tiger install on a B&W, but then I began formatting the intended & separate Tiger partition with Tiger’s Disk Utility from the install disc (BEFORE actually installing Tiger) as HFS+ (Journaled) - and then suddenly my B&W Tiger installs worked without fail and continue to do so until this day.

*AND under OS 9, the ATI Video Accelerator needs to be disabled via the Extension Manager. You might also try booting with all extensions off (Shift-key boot) to see if you might possibly have some conflict(s). And then begin that detective work to find any possible culprit(s).

Have fun and the absolute best of luck.

I never have OS 9 on separate partitions so I can't comment on what types of issues not doing so may cause. On my B&W I have OS 9.2.2 on its own disk on the internal ATA bus, Tiger on one disk plugged into an ATA133 PCI card, and Leopard on another (mine is a G4 now).
If your goal is to install OS X, I would update the firmware, upgrade to 9.2.2, and then install Mac OS X. Just use the OS 9 disk setup included on the OS 9 install CD to create a single partition.

 

[scarlett7447]

Hello everyone,

So I got an old PowerMac G3 Blue and White off eBay. At first, I had problems with getting a signal. I reseated the RAM a few times and everything worked again.

Last night I was writing a text on Mac OS 8.5.1 and then I turned the Mac off.

This morning, I wanted to use it again and install Mac OS X Public Beta. But I couldn’t even get to that point, because I again had no signal.

I tried reseating the RAM again but this time it didn’t work. I’m also getting the chime but nothing else. I can also turn it off by simply pushing the power button once (?)

The battery still has 3.62V, so that should not be the problem.

What can I do?

Sounds like a RAM problem, try booting with only one stick. Also if you don't care about it keeping the time, remove the battery.