[Bklynrx7]

Hello everyone,
I was recently given an old ibook g3 by a friend of mine. It came with OSX on it and it was running pretty slow so i gave it to someone to put OS9 back on it. For one reason or another they ended up putting a completely reformatted HDD into it.
Now the unit powers on, I can hear the hdd spin, the cd drive spin and the welcome chime, but the screen remains entirely black.

Someone told me that this is because, of an issue with the firmware due to the OS being gone. How can I get this unit running again? I have no other working mac, just windows computers.
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

[seanc]

What speed is it? The label under the keyboard would tell you.

If you shine a torch on the front of the screen, can you see an outline of anything (like the blinking folder with a question mark in the middle)?

If the screen is black, you have one, or both of two problems;
1. Your screen cable is broken and so the backlight is not turning on
2. You have the famous logic board failure where the video chip loses connection with the logic board and so you get nothing.

What happens if you turn it off, put some pressure on the left hand trackpad rest, and turn it back on again?

[Bklynrx7]

OK, Nothing happens when I press on the left of the wrist rest, and there is nothing on the screen at all, even with a flashlight its pitch black. Any other ideas?