Diagnosing the 9600 From Hell(tm)

[EvieSigma]

So I've had this Power Mac 9600 for at least two years now that has just never worked. It just will not boot off a disk. My 8.1 and 8.6 CDs don't do anything at all (and this is after I cleaned the current optical drive and upped the voltage a little) and while it attempts to boot off my 7.6.1 CD, it just bombs like this:

I could still try OS 9.0 or 9.1 I suppose, but is there anything else I can try to finally get this thing working?

EDIT: Just tried a burned CD of the 8600/9600 7.6.1 restore image and it just froze on the Happy Mac.

 

[AlpineRaven]

strip the 9600 to basic, 2 memory sticks in 2 banks slot. Original CPU card, All other PCI cards except video card and go from there.

If that fails, swap over to another group of memory sticks and re-test.

Remove SCSI cable from the logicboard, and try boot from floppy.

Check if there is no bent pins in the CPU card slot (you'll need a good torch to inspect properly)

If it fails I would be pointing to the logicboard.

Last resort (which I have not seen) is cap leak on the logicboard.

Cheers

AP

 

[EvieSigma]

With one stick of RAM per bank and every card removed except video, it still bombs loading 7.6.1, even with extensions disabled.

EDIT: Somehow by magic it just...worked!

The only problem is that I need to reattach my PCI ATA card as otherwise I don't have a hard drive...

 

[IIfx]

Did you try cleaning the contacts on the board? I would get a can of electric contact cleaner from an auto parts store and clean every slot on the board. I've had weird issues like yours go away from that treatment.

 

[EvieSigma]

I haven't used my contact cleaner actually, that's a good idea. Right now my problem is that the system isn't recognizing my ATA hard drive, I've tried both 7.6.1 and 8.1 (the OS I want to install) so far and neither one can see it. I wonder if maybe my ATA card needs some bit of software run to make it visible, unless the card is just straight up bad...

EDIT: Found the manual for the card, turns out I need at least 8.5 to use it. Guess I won't be using 8.1 after all.

 

[AlpineRaven]

Hang on - ATA card? the 9600 has SCSI..
Cheers

AP

 

[EvieSigma]

I don't have any SCSI hard drives so I bought an ATA card from someone here so I could use normal PC hard drives.

 

[EvieSigma]

I think I might have found a problem, if not THE problem...see that line there? That's a relatively deep scratch that goes through the contacts.

I don't know what those contacts are for but having a big scratch through them can't be good.

 

[Johnnya101]

Just get a multimeter and test for continuity. That will tell you right away.

 

[EvieSigma]

Test where though? Each side of the break?

 

[Johnnya101]

Yup. If theres continuity then it can be ignored.

 

[NJRoadfan]

I might still have a 300Mhz 604e card from a 8600 laying around here if needed. I also still have that boxed G4-450Mhz upgrade for sale (see OLD post in trading forum). Mac ATA cards definitely don't need drivers to boot, the driver is the onboard ROM.

 

[EvieSigma]

My multimeter is so cheap it doesn't even have a continuity mode, but when I probed for resistance on both sides of the scratch I got 0.00, so I guess it's only cosmetic. Which means I have to try something else to figure out why the machine won't boot to anything other than a gray screen most of the time...

 

[EvieSigma]

Well I'll be god-damned...I swapped the SCSI CD-ROM for an ATA one from my old beige G3 that got junked running off the other ATA bus on my controller card, re-jumpered the hard drive as Master, and now it's being recognized!

Two years of frustration and neglect finally comes to an end with a 9600 that actually can be used! This calls for a celebration!

 

[Cory5412]

Yay! Glad it's working for you! 604ev@300 is a nice configuration!

 

[EvieSigma]

I'm so glad too, I was ready to give up and part it out but now I have a powerful machine I can use for uh...uhhh...something.

I have half my PCI slots filled and I dunno what to add when I already have a Rage 128 and a 10/100 Ethernet card.

 

[ArmorAlley]

I'm so glad too, I was ready to give up and part it out but now I have a powerful machine I can use for uh...uhhh...something.

I have half my PCI slots filled and I dunno what to add when I already have a Rage 128 and a 10/100 Ethernet card.

Radeon 7000 Mac Edition and run a 1920x1200 monitor, like one of the big Apple Cinema Displays with an ADC-DVI adaptor (like this one here: https://www.ricardo.ch/de/a/apple-cinema-display-22“-1054491414/)

PCI SATA card to power a SATA card?

Sonnet Tempo Trio and power some CF cards?

Maybe an M-Audio Revolution 5,1 card and hook up a surround sound system to your 9600?

 

[EvieSigma]

I'm kind of thinking some kind of A/V card, actually. I've been wanting to experiment with video capture and editing on old hardware.

 

[ArmorAlley]

I'm kind of thinking some kind of A/V card, actually. I've been wanting to experiment with video capture and editing on old hardware.

FireWire card?