Pismo 'Refurbishing'

#1 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 17:39 68kMLA

Folks on these forums are so helpful thought I'd get more help...

I found a Pismo 500 (awesome, always wanted one) and I didn't have the Yo-yo adapter so I used my 1400c's power adapter. It won't power up.

This may be a dumb question but could it be that Yoyo's are backwards compatible, but the 1400c's power brick isn't "forward" compatible? How can I determine if it's a PRAM, bad motherboard, or power unit or what have you failure?

These Pismos are by far Apple's best computers in terms of versatility and design, just wanting to rehabilitate one for years of further service.

#2 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 18:39 68kMLA

try lifting the kbd up, and disconnecting the internal battery. the psu is compatible.

#3 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 20:02 68kMLA

Would a bad internal battery affect it from starting up? Also I plugged the battery in and it doesn't seem to be charging. I'm tempted to think it's a Power unit issue, just wondering how I can "diagnose" that without having to buy one off of eBay. Any thoughts?

#4 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 20:10 68kMLA

Find the PRAM battery cable, its on the right side under the keyboard right above the back of where the disk drive ends, its a red and white cable. Unplug the battery and try again.

#5 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 20:34 68kMLA

Also, it might be good to read the firewire section of http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431 [

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#6 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 22:49 68kMLA

Holy Smokes it works! My gosh, I got it for a steal (literally...well not that I performed anything illegal) cuz it was not powering up. My goodness, thanks readers! Now it needs a fresh install of the OS and it's good as new and still just as usable.

#7 Sat, 27 Sep 2008 - 23:03 68kMLA

If you leave it plugged in and off, with the main battery removed, and the motherboard battery plugged in, sometimes you can get a charge into the motherboard battery.

#8 Mon, 29 Sep 2008 - 05:37 68kMLA

Bunsen was right! I unplugged my batteries (both were put in the machine) and plugged the PRAM battery back, left it overnight, and the thing powers up without the battery being unplugged. Sweet! In the meantime I'll try and find a replacement PRAM battery. Thanks for the help folks!

#9 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 - 16:01 68kMLA

If you have trouble starting it up in the future, try the reset button on the back. I've had to prod that a couple of times to get my Lombard to wake up.