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Mac Color Classic doesn’t boot, sort of.. (Power button issue)

Freddruppel

New member
I finally got my hands on a Color Classic ! Though there’s a little issue.

When I turn on the switch on the machine after honking everything up, the transformer makes a normal « stand-by » noise, but when I press the power button on the keyboard, the Mac doesn’t start up. I tried with multiple keyboards and cables, none seem to work..
I then tried to remove the logic board to see if the analog board powers up, and *it does* (the fan spins up, the hard drive starts, the flyback transformer makes its classic noise)…
The next thing I tried is, from stand-by, removing and directly plugging back in the motherboard. And finally, the beasts boots up ! It gets to a desktop, runs programs, lives.
So what about the power button ? Well, when the machine is running and I press the button, the system asks if I want to turn of the machine; so it is in fact working, and on all the keyboards I tested this.

So my issue is : The Color Classic doesn’t boot whet I press the power button on the keyboard, but when I get it to boot the button is detected.
Does anyone know what could be the cause of this issue, and what could possibly fix this ?

I’m already planning on recapping the motherboard and analog board, and I didn’t have the time yet but I’m going to clean the all the contacts of the connectors (though I don’t think the issue comes from here as the machine works correctly when it has started).
 

jajan547

Well-known member
I finally got my hands on a Color Classic ! Though there’s a little issue.

When I turn on the switch on the machine after honking everything up, the transformer makes a normal « stand-by » noise, but when I press the power button on the keyboard, the Mac doesn’t start up. I tried with multiple keyboards and cables, none seem to work..
I then tried to remove the logic board to see if the analog board powers up, and *it does* (the fan spins up, the hard drive starts, the flyback transformer makes its classic noise)…
The next thing I tried is, from stand-by, removing and directly plugging back in the motherboard. And finally, the beasts boots up ! It gets to a desktop, runs programs, lives.
So what about the power button ? Well, when the machine is running and I press the button, the system asks if I want to turn of the machine; so it is in fact working, and on all the keyboards I tested this.

So my issue is : The Color Classic doesn’t boot whet I press the power button on the keyboard, but when I get it to boot the button is detected.
Does anyone know what could be the cause of this issue, and what could possibly fix this ?

I’m already planning on recapping the motherboard and analog board, and I didn’t have the time yet but I’m going to clean the all the contacts of the connectors (though I don’t think the issue comes from here as the machine works correctly when it has started).
PRAM Battery over time symptoms like this arise. If you were to leave rear switch on and leave the Mac plugged in for an hour and then press keyboard power it would boot.
 

Freddruppel

New member
PRAM Battery over time symptoms like this arise. If you were to leave rear switch on and leave the Mac plugged in for an hour and then press keyboard power it would boot.
Does this also mean that this can happen when there’s no PRAM battery installed ? I’ll try your solution while I wait for a replacement :)
 

jajan547

Well-known member
Does this also mean that this can happen when there’s no PRAM battery installed ? I’ll try your solution while I wait for a replacement :)
Yes and also once it goes through this cycle should be fine without it, it’s just after years sometimes stuff like that happens.
 
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