You probably need a pass-through terminator to use with the 5300. I know Zip drives provide termination, but their capabilities are dubious at best.
Did you try disconnecting the Zip drive before rebooting? The PowerBook is probably hanging because of SCSI conflicts (either incorrectly connected devices or incorrectly terminated). Disconnect all the external devices and retest. If the 5300 acts normally, then SCSI conflicts are almost certainly the problem.
As for a completely non-responding 5300, that could be a lot of things. Have you tried resetting the power manager by pushing in (and holding) the reset button on the back of the computer for about 30 seconds? Afterwards, sometimes it will start without you pushing the power button, other times you have to push the power key first... But usually this clears up strange power/booting problems. If that doesn't help, then keep it plugged in for 24 - 48 hours and try again. Your PRAM battery could have been depleted, and a depleted PRAM battery can cause a failure to boot.... You may also have a completely dead PRAM battery (in which case you need to either buy a new one or rebuild your current one).
The clone desktop is another matter (and probably best answered on the corresponding list - [EMAIL PROTECTED] for Power Computing clones, etc). Have you checked to make sure the keyboard and/or monitor are plugged in correctly? A partially or completely disconnected keyboard or monitor can in some cases cause symptoms that match yours.
If you have a PowerTower (Pro) or PowerCenter (Pro), you might be suffering from a dead cache DIMM. These things are notoriously prone to ESD and can just "up and die" on a bad day. A dead cache DIMM in these machines exhibits EXACTLY the symptoms you describe (grr, my dual 200/604e PTP had this problem a while ago). Simply removing the cache module solves this problem. Michael Macdonald of the Power Computing list made my personal list of Mac Heroes for solving this problem when no one else could... He doesn't seem to have contributed lately over there, though....
Peace, Drew --
Author of ClassicStumbler email: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> web: <http://www.alksoft.com/>
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