Mac OS 9 Lives
Mac OS 9 Discussion => Hardware => Topic started by: Smithwicks on September 23, 2026, 08:56:10 AM
-
Howdy all!
This is my first post in the MacOS9Lives! forum, despite being a lurker for ages before ever making an account. I'm a vintage Mac collector (certainly not an unusual thing around these parts) and I've hit an odd roadblock with one of my newest additions, a 500MHz Pismo.
She works like a dream, first off. I'm dual-booting OS 9 and OS X 10.4, though with the latter on a much smaller partition. Part of that has to do with an inability to USB Boot via OpenFirmware, try as I might. All my troubleshooting in that department failed and I elected to use the drag & drop install instead.
The only actual issue with my machine, and the one instigating this post, is that my Pismo goes "comatose" when I place it in sleep. Whether it's selecting sleep from the Apple menu or simply closing the lid, when I do attempt to wake the computer it whirs to life before transitioning to a simple grey screen with no pointer or other signs of life. I've let it sit in this state for ~5-10 mins with no change.
The workaround is quite simple, of course. Like that episode of M*A*S*H* where Hawkeye has a concussion, I simply prevent my Pismo from going to sleep at all ;D
This is a bit of an annoying fix, though, and I'd like to figure out the root cause of the issue and see if its fixable.
A few things worth noting:
1. My first assumption was that it had something to do with the drag & drop install. Doing a wipe & normal install via CD still presents the same issue.
2. The 10.4 partition can sleep and wake just fine.
3. I have upgraded the RAM beyond the listed max (stuck a 512MB stick on the underside of the CPU daughtercard in addition to 512MB on the upside of the card). I wondered if this could be an issue, but I don't see how unless sleep in this state is somehow invoking a memory register that MacOS doesn't think exists?
Appreciate any insight y'all can give. Also glad to be a part of the community and wish my first post were more introductory than pleading :P
If you're around on MacRumors, CQII, or a few other places you'll likely recognize my username. Still the same me! ;)
-
Welcome!
Do you know this former macfixit article?
https://web.archive.org/web/20070807042408/http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?story=20050301010110876