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Lateralus · May 2, 2003, 05:56 PM

Hey guys.

I purchased a used Pismo about a week ago, and it arrived today. I'm having some pretty major problems with it:

1) The hard drive is blank, so I cannot boot to test the machine. Upon powering up, I receive the blank system folder icon, as should be, so I put in my OS X CD. It wont boot from it. I put in my OS 9.1 CD, wont boot from it either. There is optical drive activity for about 5 seconds after I put the CD in, but it then dies down. And yes, I am holding down the C key.

2) The machine will not powerup using either of the AC adapters I recieved with the machine, but it will run from the battery. Should I reset the Power Management Unit? If so, how do I go about doing this?

I have zapped the PRAM and reset the NVRAM. No go.

Thanks in advance for your help guys.

PeteWK · May 2, 2003, 06:02 PM

1. How much did you know about the Pismo when you bought it?

2. You might want to try target disk mode or booting up from a firewire cd or hard drive.

PeteWK

Lateralus · May 2, 2003, 06:08 PM

1) I was told that it worked fine, and was in great shape. Which, it wasnt.
He shipped it via USPS, which I have called and they told me that I have pretty much zero chance of getting my money back since with computers it is impossible to prove that it wasnt broken before shipping. The fact that it was insured seems to be irrelevant.

2) I have no other Macs nor do I have any FW drives.

fisherKing · May 2, 2003, 06:13 PM

tough one...
try holding in the reset button for a while...
try powering up, holding the c key, AND jiggle the dvd drive bay a little...mine is finicky, sometimes doesnt seat right.

good luck...

Lateralus · May 2, 2003, 06:36 PM

Originally posted by fisherKing:
...AND jiggle the dvd drive bay a little...mine is finicky, sometimes doesnt seat right.

good luck...

Holy crap, that did it. It's installing OS 9 now. Thank you!

However, it still refuses to run from the power adapter alone. Any ideas?

Lateralus · May 2, 2003, 08:21 PM

Anybody know how to reset the PMU?

Lateralus · 10:37 PM

Okay.

I fixed the power problem.

While screwing with the power adapter, I noticed upon plugging it in that there was a small spark near the part of the cord that plugs into the yo-yo... So I used the cord from the second power adapter (He sent me two) and now all is well.

Thanks guys.

zos · May 4, 2003, 12:05 PM

Those yo-yo cords are absolute garbage. I've been using a slightly more expensive adapter from Madsonline.com that's a joy to use because of it's very small footprint. Check it out if you keep having problems.