[raynman]

I apologize, in advance for this lengthy post....
I've been in and out of several G3 ibooks in the past few months, but I have never been so close to, yet so far from getting one running as this time. You can tell I do this for fun, because I'd have lost my shorts on this one if I did these repairs for a living! TOOO much time invested! (but I have much more time than money.......)
I have a 12" G3 800mhz with 640 ram and combo drive with newly installed Tiger OS (airport card removed while I'm trying to sort this thing out) that had exhibited the classic iBook graphics problems. I reflowed this one using a similar technique to what I had used on a previous ibook with success after a couple of tries.
see link:
http://forums.macnn.....b-logic-board/
But now I can't get this one to boot up beyond the blue screen which appears just after the grey screen with the spinning circle under the apple.
I would just give up, but I can get it SOOOOO close to working, that I thought I'd ask here to see if anyone could offer some advice.
Immediately after the 'repair' I ran the hardware check CD that I got with this ibook, and it passed all tests in short and long versions, so I thought I had another success on my hands, BUT... I could not get Tiger to install beyond the reboot after the first CD. It would hang as described above, so I mounted this ibook as a target disk, and used a sister ibook to install tiger to this one over firewire, and it all went well, and the sister booted up FINE on this ibook's install of tiger via firewire disk. This ibook, however, will NOT boot beyond the point noted above when attempting to boot normally.
....now for the interesting stuff.
1) this ibook DOES boot in safe mode (holding the shift key while booting)! and seems to run fine, goes to sleep, wakes up, etc. But if I shut off or restart and attempt to boot normally, no boot; same symptoms as above
2) the system install seems OK, as I AM able to set this ibook as a Firewire disk, and boot it, without problems, on a sister ibook.
3) this ibook, however, will NOT, boot it's sister ibook's system through firewire disk mode (hangs at the same place)
4) in verbose mode (command-v on boot), It got to a point where it read,
"localhost in DNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified Computer Name, using default bmacintosh-000393DA42886 instead"
then on the next line said,
"localhost in DNSResponder: Couldn't read user-specified local hostname; using default bmacintosh-000393DA4288 localb instead"
and quickly, then, (I actually photographed the screen to read that!) went to the 'hanging blue screen' as above and stuck there. (and I thought windows was the last source of blue screens I would be plagued by!)
...even while it is hung up on the blue screen, I can here drive activity, indicating that the ibook is doing SOMETHING! I just don't have a clue WHAT!
Oh, and nothing displays on external monitor except the blue screen, when that is what is on the built-in LCD.
and, Oh; I've erased, checked, verified (and redone all this) 3 times to the hard drive.
So, with the evidence gathered above, I'd have to surmise a hardware problem of some sort. I haven't gotten into this ibook beyond the opening of the bottom to heat the graphics chip, so I have not examined the top of the logic board for 'obvious' problems like breaks, scratches, loose parts etc., yet. I have checked the keyboard and trackpad ribbons to be properly seated, and ram properly fitted (as well as removed) so I have tried this with and without added ram; so if it's ram, it must be the onboard ram.
Do any of you have any ideas beyond what I've come up with? Or does anyone know of other tech mac forums where I could post this and get some more eyes to see it, in hopes of finding an answer? Is there any testing or program I could run in SAFE mode to track down the problem?
I'm hoping that this won't end up a parts machine; it's SOOOOOO tantalizingly close to working (and DOES work in SAFE mode!) that I hate to give up on it yet!
thanks for any help or ideas! (and sorry again for the long post!)
raynman

[drmbb]

Looks like the kind of error configd generates when it gets erroneous or conflicting infor from some system plist file during initialization.
I did see a post about some similar error messages here - you could try blowing away the system caches/prefs as the author mentions.

[raynman]

Thanks for the suggestion.
As I had a "nothin to lose" situation with a non-functioning new install, I tried the suggested fix, even though I couldn't see how such corruptions might have occurred in a clean new install...
Alas, this was not the fix. After performing the suggested fixes and restarting, same problem as before.
I really appreciate the link to that information, though. I have never found similar information in my searches. I searched for "DNSResponder" and got nothing (I think the logs in the linked site must be graphics and not text)
In a fit of desperation (or serendipity) I tried to boot from an OS 9.1 CD and no joy there, either - I got THE BOMB! "Sorry, a system error has occurred. - bus error - To temporarily turn off extensions, restart and hold down the shift key."
So, I tried that and got the same icentical message with loading of OS 9.1 with Extensions Off.
Does this add anything or just confuse the matter?
thanks again everyone for reading and helping out if you can!
raynman

[raynman]

another bit of information....
Interestingly, Ubuntu Linux, Edgy Eft (digging through my CD's I found a bootable), even though it had an error on the original boot of the CD ("error starting GNOME Settings Daemon"), loaded the OS and restarted without a hitch! I had it running for nearly 1/2 hour before I shut it down for the night. Sound graphics, and all ports seem to be working.
tomorrow I will plug in my airport card and see if that's recognized in Ubuntu.
I really wanted this to be a TIGER laptop, though, so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know!
thanks again,
raynman

[drmbb]

You said it has 640MB RAM? So it has an expansion SODIMM in it. Did you try removing that and booting with just the logicboard RAM? I'm grasping at straws, as you can probably tell.
You've likely already tried resetting the PRAM?

[Damien]

Agreed. Definitely pull the 3rd party RAM and see what happens. I've seen marginal RAM cause the type of behavior you're describing.

[raynman]

(this may be a partial repost; if so, sorry! but I don'r see my reply that I thought I had posted)
...to answer drmbb and Damien, as well as Waragainstsleep (whose post I can't see here, now, and thought I had replied to ??); I have tried with and without added ram chip, with and without airport, all with the same results, but will try it again, perhaps tomorrow, and let you know; I'll have to do a new install of TIGER again ... Also, I have done a reset PRAM, reset NVRAM, left it set for some time w/o power or battery connection, etc.
Basically, everything I can think of to make a recalcitrant mac start behaving, I have tried, But if you have any other ideas, I'm certainly game.
Could it be possible that the problem with the ATI graphics chip (the original problem, but perhaps not the ONLY problem, on this machine) could cause such a boot problem in OS X and yet still allow Ubuntu to, apparently anyway, run properly? (Not a hint of any garbled graphics while booting or running Ubuntu)
thanks again
raynman

[raynman]

attempted to load OS X Tiger again NO additional ram; NO airport. Once again, the ibook passed hardware check CD long and short versions; and hung at the same point as the earlier attempts at loading Tiger (at the reboot when going to the second CD).
I have loaded Ubuntu, again, for now. It works fine, even Airport is functioning. I'm having a bit of a time with the non-mac keyboard shortcuts, and haven't found a touchpad scroll utility yet, but otherwise, WHY NOT?
Still, I'm perplexed as to why this ibook won't boot OS X Tiger, especially in light of the fact that Ubuntu works flawlessly as near as I can tell.
Thanks for the suggestions so far, and if anyone else has ANY ideas, I'd love to hear them.
Got an ibook G3 900 dead-on-boot to check out now...
raynman

[Naphtali]

I vaguely remember a similar problem occurring with a PowerBook in the days before OS X.
Remove the battery and disconnect the AC adapter. Let the computer sit for about 60 seconds then insert battery.
If you haven't reset the PMU, do so.
Try starting in a safe mode or OS 9.1 again.
Hope this helps.

[raynman]

Thanks for your suggestions.
As I stated in an earlier post, I have done all the resets I am aware of, including PMU.
This ibook DOES run in safe mode (Tiger OS X). I had to do the install via target disk from another ibook in order to do that, as the local install hung on the reboot into the second CD of OS X. I have also run this ibook using the OS X Tiger installed on a sister ibook, by booting the sister ibook's HD via target disk mode. That setup HANGS just like it does when OS X is installed locally. It also seems to run FINE in SAFE mode, just as it did when installed locally.
And Ubuntu continues to function without apparent problem...
thanks again,
raynman

[raynman]

Well, I may have found something of an answer, if not a solution to this.
while reading over the system logs (all greek to me), I found reference to FIFO errors in an ATI function (can't recall exactly) just as the computer reached the point it was hanging. It would repeat attempts, thus the continued 'activity' of the computer with the blank blue screen.
It's pretty clear to me now, that the ATI chip is still, somehow, at the root of this ibooks problems. I have tried my heat fix again, and haven't caused any further damage, but haven't improved things either, in my two additional heatings of the chip in attempts to reseat it. The last application of heat was all I dare do (closer and longer than any other I've done).
So. It may be that the chip is still not completely connected with the board, or that it has suffered some internal damage as a result of 1)circuit problems related to original connection flaw, or the heating process or 2)physical damage of some other sort. But clearly there is a hardware problem.
So, If my ibook will allow me (again) to load Ubuntu, I will be content with my first linux laptop for now.
Anyone have any guesses as to why linux (and safe mode) works when full OS X does not? Some extension, or process that loads in full OS X that does not in safe mode (or in linux) is the best shot I can make.
Anyone knowledgeable enough in OS X workings to know whether a particular process that accesses the ATI chip can be "turned off" (as it must be in order that it operates in safe mode) and let the ibook function with other extensions or processes operating normally? I cannot see a way to selectively execute extensions as one could in OS 9 and earlier operating systems.
More a curiosity at this point, but I'd be interested, none-the-less.
thanks all,
raynman

[Raulito15]

Hi I don't know if you still care for a solution or even still reading this thread but I had a similar if not the same experience. After I had shimmed up one of my ibooks to test the logic board before I get it repaired, I tried to load tiger onto it. However, after I was done loading the blue screen of death kept coming up. I look around and found this post ibook blue screen. Although its for g4s it worked on my g3 900Mhz so give it a try.