Pismo Sound & Hard Drive

C

CalSD

Registered
I got a 40Gb that was originally came in a G4 Powerbook that was erased and zeroed out with no OS. When I have the hard drive installed, it does not give me the flashing "?" telling me it cannot find a system folder and freezes when I try to boot from an OS CD (9.1 in this "test" case). I also tested it with the Fujitsu 18GB that I upgraded my WallStreet with and got the same results. My original WallStreet 2Gb gives me the flashing "?". But when I remove the hard drive and reinstall everything, it does what it is supposed to and I can boot from the OS CD.

I went to my local Apple store and they told me it appeared I had the drive installed correctly in the caddy. Could this be related to the cable on the drive caddy? I installed the caddy minus the hard drive and it gave me the flashing "?". Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any help!
 
You could have a bad hard drive or a bad cable. Did you use the same cables when you tried the drive in the other powerbook? If not, then it is the drive that is bad not the cables.

Do you get any sounds when you start up with that hard drive in place?
 
I installed the drive on my WallStreet and it recognized it when I booted from an OS CD and I was able to install OS 9.1 on it but had the same problem as before after reinstalling it on the Pismo. I ordered a new drive caddy tonight. No, I did not get any startup sounds with the hard drive in place... I used a pair of headphones and heard the startup sound through the sound out port, though.
 
I was hoping some one would have jumped in to give a suggestion.

Your Wallstreet has different ports from your Pismo. Wallstreet has SDB and Serial, vs USB and Firewire. When you installed OS 9 on the Wallstreet, it installed the extensions that is needed for that machine. Putting the drive in the Pismo will not work.... Unless... With that hard drive - put it in the Pismo and hold down the shift key when you start it up. All extensions off will test to see if the drive is okay.

Hearing the good chime sounds means the machine is okay, the drive and/or cables are bad.
 
If the drive you are trying to use is too new, and therefore too fast (what's the specs of the drive? ATA?) your Wallstreet may not be fast enough to use it. I have a Pismo laptop (wish I could remember what hard drive was put in it, but I could check this weekend.)
 
Ah. Just read you are using a G4 Powerbook drive. That's probably it. Go to this page for more info on what your computer can be upgraded to (just realized you said Pismo; not Wallstreet):

http://www.lowendmac.com/pb2/pismo.shtml

I have a feeling that hard drive is optimized for a G4/newer computer. Our Pismos came out in 2000; your hard drive was probably made in 2002-2004.

Hope this info helps!
 
I have both, a Pismo and a Wallstreet... I tried the drive in both and got completely different results. In the Pismo, it would show the cursor and freeze the system when booting from an OS CD. But, in my Wallstreet, it would boot from the OS CD and I could install an OS on it. I am thinking that the drive caddy cable may be at fault... I am getting a new one to try... BTW, The drive case says it was built in 2002.

According to http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/ the Pismo and G4 have the same interface (Ultra ATA/66).
 
The drive works in the Wallstreet but not in the Pismo... where did the drive originally come from?
 
Hmmm. I am wondering if the seller was correct in remembering where the drive was pulled from. Did you get the new drive caddy?
 
No on the drive caddy - still waiting. Should be in on Monday now... Will let you know! But... the strange thing is when I hold the apple key and startup button, I can hear a sound and it "flashes" at me.
 
Like I said, the drive was not made for your older Powerbook G3 (Pismo or Wallstreet) and so it's throughput is mismatched; thereby making it unusable.
 
Sorry, didn't see that you had success with that in your posts. Guess I am just not sure what the problem is. Hmm. The only other thing I can think of is it might be a firmware issue…
 
I reset the firmware and got the same problem... So I ordered another hard drive that I KNOW will work and am going to put this one up on ebay.
 
I took the 18Gb hard drive that has my data on it from my WallStreet and tried it again in my Pismo again as it was formatted and had an OS... This time I got the "tone of death" 4 beeps and had to replace my processor card!
 
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