Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

haimf · Apr 27, 2004, 04:05 PM

My PowerBook (Lombard-bronze kb) is very sick.
sometimes boots and works for an hour or so
sometimes I hear the chime on boot but thats it
sometimes starts boot procedure but freezes with apple onscreen
sometimes I hear nothing, only faint klick, screen black
I tried everything: zap pram, reset PMU and wait 5 sec.,
removed battery, checked pram battery(reads 6.8 volts)
I suspect the PMU but have no evidence.
I realize now that I did not hear the fan lately (overheated?)
if the processor is broken, how come it doeas do thing occasionaly?
any ideas, friends?
Thank you all
Haim

nagromme · Apr 27, 2004, 04:57 PM

Sounds like something is loose/shorted--maybe you can ground yourself and tighten everything?

I don't think it's cooling alone--that wouldn't trigger a problem so quickly, I don't think.

There may just be some part that's gone bad. Good luck!

hldan · Apr 27, 2004, 05:54 PM

Haimf, I don't know your financial situation but it looks like it's just time to put the Lombard to rest. No kidding, but it has seen the Pismo, the iBooks and all of the tiBooks drive by and now the Alu's are in town. It wouldn't make much sense to spend time and some money repairing older hardware that's really not capable of using OSX properly and it has no FW.
If you can afford it then do an upgrade to an iBook G4 or a Alu PB.

The Placid Casual · Apr 27, 2004, 06:08 PM

Originally posted by hldan:
Haimf, I don't know your financial situation but it looks like it's just time to put the Lombard to rest. No kidding, but it has seen the Pismo, the iBooks and all of the tiBooks drive by and now the Alu's are in town. It wouldn't make much sense to spend time and some money repairing older hardware that's really not capable of using OSX properly and it has no FW.
If you can afford it then do an upgrade to an iBook G4 or a Alu PB.

What if the guy has no need for FW, and only uses OS 9?

I'd crack the machine open and have a delve around...

Kami · Apr 27, 2004, 11:12 PM

Have you tried reseating the processor (CPU) so it is sitting snugly?

haimf · Apr 27, 2004, 11:59 PM

Thank you all for your ideas,
I do have fw via MicroOrange PCMCIA card.Works fine with IPOD and my Sony PC110 video (Imovie, no FCP of course).
I did check the fitnes of CPU doughter board. Seems to me as if the PMU chip, motorola 68HC05 is bad. I'll try to replace it if I can purchase it. Since I have invested in memory (384 Mb),HD (IBM 40 Gb Travelstar, spare battery and the OrengeMicro) I think I'll go as far as replacing mother board (about $150) before giving up.

The Placid Casual · Apr 28, 2004, 01:03 PM

Originally posted by haimf:
Thank you all for your ideas,
I do have fw via MicroOrange PCMCIA card.Works fine with IPOD and my Sony PC110 video (Imovie, no FCP of course).
I did check the fitnes of CPU doughter board. Seems to me as if the PMU chip, motorola 68HC05 is bad. I'll try to replace it if I can purchase it. Since I have invested in memory (384 Mb),HD (IBM 40 Gb Travelstar, spare battery and the OrengeMicro) I think I'll go as far as replacing mother board (about $150) before giving up.

Good luck with it!

SEkker · Apr 28, 2004, 01:50 PM

I just filed my old Lombard to the workshop shelves this weekend when it's replacement AC/DC card also failed. I spent all afternoon dismantling and reinstalling the card, with and without new solder joints, to no avail.

Realistically, the value of a current Lombard is in its parts for those who cannot 'part' with an old friend. For example, I decided the AC power cord, battery, and potentially screen were going to be used to repair an Old Pismo if and when it breaks.

Financially, you could probably sell the Lombard for parts and buy a much better iBook without losing any money.

On the other hand, it sure was a hard decision to make -- my Lombard was my first notebook computer that REALLY competed with a desktop machine, and was the first step to my all laptop computer existence.

Good luck resurrecting an old friend!

Lews Therin · Apr 29, 2004, 08:36 PM

Search about for info on lombard cache problems. This is a known problem. The only fix is a replacement daughterboard or G4 upgrade. If you upgrade you still have to be able to boot to get the ROM off the original card. Bit of a catch 22.

vmarks · Apr 30, 2004, 07:32 PM

actually, the cache problem is also avoided by the newest 1ghz g3 upgrades, where it uses the cache on chip instead of on board.

But that may not be the problem. I'm afraid I wouldn't know quite where to start with the lombard other than to take it apart and clean all the connectors between boards.

What else is there to say about an intermittent problem like this, other than to check and see if it isn't also heat related (failure occurs when machine is warm or hot) ?