Mac II - Blank screen at startup

[pjeigh]

I dug my Mac II out of the basement to possibly put in my garage sale (*sniff sniff* it served me so well). The last time I started it up was about 6 years ago and I believe it was working fine then.

When I got it all connected and started up, it chimed well, the fan ran, the drive spun and the monitor light turned from yellow to green yet there was no picture.

I popped open the case and reseeded the video card in case it was loose, and it did the same thing. I moved it over one more slot and same thing.

Any suggestions?

 

[MultiFinder]

Listen to the HDD. Is it grinding away like it's booting?

If it is, then the tube in your old monitor might be blown. If you dug it out of the basement, then it could simply be that something fell on the monitor during its long sleep under the junk. The glass tube inside is rather delicate, and can be damaged by falling objects and sudden impacts. That light changing to green on the monitor indicates that it is indeed getting a video signal from the Macintosh. Sounds like you may have a blown tube. Sorry man :-/

Good news is that the computer itself might be perfectly fine

 

[equill]

Mac II? Basement? Six years? No startup? Read Kallikak in this thread.

de

 

[MultiFinder]

Mac II? Basement? Six years? No startup? Read Kallikak in this thread.
de

Yeah, but he said his starts up, gives the chime, and all that. It even turns on the monitor (the monitor just doesn't display anything).

 

[pjeigh]

I just tried the monitor with one of my other older Macs (Performa 6200CD) and the monitor (and Performa) works fine.

The Mac II was in the basement but it's not a soggy musty place. The Mac II purrs like it did years ago, just a blank screen. The monitor does not even flicker when it gets a green light.

All the monitor cable pins and pin sockets (on the card) look good, too. The HDD sounds like it is booting like the good ol' days.

 

[John8520]

What chime does it give? The standard 'bing' or a little tune? If its a tune, then something's wrong, you might just have to re-seat the RAM.

 

[aftermac]

Are the batteries good? Try zapping the PRAM. Do you have another video card you can try?

 

[pjeigh]

It's a "bling."

I do not have another video card to try.

I also tried to zap the PRAM and didn't get a second chime (I think you get a second chime on the Mac II?).

If the batteries were dead, would it even start up?

 

[John8520]

If the batteries were dead, it would *not* start up, as they are required to "jump start" the power supply when the power button is pressed. Still, get out the multimeter and see if they have any voltage, it should be around 3.5v.

 

[pjeigh]

In looking for a repair manual - fearing I'll need to solder a battery or two - I found this:

http://www.apple-collection.com/CarPos/macintosh_ii.iix.iifx.pdf

It's a nice quick ref. repair manual for those 3 models with mostly helpful diagrams. Page 19 of the PDF has my problem on it and my next step appears to be trying another video card (dagnabbit - I'm still waiting to borrow a meter to test the batteries, too).

Here's the text:

Troubleshooting Symptom Charts/Video

Screen is black, audio and drive operate, fan is running, and LED is lit

1 Adjust brightness on monitor.

2 Verify monitor works with another Macintosh.

3 Replace monitor. Refer to appropriate monitor manual to troubleshoot defective monitor.

4 Replace video cable.

5 Move video card to different slot.

6 Replace video card. Refer to Video Cards manual.

7 Replace SIMMs.

8 Replace logic board. Retain customer’s SIMMs.

9 Replace power supply.

Know where I can get a cheap video card (approx. $10)?

 

[Unknown_K]

I have some spare duplicates of Apples Nubus video cards and I am located in Ohio so shipping should be cheap.

PM if interested and I will tell you exactly what I have and even test it before shipping.

 

[LCGuy]

Do you have any way of trying the existing video card in another machine?

 

[pjeigh]

No way to test the video card in another system (my other Macs are the Performa 6200CD, PowerMac 8600/200 and G4s)

Just tested the batteries - top (toward the back of the case) is 3.82 v and the bottom is 3.07 v. Both are soldered on (I hate soldering. Those should be in the acceptable range, right?

 

[aftermac]

The bottom one is questionable, but my II has a similar voltage and it boots just fine. Unfortunately, I would say that testing that video card in another machine (which I realize you don't have) or testing the computer with a known good card would be the next logical step.

 

[Unknown_K]

The batteries should be 3.6V, if you are reading 3.8V then your meter is off. The batteries tend to drop like a rock when used up, so if the 3.07V one is realy under 3V then it should be needing replacement soon. Still if the machine starts up the batteries are good enough.

Could be that the video card needs a sync on green monitor to work correctly.

 

[aftermac]

Could be that the video card needs a sync on green monitor to work correctly.

That's a good point. Is this the monitor that you have used with this computer and and video card in the past? If not you may want to make sure it is compatible with your video card.

 

[pjeigh]

The monitor I'm trying it with is a Mac monitor so no adapter - it's an Apple Multi Scan 15 with a built-in 15-pin cable. It worked with the Performa and the light turns green with the Mac II.

Unfortunately, I can't find my Mac monitor cable to try the original Mac II monitor (AppleColor HighRes RGB).

 

[LCGuy]

What video card are you using? Also, have you ever used that monitor on that Mac with that video card before? Because i'm thinking that there is a chance you could be using the original Toby video card, the "Macintosh II Video Card", which, IIRC, doesn't support multisync monitors without an adaptor.

 

[Unknown_K]

Just to let others know. I had an issue with an older IIcx where I use a 800x600 fixed video adapter on one of my 17" monitors and got no video, the video card was 640x480 only so there was no video.