Power Book Duo 230, help!



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Author	Power Book Duo 230, help! (Read 31149 times)
echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	on: November 09, 2006, 00:15 I recently obtained a power book duo 230 AND two duo docks for it! I'd totally be rocking with this laptop and all the wonderful software on this site, but for one problem. I boot it up (I have to run on AC, the batteries are shot) and it goes "bong!" like it's supposed to. Then, before anything else happens, it plays a sort of unhappy sounding tone that can really only be described as a "game over" tone from an 8-bit rpg. The caps lock on the keyboard lights up, so I know parts of it are still functioning. The dock had an old disk labeled "Boot Disk System 7.5" which I assume is a Mac OS boot disk, so I could probably revive this thing if I only knew what was wrong! I'm thinking it's a hardware issue but I'm not totally sure. Any suggestions? I'm at my wits end here and would try almost anything.

dpaanlka 1024 MB Posts: 1646	Reply #1 on: November 09, 2006, 01:23 What does the screen display? Anything at all?

echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	Reply #2 on: November 09, 2006, 01:45 Nope, nothing. Plays that tone before anything at all happens.

dpaanlka 1024 MB Posts: 1646	Reply #3 on: November 09, 2006, 02:23 After it plays the tone, trying turning up the brightness on your display. If you can't do that, look at the display very closely. It might be showing something, but the backlight is off. Visit this page and go through the eight "crash sounds" and tell us if the weird noises you hear are any of those.

echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	Reply #4 on: November 09, 2006, 03:35 Well, I can't play any of those sounds on that web page, but there is definitely nothing on the screen at all. Totally black. I'm going to try and obtain a proper mac monitor to plug into the dock to see if anything comes up there.

dpaanlka 1024 MB Posts: 1646	Reply #5 on: November 09, 2006, 04:08 Quote from: "echo35" Well, I can't play any of those sounds on that web page What?? thats weird... what kind of computer are you using to browse these forums? Quote from: "echo35" Totally black. I'm going to try and obtain a proper mac monitor to plug into the dock to see if anything comes up there. Hmm well I have a feeling you're Duo is having a severe hardware issue if what you're describing is a crash sound... which I think it is.

echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	Reply #6 on: November 09, 2006, 21:30 I took a video of it with my camera phone and posted it on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4514141544723462032 I think it's a hardware issue personally but I've inspected it and found nothing wrong with it. All the parts are there and intact. Oh, I'm using a custom built Linux box here. I don't actually own any Mac besides the one that won't boot.

dpaanlka 1024 MB Posts: 1646	Reply #7 on: November 10, 2006, 00:23 Yeah, that's a death chime. That means the hardware check failed. There are many things that can cause this... it's strange that it's not displaying anything, as death chimes usually go along with sad mac faces.

echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	Reply #8 on: November 10, 2006, 15:56 I have a feeling thatit's the hard drive, since it doesn't even getto the point of displaying anything and when I had the case open, it didn't vibrate or make a sound like you would expect a normalhdd to make, and everything else seems fine. I figuredit was failing a POST, could it be the hdd?

dpaanlka 1024 MB Posts: 1646	Reply #9 on: November 10, 2006, 18:38 No, it wouldn't be the hard drive. Any Macintosh should at least display the blinking floppy question mark icon if there is no hard drive or a corrupt hard drive. And when you hear those death chimes, it would be displaying the dead Mac icon on the screen. Your problem is likely more serious.

RacerX 32 MB Posts: 36	Reply #10 on: November 10, 2006, 21:33 Well, here are a couple possibilities...[list=1] Memory error. This doesn't mean the memory is bad, because you can get that type of sound if you add/replace memory without clearing the PRAM (or reset the logic board) on older Macs . The battery is really bad. I've seen Duos with batteries so bad that they wouldn't start with them connected. Easiest solution is to pull the battery. If you want b bad battery in (for esthetics), cover the leads of the battery with electrical tape.[/list:o]To clear the PRAM on that system, hold down apple-option-P-R while starting it. Hold those keys down until the system has done the startup chime three times and then let go of them. I'd do this with the battery out if I were you.

echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	Reply #11 on: November 10, 2006, 22:05 Yes, the battery is that dead. Won't boot with it in, as it's totally shot. Anyway, I tried that key combination (with the battery out of course) and nothing at all changed. Still makes the weird death chime. I checked the small internal battery with my volt meter and it read 4.34 volts. Is that enough?

dpaanlka 1024 MB Posts: 1646	Reply #12 on: November 10, 2006, 22:06 Just try totally taking it out.

echo35 8 MB Posts: 8	Reply #13 on: November 10, 2006, 23:26 I've tried booting with every single component removed (one at a time anyway) and it still death chimes. Except the RAM. I haven't tried booting it with the RAM out.

sierraredd 128 MB Posts: 212	Reply #14 on: November 11, 2006, 08:12 When I've gotten the death chime it usally has indicated the logic board has died. Replacing it has made things better. Good luck

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