[SirCastor]

I got the pismo booted up, working, and installed 10.2
All was well, and I left it to install 10.2.8, when I got home it needed a reboot. I rebooted, and suddenly I'm getting weirdness on the gray apple startup screen.

The screen comes up normal for a second, then I get these weird horizontal bars. Like something display wise has gone wrong. The little loading spinner will stop for a moment, and then spin endlessly with the picture on the screen remaining the same.

I've tried zapping the PRAM, and I stuck in a CD to try to boot from that, but no luck. It won't get that far. The only thing I can think of that's changed (besides the OS) is that I put on some Thermal compound between the chip and the heatsink (I also cleaned both sides with some Isopropyl alcohol as I found recommended) I don't think I put too much on.

Here's a picture:


Any ideas?

[HowEver]

What had happened before that prompted you to apply thermal compound and clean with isopropyl alcohol?

It may not be related; it may be it was just time for the logic board to die; fortunately, if you can manage the assembly, a replacement logic board is only $50 or less on eBay now.

But before you order that, did you take the daughterboard off when cleaning up? It could be it wasn't re-seated properly. It needs a real push down; the usual phrase is that it takes a "sickening thud."

Hope things work out.

[SirCastor]

I added Thermal compound because the existing stuff had dried out. This Pismo in particular came from a surplus sale at the local University. It booted up fine prior to this, but It was suggested to me that there was probably need for some new compound.

In retrospect, I probably should have left well enough alone. The Isopropyl was to clean off the old stuff.
I didn't remove the daughterboard to apply anything, while I have pulled it multiple times, it is properly seated. I don't think it would boot at all if it weren't (That's been my experience prior to this...

[HowEver]

Can you try swapping out the RAM? If you have two chips, try booting off each? Also, can you try booting up from an external hard drive to see if that works?

[Waragainstsleep]

Have you had it running OS X before? If not, I would suspect the RAM. OS 9 is much less picky than X. I had a Lombard which had this one stick that was fine for a month, suddenly went screwy and stayed that way no matter what I tried. I removed it for months but tried again and got exactly the same. Fine for a month, then died again.
I should really be able to tell you exactly whats up. I have seen this before, but It was ages ago so I can only give you my best guesses. I don't think it was the board last time. Guess it could be the CPU. There is a firmware update for the Pismo.
Thermal compound is a lot less crucial on the lower clocked G3s than on G4s. Most G4s will burn out in seconds if you boot them without a heat sink. G3s can survive at least few minutes.

[VetPsychWars]

I've seen that exact thing when trying to shove 10.2 onto a Kanga. Try resetting Open Firmware. I don't remember how you do that, but if you Google you can find it.

Try booting while holding down the V key so you can see actual system messages instead of the spinny thing.

Tom

[Waragainstsleep]

Booting holding apple-option-O-F.
At the prompt type:

reset-nvram
reset-all

with returns after each line. Should reboot then.