G4 PowerBook Airport Extreme Card boot issues

[jml2665]

OK, got a G4 Powerbook (running Panther) that has been running great, installed the Airport Extreme card a year or so ago without issue. After more then a year with this card in it has decided recently it does not want to boot. When it's not booting it comes to a gray screen asking to type in MacBoot or Shutdown every time. Without the card in it will boot just fine every time.

Seemed easy enough to fix but a new card does exactly the same thing. Since the card installs via the battery slot it is tough to see if there are bent pins or some sort of obstruction but I can't find anything obvious and now I have run out of ideas of what else might cause two cards to do the exact same thing. Motherboard maybe??

Any Other Ideas?

 

[brontosaurus]

Unfortunately, the logic board is a good possibility, as it sounds like something burnt on the pin side. Since you had the card installed already when it stopped working, I'd think it's not a bent pin. Do you have Apple Care?

 

[jml2665]

unfortunatly no Apple Care (expired), The unit is over 3 years old, been hopping back and forth from the UK to the US during this time. Probably banged around a bit.
I installed an Airport network a bit more then a year ago as a convinience for my fiance when she is at home in the UK.

I went ahead and cracked the case to see if there was anything evident on the logic board or in the card interface connector but nothing is easily seen. I blew out the inside connectors and put it back together but it still fails to boot with the card in. I guess it's time for a new motherboard.

Anyone have an opinion if this MoBo is worth replacing. I already got my fiance a new Macbook Pro so this is now my toy to learn and play on (I am a PC person).

 

[brontosaurus]

You might want to try a wireless usb adapter like the one recommended in this thread:

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1336016&page=1

Could save you quite a bit of money.

 

[SYQUEST]

You could try the Apple Store Genius Bar or an authorized Apple service dealer. I would see what Apple says first and if that is unacceptable try an authorized dealer, sometimes they will be more willing to try things Apple won't, like resoldering a bad connection instead of replacing the whole motherboard. It can pay to check around...

Hope this helps!

....JIM....

 

[jml2665]

OK, just an update, after tearing the unit apart again, I checked deeper into the card interface with a magnifier light, still nothing. Put the thing back together and to my surprise it booted with the Airport card installed. I thought it was a good sign until I tried to find it in the system profiler and nothing. No hardware found. So I tried to reboot but still it was not found. Tried another Airport card and it was not found either. So I continue to not know what exactly is the problem, but I now have a working laptop with or without the airport card installed. My next step is to buy a USB wireless network adapter or PCMCIA type card
Thanks All