I have purchased the PL BlueChip upgrade card for my G3 Bronze Lombard. This was done to replace the original processor, the L2 memory cache had failed.

The installation appeared to be work, as the computer booted and recognized the new card. After about 10 days I started getting numerous Type 1, 2, 10, and 11 failures. Also desktop icons and the menu bar items would vanish. Then things got worse, it would only boot to the Firmware screen, when it would boot. I had an Apple Certified tech examine and test both the card and the laptop. He could not get the upgrade card to boot, but could get the PB to boot with another G3 card.

The PL card was returned, tested and sent back to me. It still would not work. PL relaced that first card. The second card was installed and finally able to boot, once. After installing a new HD, it would not boot. With the original HD back in, the card now starts up with either a black screen after the chime or with a blinking ? mark. When it shows the ? I put in a disk w/OS. The CD drive runs but the card does not recognize the disk.

If this were indicative of a logic board or HD failure wouldn't the laptop fail to startup under any conditions? It will recognize a G3 processor card. At this point, I am sending the second card back to PL to have then test and clear the card, presuming it flashed correctly. This has been an ongoing battle since early August.

Ted
tboliske@cinci.rr.com

Has anyone else had this much difficulty with the card? Or, are these problems symptoms of other issues either hardware or software with my laptop. Any advice, opinions, or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ted

By any chance do you have more than 384MB of RAM installed? If so, try removing some and see if the PB returns to normal. I had 512MB of RAM in my Lombard and had intermittent crashes and freezes after I installed the Blue Chip upgrade. Since Apple only officially supported up to 384MB in this laptop, PL claimed that I was running an unsupported config. After I removed one of the 256MB modules and replaced it with a 128MB module, problems vanished.

HTH,

Jeff

Ram configuration doesn't seem to be an issue. I have the max. 384 installed, but the card didn't respond even when I used the original 64MB chip from Apple. When the PL card is/was installed either I'd get a startup chime and black screen with HD spinning, flashing ?, or the BootROM screen with a bad check sum error.

The Lombard won't boot from HD or CD with the card installed. But if it's replaced with a good 333 card things run fine. My tech got the PB to startup once then shut down to install a new HD. That was the end of the PL card. Between the two of us we can't seem to find any indication of hardware issues other than the PL card because things work fine with out it installed. Unfortunately, for the work I do the speed upgrade would be a big boost.

Ted

Try it with just the 64MB (in the Lower slot) but reset PRAM and/or NVRAM before starting it up.
Just an idea....

Did that.

Today I had a third upgrade card installed. The flash utilty and flashing the upgrade card went successfully. It boots all the way sometimes. When it doesn't it goes to the BootROM screen and says "Bad Check Sum error". I type in "shut-down" and restart.... no problems. Install new HD with OS 9.2. Boots once, boots twice - get an error saying HD disk has a problem.

At this point I'm going between BootROM screen and startup with HD error. I try Tech Tool Pro, but can't restart from the CD. I reset PRAM, PMU, start with extensions off, everything PL tech support says to do but it's not running stable enough to check for problems.

Any other suggesstions?

Sounds like a slow HD prob & possible corruption. If it's the original HD it IS slow. What system?