Fixing iBook and Mac odd problems -- reseting via OpenFirmware

iBook 2001 Part 11: "August 19
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 12:23:29 -0500
From: Rick Hazey
Subject: iBook sleep problems"

From Macintouch:

I am submitting this summary of a recent iBook sleep problem I experienced that macintouch.com readers may find of value. The iBook is a dual USB model running MacOS 9.

The iBook would immediately go to sleep once the finder appeared after booting. Pressing the space bar to come out of sleep would cause the screen to flash and then immediately go back into sleep mode. A control-alt-power would cause a reboot but the screen would remain black and I could hear the disk whirring as it booted. Removing the battery and unplugging a/c would bring the screen back to life on the next power up and then it was back to sleep mode. Basically, the iBook was unusable.

My troubleshooting started with resetting the PRAM and NVRAM by holding down option-command-p-r at startup. Booting without extensions allowed me to access the finder but only for about 90 seconds before freezing. Launching an application within the 90 seconds would immediately initiate sleep mode. I tried several variations on the above....

Here's what Apple support had me do:

1) reboot while holding option-command-o-f (boot into open firmware)
2) type reset-nvram
3) type reset-all
4) reboot the iBook

Much to my surprise, this fixed the problem ... Since resetting via open firmware fixed the problem where option-command-p-r did not, I can only conclude that the two procedures are not equivalent. In the future, I will be resetting PRAM via open firmware as well as from the keyboard.