[G4] G4 in a coma

[btfarmer at optonline.net]

It's alive!!

The battery-button-zap (in a particular order for a particular amount of time) trick worked! My G4 lives again. 4 restarts, 2 shutdowns, and no more problems. I seriously thought for awhile I'd need a new machine, or an expensive repair (my sympathies to you, Snoke Jay). Thank you all hugely for help and advice!

-Bruce Meyers

Here's the problem and solution recap:


---From: CJ Scaminaci <halogenius at sbcglobal.net>
>
>This has happened many a time to me. It's most likely corrupted NVRAM. 
>NVRAM stores startup disk and other information. There really is no way 
>to clear it other than pressing the CUDA button on your motherboard. 
>Here is the procedure:
>
>1.Hold down the CUDA switch for 10 seconds.
>2.Remove the battery for approximately 30 minutes.
>3.On startup zap the PRAM (Command-Option-P-R) about 4 times.
>
>If this is unsuccessful you may have a hardware conflict or bad 
>hardware.


--- btfarmer at optonline.net wrote:
>
> After replacing my (crashed) second hard drive, my
> nice G4 dual 533 will not boot up. 
> 
> I turn it on, I get a startup tone, the fans go on,
> the light on the front goes on. Then: nothing. No
> hard drive activity, the screen stays totally black.
> It will not boot from any CD either.
> 
> The weird part: I took it to Tekserve in NY, a guy
> there started it at least twice... successfully!
> Told me it was probably just a power surge, nothing
> really wrong with it. Just needed a few hours
> unplugged. I took it home, and booted it myself. 
> 
> It started fine - once - then went black again when
> I restarted!!  It was like that Warners cartoon with
> the singing frog, in reverse... :(
> 
> I tried:
> disconnecting all USB/Firewire/ethernet cables.
> taking out and trading the RAM
> zapping the PRAM
> replacing the motherboard battery and pushing the
> reset button
> leaving it unplugged all night
> trying a different outlet
> trying a different surge strip
> trying a different power chord
> taking out ALL the hard drives.
> taking out all the PCI cards (except the graphics
> card)