Regarding the PRAM and booting up, I recall having a Pismo which wouldn't start up unless I pushed in the tiny triangle-labeled button which is located between the ethernet and VGA display ports. It's been years so I'm hazy on the details.
Regarding the slow response, I had similar symptoms when the hard drive on my Pismo was failing--it took forever between mouse clicks and I was lucky enough to copy the contents although it took over half a day. On the other hand, it was obvious since the hard drive would squeal loudly sometimes. You might want to use disk utility to check the S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive. When you select your hard dirve, it will tell you if it is verified or failing. It's not a reliable diagnostic but it might give some advance warning of a dying drive. Good luck On 4/1/12, wren <[email protected]> wrote: > Two messages here - > > 1. I received a really helpful email from a member here that is > helping me resolve my problem. Just wanted to say that this group of > people are amazing. Thank you all. Thank you, specifically, to the > person who has offered a direct solution. > > 2. Kris, I respectfully acknowledge that you have more experience than > I do re: hardware. I did try running it with both the PRAM > disconnected and connected, but it makes no difference. A fellow who > runs a shop for repair was the one who originally clued me in that the > PRAM isn't actually necessary to daily use of the Pismo. The date and > time would sync off of the internet. Any other function it provided > wasn't actually needed for what I was doing. He was the one who > advised me to run it for the last few years with it in the case, but > disconnected. Having it connected caused problems (which I can not > recall right now), while disconnected caused no problems. A dead and > connected PRAM battery is problematic, that's all I recall him telling > me - it's been a few years. > > The problem is that it is failing in certain activities now. It can > connect to the net via ethernet - but it can't connect wirelessly > anymore. It had a huge problem booting from the DVD installer disk. It > hung for about 20 minutes before it could find the drive. It goes back > and forth between failing to find DVDs, the wireless card, the HD. It > took it about 2 hours to run the OS installer again. It ran it, but > just barely. Wouldn't these be a motherboard issues? > > -- > You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for > those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). > The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our > netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml > To post to this group, send email to [email protected] > To leave this group, send email to [email protected] > For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books > > Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/ > -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Books, a group for those using G3 iBooks and PowerBooks (we run a separate list for G4 'Books). The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To leave this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g-books Support for older Macs: http://lowendmac.com/services/
