LC III Rom Bios

[AvalancheSJ]

ok, here is my situation. my old mac lc3 just had a bad os update and the firmware is either (A). dead or ( B) needs to be reflashed. but the problem is that i cant flash the rom (cause i dont know how really) and i dont have the origional rom to flash it with. so... how do i get the lc3 rom bios? if i had a working lc3 i could just make rom discs but i cant casue i dont lol.

 

[Charlieman]

Your diagnosis of the problem sounds unlikely. What are the symptoms?

 

[AvalancheSJ]

when i turn on the computer i get a blank screen but i get the mac chime. nothing else happens. this happned when i tried to update it to OS 7.5. the hdd spins up but the floppy doesnt make it's noise. the fan is on and i already replaced my clock battery (for $9!) and still nothing. i need this mac for my finances lol. all my finances are on there.

 

[tomlee59]

You must have come from the PC world. That Mac does not have a BIOS, flashable or no. The ROM really is a ROM.

The common sources of trouble are bad install, bad HD, and bad RAM. Those are easy to check and fix. Logic board and power supply failures are also possible, of course, but if something changed right after you did an install, then the most logical inference to draw is that the install itself is the problem. If the HD had/has bad sectors, then the new install may have attempted to write to those sectors, making things die.

Boot from a floppy (e.g.) and run a good disk utility. Check the health of the HD, and repair any problems found, prior to attempting a reinstall.

 

[AvalancheSJ]

yes i am primarily a pc geek but im doing my best to learn about the mac world. its a big change so i feel a little over my head here. the only computer i have other than my mac is a pc and i dint put a fdd in it when i built it and it wont write the mac discs so how can i get the diagnostics disc? pc doesn't like to work with mac but mac has no real issues working w/ pc.... kinda lame if u was me lol.

 

[JRL]

Floppy drives for your PC are VERY easy to find. In fact, I can probably send you one for the cost of shipping.

 

[tomlee59]

yes i am primarily a pc geek but im doing my best to learn about the mac world. its a big change so i feel a little over my head here. the only computer i have other than my mac is a pc and i dint put a fdd in it when i built it and it wont write the mac discs so how can i get the diagnostics disc? pc doesn't like to work with mac but mac has no real issues working w/ pc.... kinda lame if u was me lol.

If you don't have another working Mac, you will need a floppy drive to proceed, so beg, borrow or buy one (they're all over the place for free, essentially -- check craigslist, surplus shops, garage sales, etc.). If you live in Silicon Valley, let me know. I'll give you a bucket full.

Once you've gotten that far, head on over to http://home.earthlink.net/~gamba2/pc2mac.html for instructions and software for making mac-readable disks on a PC.

Then, go grab a bootdisk from Apple: http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/

After you've successfully made a bootable floppy, run Disk First Aid (it's among the files from Apple). It's not a full-featured program, but it might be enough to fix your problem. If that doesn't do it, you'll need to search for more industrial-strength recovery programs, like Norton Utilities.

You'll be up and running in no time!

 

[AvalancheSJ]

ok i'll check into it. tyvm for all ur help. i'll post back if/when i get it fixed and working or if i need more help.