[gkrykewy]

I just replaced the hard drive in my fiance's G3 Pismo and duplicated my iBook's disk image (10.3.3) onto it. Everything seems to work fine, except there's no startup chime. Sounds function properly during system operation.

It's worth noting that her PRAM battery is dead (has been for months - but the startup chime worked fine on the old HD (10.1) before the drive failed). Also, her main battery is completely useless/dead. She has to get power from the A/C adaptor.

[tooki]

The startup chime has absolutely nothing to do with the OS installed. It should chime even with no OS installed at all.

I suggest you reset the PMU: turn off the machine and hold down the little reset button next to the modem jack for about 5 seconds (no longer than 10, and do not press it multiple times!!) Then restart.

You may find that this will solve all the battery problems, as it is highly unlikely that the main battery and the backup battery (it has no dedicated PRAM battery) are both dead. Note that the backup battery is also a LiIon battery, not a disposable lithium battery like the PRAM battery in desktops. Instead, my hunch is that the PMU has crashed, preventing either battery from being charged or used. Resetting it might fix that. (Assuming that PMU malfunction hasn't abused the batteries so much that they can't work at all.)

tooki

[gkrykewy]

Thanks for the tip! I'll definitely try that tomorrow. What's weird is that after I installed the new HD, I booted into firewire target mode so I could clone from my ibook. When it booted into target mode that time, the chime sounded. It was only after the cloning that the chime went away.

[gkrykewy]

I was able to bring back the chime by zapping the PRAM. Resetting the PMU didn't seem to help anything. The system does have the correct clock now, however, so maybe the backup battery was repaired. I performed the terminal command for checking main battery capacity (as described in another thread), and I get the following result:

"Capacity"=10000,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=0,"Volt age"=0,"Flags"=838860931

I'm guessing this means the battery is fully dead, with no hope of resurrection?

[mrmister]

I just wish there was a way to actually kill the startup chime--that would rock.

[tooki]

Originally posted by gkrykewy:
I was able to bring back the chime by zapping the PRAM. Resetting the PMU didn't seem to help anything. The system does have the correct clock now, however, so maybe the backup battery was repaired. I performed the terminal command for checking main battery capacity (as described in another thread), and I get the following result:

"Capacity"=10000,"Amperage"=1200,"Current"=0,"Volt age"=0,"Flags"=838860931

I'm guessing this means the battery is fully dead, with no hope of resurrection?

It means the battery is returning nonsense data, because there's no way it should have 10000 capacity: that battery should be approximately 5400 (new), and drop from there as it ages. It certainly didn't increase in capacity! My guess is that the processor in the battery is messed up, probably from being without proper charge for a long time (again, because the PMU is supposed to tell it to charge). Letting it sit and charge may do something (and if that works at all, you may need to calibrate the battery again: charge it, then drain it slowly until the computer goes comatose, then repeat one more time, then charge and see what it does then).

As for the backup battery: no battery was "repaired". The PMU (power management unit) was crashed, so it wasn't using the backup battery. Resetting the PMU (=rebooting it) fixed that, so now it's using the backup battery again.

Originally posted by mrmister:
I just wish there was a way to actually kill the startup chime--that would rock.

The usual sources have plenty of programs to do just that: it took me 10 seconds to find several. Such programs have been around since the earliest PowerBooks (and unlike most desktop Macs, which set the startup chime volume to medium if you select Mute in the OS, PowerBooks have always muted the startup chime when you selected Mute).

tooki

[gkrykewy]

Thanks, Tooki. The battery refuses to charge. The icon in the top right always says that it's 0% charged.

[0s and 1s]

Originally posted by mrmister:
I just wish there was a way to actually kill the startup chime--that would rock.

Mute the volume before you shut down your PB.