G3 B&W won't boot or initialize

Question

I have a blue and white G3 (333mhz, 4G hard drive, 256 MB RAM) that stopped working last August. I had recently installed Tiger and about a month earlier had to reinstall all of my system software. When I turn it on I get the flashing folder/question mark icon. I can boot from any of my OS CDs or from Norton Utlities, but none of them see the hard drive to repair the disc or install the OS. Using Disk Utilities on the original CD it says that the hard drive is uninitialized and can be initialized, but whenever I try it with any of the available options (or from any other OS CD) it fails. I've tried resetting the PRAM as well. Is the hard drive toast? Is it worth replacing or should I just move on? I'm not concerned with rescuing any files (99% of them were backed up, thank goodness) and I have a G4 iBook, but I'd like to revive the G3 to pass along to my husband simply to use for web browsing and e-mail. I've also tried accessing the G3 as a target disc via firewire from my iBook but it just displays the flasing folder/question mark icon this way as well.
Thanks,
Amy

Answer 1

Hi, amoG3 -
Welcome to Apple's Discussions.
The hard drive may indeed be toast, but there are lower-cost things to try first.
If the battery in the machine is more than 4 years old, or if the machine has spent a lot of time unplugged since last August, try replacing the battery. Many Macs, especially various G3 models, exhibit boot difficulties if the battery is too weak or dead. You can get a replacement at places like Radio Shack for about US$15.
After replacing the battery reset the CUDA and logicboard -
Article #95065 - G4 (PCI) - Resetting Cuda
Article #95066 - G4 (PCI) - Resetting the Logic Board
Although those articles are written around a G4 (PCI) model, the procedure is identical on the B&W G3.