I'd tried all that except taking the battery out. I've just done that; 
left it for 5 hours, and I'm getting the same message. This is a 
Clamshell; do they have some sort of internal battery as well?

On 16 Apr 2005, at 17:03, Michael wrote:

> Hello,
>
>> So is there anything I can do to get past the 'not valid' message?
> I didn't follow the discussion ( just saw Jeff's post ) - I guess you 
> already tried the usual suspects, like boot with Cmd-Option-P-R - 
> should reset both PRAM and OF settings, if you're using an old world 
> mac boot any kind of MacOS - should wipe the NVRAM too, use the 
> reset-nvram or init-nvram command from OF ( some OF wants the former, 
> others the latter ). If nothing helps there's always the brutish and 
> violent method - turn the machine off, remove the battery, let it sit 
> there for a couple of hours, put it back in and the NVRAM should be 
> clean.
>
> have fun
> Michael