You might want to try removing the drive. It's not typical for hard drives to alter the behavior of the computer as far as lower-level functions, but it's not unheard of, so I'd remove it and see if that improves your ability to boot from CD, etc.
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus keep holding down for three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
Besides that, you may need to get another drive in order to further your testing. If you have a FireWire cable and another PPC Mac, you can put that Mac in target mode and boot your PowerBook from that Mac's hard drive in option mode...if this works and the PowerBook behaves itself, it's evidence that the PowerBook is basically good and the drive is the problem. If it doesn't work, that may point to the PowerBook's board being flaky (as a lot of Titaniums are at this point, unfortunately).
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Good luck!
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Good luck! Great question and analysis, by the way! +1!
You might want to try removing the drive. It's not typical for hard drives to alter the behavior of the computer as far as lower-level functions, but it's not unheard of, so I'd remove it and see if that improves your ability to boot from CD, etc.
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus keep holding down for three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
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Besides that, you may need to get another drive in order to further your testing. If you have a FireWire cable and another PPC Mac, you can put that Mac in target mode and boot your PowerBook from that Mac's hard drive...if this works, it's evidence that the PowerBook is basically good and the drive is the problem. If it doesn't work, that may point to the PowerBook's board being flaky (as a lot of Titaniums are at this point, unfortunately).
+
Besides that, you may need to get another drive in order to further your testing. If you have a FireWire cable and another PPC Mac, you can put that Mac in target mode and boot your PowerBook from that Mac's hard drive in option mode...if this works and the PowerBook behaves itself, it's evidence that the PowerBook is basically good and the drive is the problem. If it doesn't work, that may point to the PowerBook's board being flaky (as a lot of Titaniums are at this point, unfortunately).
You might want to try removing the drive. It's not typical for hard drives to alter the behavior of the computer as far as lower-level functions, but it's not unheard of, so I'd remove it and see if that improves your ability to boot from CD, etc.
-
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus keeping holding down for three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
+
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus keep holding down for three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
Besides that, you may need to get another drive in order to further your testing. If you have a FireWire cable and another PPC Mac, you can put that Mac in target mode and boot your PowerBook from that Mac's hard drive...if this works, it's evidence that the PowerBook is basically good and the drive is the problem. If it doesn't work, that may point to the PowerBook's board being flaky (as a lot of Titaniums are at this point, unfortunately).
You might want to try removing the drive. It's not typical for hard drives to alter the behavior of the computer as far as lower-level functions, but it's not unheard of, so I'd remove it and see if that improves your ability to boot from CD, etc.
-
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
+
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus keeping holding down for three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
Besides that, you may need to get another drive in order to further your testing. If you have a FireWire cable and another PPC Mac, you can put that Mac in target mode and boot your PowerBook from that Mac's hard drive...if this works, it's evidence that the PowerBook is basically good and the drive is the problem. If it doesn't work, that may point to the PowerBook's board being flaky (as a lot of Titaniums are at this point, unfortunately).
You might want to try removing the drive. It's not typical for hard drives to alter the behavior of the computer as far as lower-level functions, but it's not unheard of, so I'd remove it and see if that improves your ability to boot from CD, etc.
Also, sometimes machines that are stubborn about booting from CD, etc., have open firmware passwords enabled, i.e. they have been set up to prohibit you from finding a way to overwrite the OS. It's probably not the case, but I'd reset it anyway by changing the amount of RAM, and immediately resetting PRAM four times (the initial chime, plus three more chimes). It couldn't hurt.
Besides that, you may need to get another drive in order to further your testing. If you have a FireWire cable and another PPC Mac, you can put that Mac in target mode and boot your PowerBook from that Mac's hard drive...if this works, it's evidence that the PowerBook is basically good and the drive is the problem. If it doesn't work, that may point to the PowerBook's board being flaky (as a lot of Titaniums are at this point, unfortunately).
Good luck!