Isn’t / wasn’t Firmware 4.1.8 THE update for the Pismo,
providing the “latest and greatest” (at the time) optimization
of hardware? (With a side order of RAM detect problems?)
yeah, it's supposed to be, but the readme says it requires 9.1.. well it does not require it, but it leads to minor breakage.
Seems like maybe a clean install of the OS might be in order?
You could have some questionable RAM that needs replacing.
https://www.macworld.com/article/160527/appleram.html
well, even though my install is tested and good, i tried a fresh 9.0.4 system folder just to see what happens, but it doesn't help. behaviour is the same. RAM works fine in every OS version (even 10.4), it's a recognised 1GB even with the new firmware, so i don't think that is the problem.
Perhaps you’ve suffered some file corruption via that adapter.
Which adapter was bad & which adapter did you replace it with?
if you'd like i can link the new one - the old one was an 'IDE Pata' chinesium crap that i don't have the link to anymore, but believe me man, there is no corruption here. the system folder works flawlessly on my yikes G4 and there are no other telltale signs of a corrupted filesystem (e.g. RAM corruption problems, artifacts, freezes and the like).
I’d back it up & do the OS re-install before attempting downgrade -
that’s just my approach… allowing the OS installer to now take into
account / recognize the 4.1.8 firmware and “adjust” accordingly.
i always have backups.. and, as i've explained above, i'm fairly certain it's not the OS. it even does the same booted with a freshly burnt CD from the garden.
Of course, could all be as simple as an NVRAM reset too?
already tried that after i noticed the non-working brightness keys, but to no avail. to be absolutely sure i did it again..
so at the end of the day, thanks for the suggestions, but i think my original firmware downgrade idea is the only way to fix this. i assume there aren't any reports out there about this weird but not a lot of ppl upgraded the firmware, and probably nobody specifically uses 9.0.4 on their pismo.
best,
bamdad