4400/200 - dirty to clean

[jessenator]

My 4400/200 arrived! Got a little delayed with the snow cyclone that woodshed northward. Lots of cleaning to do before I even consider trying to boot it. Not as bad as I was expecting, tbh.

I was a little worried at first, hearing some rattling, but it was just the hdd carrier sort of taped on to the drive carrier, and wasn't damaging anything critical. I have everything ready for the 65scribe battery trick except the batteries! Out of AAAs which is odd.

I'll update this as I go. Hopefully I won't be as careless as I was with my previous conquest...

 

[jessenator]

Well, I tried a new battery, nothing.Not so much as a click from the psu.Got deeper in and see it's pretty much loaded, even has the cache card.There seems to have been a small spill inside localized near the CPU. I don't see any blown components.Going to give it a local wash and rise, and hopefully I can sort out the powerDoes anyone have insights on the PSU? I've read it's "ATX-like", but the output is 2x12 pins vs 1x24 in a traditional ATX. Any schematics? on-board fuse to check? diagnosis?

Is there hope?

 

[jessenator]

 

[jessenator]

as far as I can tell the PSU will definitely need a new fan and fuse. Fan is completely stiff.

Does anyone know how much the tanzania motherboard PSU differs from a run of the mill ATX PSU?  Is there a way to adapt an ATX supply to work in a 4400 chassis?

 

[jessenator]

The board cleaned up well. I'm 90% sure it was coffee.   My hope is that the motherboard hasn't suffered invisible damage to its components. I can't see anything that looks exploded.

 

[jessenator]

Giving the chassis a good clean. It was pretty nasty in here...

Bought an old ikea desk from work, too. Deep enough to work and watch without the danger of pushing something off.

 

[LaPorta]

Nice to see this progress!

 

[jessenator]

Yikes I just realized how blurry that pic is...
More progress- re-populated and installed motherboard and drive carrier. The CF-IDE adapter is so close... but it fits.

Unit Specs----------------------------------------- 
112 MB RAM (16 in the single-bank; 32 + 64)
2 MB VRAM
256k L2 cache card

OE 10bt ethernet
Farallon 100bt ethernet (I'm assuming it's 100...)
8x CD-ROM

32 GB CF card in the IDE adapter

Pic of installation:

Front bezel is pretty yellowed. Might retr0brite it because it's not terribly thin.

 

[jessenator]

I'm going to find a replacement fuse for the original PSU. 


So which amperage rating is it? 6.3A or 5A?
Fast acting ?A and High breaking capacity I get from a marking chart, but is the amperage either or? are certain fuses marketed as both? although the latter seems unlikely…

 

[olePigeon]

Are they expensive?  Could get one of each.  Start with the lower amperage to be on the safe side.  If it blows, go with the higher one?

 

[jessenator]

Are they expensive?  Could get one of each.  Start with the lower amperage to be on the safe side.  If it blows, go with the higher one?

Still didn't look for them locally  bah, there aren't enough hours in a day. I doubt they're expensive. I've seen them on ebay for less than $8 shipped for 10, but I don't want to buy 10…or wait for a frggin package from China.

I could never tell which rating, but I've found both online. I should make some calls today.

 

[jessenator]

Ok, so after splicing up an ATX PSU, I actually got the 4400 to TURN ON! I think ...with a caveat. I need to wire the green "PS_ON#" wire somewhere. If I ground it, the machine powers up, without it the power switch on the front does nothing.

Here's what's "running"
-green LED on power switch

-green LED on the motherboard "DS1"

-green LED on the PCI ethernet card

-case fan
-PSU fan
 

Here's what isn't
-CD-ROM

-COMM II ethernet (although that may just be an activity light

-nothing else apparently.

I tried hooking up my AppleColor High Resolution monitor and got nothing--black, like it's not connected. No chime.

Pulled out the DIMMs, even the cache to see if that was the issue. Nothing.

Is there a way to go from here other than trying to re-sell it for parts?

 

[jessenator]

I'm really wondering if there's something wrong with the way it's powered/wired. I tested the ATAPI CD-rom on my mac pro, and it at least powers up, for one. I know it's one aspect out of several, but I'm really flying blind at this point.

 

[omidimo]

Nice cleanup job! And you even have the video ram upgrade in there. My 4400 sadly did not have that. I hope you get the sucker working. 

 

[jessenator]

Nice cleanup job! And you even have the video ram upgrade in there. My 4400 sadly did not have that. I hope you get the sucker working. 

Thanks! So that's the 4MB VRAM then?

....and I'ma  ding-dong, I can wire the soft power! I have everything I need! 

 

[Franklinstein]

You have the stock 2MB EDO VRAM DIMM. There is no other VRAM on these boards; it's all in the DIMM. Apparently because its so slow there's no point to going beyond 2MB in EDO so the 4MB DIMMs use proper SGRAM. You can still find them for sale online. I think they're about $20/ea. Same with the L2 cache modules (if you need one for a similar machine). 

Did you figure out the power situation?

 

[jessenator]

Good news! IT WORKS! IT'S ALIIIIIVE!

Bad news: I think my atapi CD-rom is toast. made a horrible noise upon the real boot before I put a disc in, and no matter what I'm getting a  :huh:  but hell, that's peanuts now...

 

[jessenator]

You have the stock 2MB EDO VRAM DIMM. There is no other VRAM on these boards; it's all in the DIMM. Apparently because its so slow there's no point to going beyond 2MB in EDO so the 4MB DIMMs use proper SGRAM. You can still find them for sale online. I think they're about $20/ea. Same with the L2 cache modules (if you need one for a similar machine). 

Did you figure out the power situation?

I bought a Rage128 from user dlv that I want to try, which will put me square in the 8.x region. Hopefully faster than on-board.

Now to figure out the CD-ROM issue.

For kicks I tried my old ATA dvdr and it spins up, but no booting. Don't know if it's backwards compatible or not, so I'm not jumping to a conclusion there.

Edit: on a high of pure serotonin I immediately bought a Sony atapi Apple CD-ROM from a 98 power mac for $8 shipped. Owner said it was working when pulled, so here's hoping. It's also a 24x, which may not be of benefit depending on the bus, I guess, but still. Working drive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I hope.

I'm very happy right now.

 

[jessenator]

So, another weird thing— I don't know if this is an eccentricity of this Mac or what.

I can't boot from a floppy, specifically the 7.5.3 disk tools (either of them...) And it doesn't appear that it even reads the disk at all. I put it in, and not 2 seconds passes, with little drive noises, then it ejects with the [x] floppy icon.

If that's a thing, so be it. I wonder, does the disk need the system enabler in the system folder to boot? I know this "clone" needs one for normal operation. Guess it wouldn't hurt to try, right?

Also, can I format the CF card in OS X 10.4 disk utility? There's an option for Mac OS 9 drivers when you set the partition map to Apple Partition Map. But will that only work with later versions of OS 9? The 4400 doesn't appear to suppport beyond 9.0—no 9.x support.

I can't format it on my iBook G3 (9.2.2) as through my card reader it's an "unsupported" volume. Could I format it on 10.4 and install an OS on yhe iBook? Can you install an old OS (e.g. 8.1) on my iBook running 9.2.2?? Even when the destination isn't the internal drive?

Cheers