It´s the 2nd night I played with my 9600/300 my workhorse and daily desktop Mac.
The problems are irreproducible for me, nevertheless I will write down what I tried – maybe someone else got further ideas, even if at all the other threads nobody had some.
It´s equipped with:
Sonnet G4 800
an Adaptec 29160 (3 x 73 GB)
1GB RAM (8 x 128 EDO)
Voodoo 5500
Acard 133 IDE (2x 250 GB Seagate Barracuda)
(and an "LMP All in One" as a Keyspan USB that were not in use tha last months)
That config worked for years. The Ultra160 just in the first PCI slot, but no other strange issues. Since I installed the ACARD a few years ago the machine had always to be booted twice, to avoid several minutes of waiting until it starts up. As well the battery was empty for more than a year now without too huge problems. There were no machanical issues, no changes at all (just some dirt and smoke). That 9600 is sitting for years under my table at the same place.
The Mac bagan to behave strange this summer. Problems began with a often corrupted IDE HDs a few months ago. Later the machine sometimes didn´t want to boot at all. Mostly that behavior (occured 4 or 5 times during the last year) was gone when I unplugged the power over night.
The last two month I didn´t use it, and when I now wanted to get it up and running again, I got the biggest problems I ever faced with Macs. First no chime at all. Power up worked, HDs began to spin up, green power LED is present, but no video, and no chime at all.
In very few cases I got a grey display, but no Happy Mac, and no chime. So I got a new PRAM battery yesterday. Same behavior, no chime no video signal. Than I began to plug off everything; onboard SCSI, PCI-Cards, Floppy, Zip, CD-ROm, even RAM and even the processor. I dissassembled the whole 9600, cleaned the motherboard, had a look at the capacitors if they look well (ok that doesn´t mean anything how they appeare), I plugged on/off the PSU, the RAMs, kicked all of them and kept just 2.
Than I started to kick everything , used the CUDA several times (before kicking the battery again, after reinstalling the battery, ...). I even tried several times to reset the board (like explained inside the service manual). Once I got the mac - by chance as I think - to find the ACARD IDE HD again. I could reset the PRAM, and got even the Bootupscreen with MacOS 9.2.2, but than it hang again. Than I tried to use the onboard Fast-SCSI (Adaptec not attached of course) with t´s original 2GB HD that contains a backup 9.1 system, and was thrown back to the "no video - no chime" situation. I again tried to keep it without battery and PSU for 30 minutes - 3 times, nothing.
Now the motherboard is at my glass table, it makes no difference what I try - no chime, no video, no ALT-COMMAND-P-R possible. But I got the power LED, the Voodoo is ok, the HD is spinning up, and the ACARD is getting Power as well. Even the Sonnet seems to be ok, as it once worked this night, and the CPU fan is always powering up.
Strange issues:
• it seems that the ADB is not working after I power the 9600 up. Therefor the PRAM zapping doesn´t work, but I can always power it up with my ADB keyboard. That could be connected to the CUDA as well, but how?
• There is no beep even if I have no RAM installed? Shouldnt there bee an error beep?
• It looks absolutely random to me, if I get a video or not at bootup. The last two days I had 2 times a chime (out of 300 tries or something). Some more times I could reset the PRAM and got a chime, or could soft reboot and got a chime. Sometimes I could reset the PRAM, but no chance to get it booted.
That all seems very crazy to me. I have no real ideas anymore what to try, and I cannot reproduce anything, ... 2 whole days for nothing.
I have only 3 further theories
• the PSU is gone, but I have no idea how to simply test if it is confsing the motherboard? Any advice?
• some capcitors are gone. Can they beexchanged? Did somebody of you it successfully?
• The motherboard has some still some dirt/smoke somewhere, and needs to be washed. Did somebody ever wash a Kansas, and not just a 68k Mac?
Well and my last point, I would love to clear that CUDA issue for the 9600. There are various informations when and how long to push it. Before pulling the battery out, after pulling it out and waiting 30 minutes, before pulling it in again, after pulling it in again, for 5, 20, 40 or 60 seconds, ...
Any further idea what I could try is highly welcome. Sorry if that whole issue is written confusing, but thats how it appeares to me as well.
Just for the records, i found that hint to use the original Video Card. Of course I din not get the 9600 back than with it, and have no other card. As I sometimes got a gery screen and once even the Mac OS Bootupscreen I don´t think that would help.
The problems are irreproducible for me, nevertheless I will write down what I tried – maybe someone else got further ideas, even if at all the other threads nobody had some.
It´s equipped with:
Sonnet G4 800
an Adaptec 29160 (3 x 73 GB)
1GB RAM (8 x 128 EDO)
Voodoo 5500
Acard 133 IDE (2x 250 GB Seagate Barracuda)
(and an "LMP All in One" as a Keyspan USB that were not in use tha last months)
That config worked for years. The Ultra160 just in the first PCI slot, but no other strange issues. Since I installed the ACARD a few years ago the machine had always to be booted twice, to avoid several minutes of waiting until it starts up. As well the battery was empty for more than a year now without too huge problems. There were no machanical issues, no changes at all (just some dirt and smoke). That 9600 is sitting for years under my table at the same place.
The Mac bagan to behave strange this summer. Problems began with a often corrupted IDE HDs a few months ago. Later the machine sometimes didn´t want to boot at all. Mostly that behavior (occured 4 or 5 times during the last year) was gone when I unplugged the power over night.
The last two month I didn´t use it, and when I now wanted to get it up and running again, I got the biggest problems I ever faced with Macs. First no chime at all. Power up worked, HDs began to spin up, green power LED is present, but no video, and no chime at all.
In very few cases I got a grey display, but no Happy Mac, and no chime. So I got a new PRAM battery yesterday. Same behavior, no chime no video signal. Than I began to plug off everything; onboard SCSI, PCI-Cards, Floppy, Zip, CD-ROm, even RAM and even the processor. I dissassembled the whole 9600, cleaned the motherboard, had a look at the capacitors if they look well (ok that doesn´t mean anything how they appeare), I plugged on/off the PSU, the RAMs, kicked all of them and kept just 2.
Than I started to kick everything , used the CUDA several times (before kicking the battery again, after reinstalling the battery, ...). I even tried several times to reset the board (like explained inside the service manual). Once I got the mac - by chance as I think - to find the ACARD IDE HD again. I could reset the PRAM, and got even the Bootupscreen with MacOS 9.2.2, but than it hang again. Than I tried to use the onboard Fast-SCSI (Adaptec not attached of course) with t´s original 2GB HD that contains a backup 9.1 system, and was thrown back to the "no video - no chime" situation. I again tried to keep it without battery and PSU for 30 minutes - 3 times, nothing.
Now the motherboard is at my glass table, it makes no difference what I try - no chime, no video, no ALT-COMMAND-P-R possible. But I got the power LED, the Voodoo is ok, the HD is spinning up, and the ACARD is getting Power as well. Even the Sonnet seems to be ok, as it once worked this night, and the CPU fan is always powering up.
Strange issues:
• it seems that the ADB is not working after I power the 9600 up. Therefor the PRAM zapping doesn´t work, but I can always power it up with my ADB keyboard. That could be connected to the CUDA as well, but how?
• There is no beep even if I have no RAM installed? Shouldnt there bee an error beep?
• It looks absolutely random to me, if I get a video or not at bootup. The last two days I had 2 times a chime (out of 300 tries or something). Some more times I could reset the PRAM and got a chime, or could soft reboot and got a chime. Sometimes I could reset the PRAM, but no chance to get it booted.
That all seems very crazy to me. I have no real ideas anymore what to try, and I cannot reproduce anything, ... 2 whole days for nothing.
I have only 3 further theories
• the PSU is gone, but I have no idea how to simply test if it is confsing the motherboard? Any advice?
• some capcitors are gone. Can they beexchanged? Did somebody of you it successfully?
• The motherboard has some still some dirt/smoke somewhere, and needs to be washed. Did somebody ever wash a Kansas, and not just a 68k Mac?
Well and my last point, I would love to clear that CUDA issue for the 9600. There are various informations when and how long to push it. Before pulling the battery out, after pulling it out and waiting 30 minutes, before pulling it in again, after pulling it in again, for 5, 20, 40 or 60 seconds, ...
Any further idea what I could try is highly welcome. Sorry if that whole issue is written confusing, but thats how it appeares to me as well.
Just for the records, i found that hint to use the original Video Card. Of course I din not get the 9600 back than with it, and have no other card. As I sometimes got a gery screen and once even the Mac OS Bootupscreen I don´t think that would help.