Dead Pismo: Remove PRAM Battery
From Joe:
Hi Charles,
If it's a bad PRAM battery on James Nakashima's Pismo, he likely has
to unplug the PRAM battery (which is a piece of cake using the ifixit.com take apart guide) before the
Pismo will power on. A
few years ago, I got a free - yes free! - Pismo on Craigslist. It
didn't work at the time, but it came with two good batteries (as well
as some other goodies) which worked well in my Lombard at the time. I set the
Pismo aside until a few months ago, when I bought another Pismo for $50
- again on Craigslist.
Sometime after I got it, I was Googling for something Pismo related
when I came across a post (I think it was on the Apple support forum -
of course I can't find it now) which suggested unplugging the PRAM
battery, then starting up with the adapter. I tried it on the free,
non-working Pismo, and it powered on and booted up! So before James
gives up on his Pismo, make sure he tries starting it up with the PRAM
battery disconnected.
I have to say that even though they are both 400 MHz models, $50 for
two working Pismos with three working batteries is pretty good - I love
Craigslist!
BTW, with enough memory (I maxed one of mine out at 1 GB), Tiger
runs quite nicely on the 400 MHz Pismo. It handles surfing pretty well.
It can even do YouTube, albeit a little choppily, and only after
waiting for the whole clip to download. I admit that there are some
pages with a little too much flash for the Pismo to handle - these
pages significantly slow down my 1.25 GHz G4 Mac mini as well. But
still, for an eight-year-old machine that cost me $25, I love it - I'm
typing on it now!
Joe
Hi Joe,
Thanks for the excellent tip, something I had
previously been unaware of, and I'll pass it along to James. Great deal
on those two old Pismos!
Charles
Dead Pismo May Boot with No Battery
From Matthew:
Charles,
I just read about the user whose Pismo doesn't work ever since its
battery died. Mine was having that problem too, but I took the dead
battery out of it and replaced it with the "weight saving device" from
the original box, and now it works fine when plugged in.
Matthew
Hi Matthew,
Interesting.
There must have been a defect in that battery causing
the charge circuitry in the Pismo to malfunction.
Charles
Pismo May Run without PRAM Battery
From Robert:
My Pismo 400 worked for years without the main battery, then it
wouldn't start properly. I assumed it was the PRAM battery, but I was
annoyed at the prices for a replacement. I discovered that it would run
fine on AC power alone with no main or PRAM battery. Being a Pismo,
it's very easy to access the PRAM battery and disconnect it.
Of course, the clock resets every time I start it up, but with an
Internet connection and the Date/Time set to find network time
automatically, that wasn't a problem.
I wonder if you could cobble together a 3.6v PRAM battery from the
original connector and 3 AA size NiMH cells. There's room in the
battery bay for them if you don't use a main battery. I'm not sure if
the PRAM battery was trickle charged from the power supply, but if it
was you could keep the NiMH cells charged indefinitely.
Rob
Hi Rob,
Interesting speculation. Those PRAM batteries are
getting pricey - supply and demand kicking in. So far both mine are
still going strong, but if you try out your theory, let us know how it
works out.
Charles
Comatose Pismo
From Mark:
The key to reviving comatose Pismos is to disconnect the dead PRAM
battery's pigtail from the motherboard (a simple operation - you just
lift the keyboard, eject the expansion bay drive, and pull the
pigtail), then plug in the power adapter and hit the power button. You
will get the startup chime. Then you can usually plug in the PRAM
battery again.
Mark
Hi Mark
Thanks for the tip!
Charles
Dead Pismo Fix
From Dylan McDermond:
Don't forget that the easiest way to revive a "dead" Pismo with PRAM
battery issues is to pull the keyboard up, remove the optical drive
sled, and pull the PRAM battery wire. Next, plug the PowerBook into the
power adapter, and it should start up if there is simply an issue with
the PRAM battery.
-Dylan
Hi Dylan,
Thanks muchly!
Charles
Thanks for Pismo Resurrection Tips
From James Nakashima:
Thanks, thanks, thanks and thanks!
Finally have time this weekend to give it the ol' college
try....
Thanks to all for the advice.
James
Another Pismo Boot Problem
From Michael:
Charles:
Have a Pismo, upgraded to 550 MHz G4 (Wegener Media), one gig RAM,
Tiger 10.4.11, upgraded hard drive to 40 GB, and upgraded
Mitsushima/Panasonic combo drive. Intermittently (as now) it will not
boot without pressing the PMU button on the back and only if plugged
into the external power supply. Once running, can run on battery with
no problem. Will not boot from battery alone. On occasion, this will
disappear and all will be well for a while. Have tried new PRAM battery
and Open Firmware reset to no avail. It will not boot from the optical
drive (option key at startup), although I seem to remember it once
did.
Any thoughts?
Mike
Hi Mike,
You seem to have covered all the usual troubleshooting
bases.
I'm wondering if bad RAM might be a factor. You could
try removing them one at a time and checking to see if that alleviates
the issues.
Another, more drastic diagnostic would be to
substitute another processor card (such as the original, if you still
have it) to see if it might be a processor card issue.
I suppose there is a remote possibility of a
motherboard problem. These old machines aren't getting any younger.
Charles
EasyFind a Good, Free Alternative to Spotlight
From Brett Campbell:
Hi Charles:
You might want to add to your recommendations for a Spotlight
substitute EasyFind,
Devon's free search utility, which I used both before and after the
advent of Spotlight. Even now, it often finds files that Spotlight
doesn't and almost always finds what I want faster than Spotlight
does.
Thanks again for all your Mac writing.
Brett
EasyFind
Think Mac OS X's Spotlight could use some help?
Download EasyFind, an alternative to (or supplement of) Spotlight and
find files, folders, or contents in any file without indexing. EasyFind
is especially useful for those tired of slow or impossible indexing,
outdated or corrupted indices, or those just looking for features
missing in the Finder or Spotlight.
Highlights:
- Boolean operators, wildcards, phrases
- Immediate searches, no indexing required
- Finds invisible files and files inside packages (something
Spotlight doesn't do)
- Displays the location of each file in a separate column
- Provides contextual menus and services
- Supports drag-and-drop
- Very responsive, thanks to multithreading
- Uses very little memory
Hi Brett,
Thanks for mentioning EasyFind. I've used it, and I
generally like Devon Technologies' software. I included it in my list
of top 10 freeware
picks earlier this year.
However, for non-indexed searches I tended to use (and
still do from time to time) another little utility called SpeedSearch,
which searches specific folders. Here's a link to an old review,
SpeedSearch
Text Search App; Better Than Sherlock II.
But even with its manifold shortcomings, the raw speed
of Spotlight (and various third-party offshoots like SpotInside that tap into the
Spotlight technology) has roped me in.
That said, EasyFind is an excellent little search
utility, and the price is hard to argue with!
Charles
Spotlight File Name Search Tip
From Zack:
Charles,
You might want to inform Gerhard about using the "name:" string in
Spotlight searches. For example, using a search such as
"name:mydocument" should only list the file "mydocument." While it may
be annoying to have to type the "name:" string, this method should
produce the type of results that Gerhard expected under the Classic
OS.
Keep up the great work at LEM.
Best regards,
Zack
Hi Zack,
Thanks for that info. Definitely easier than going to
another application.
Seems to me that Apple could figure out a way to make
filename searches more convenient, though.
Charles
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