Mac II - Blank screen at startup

[pjeigh]

The video card says:

Apple Computer Inc. © 1987

820-0198-A7

Macintosh II Video Card

Thought I had, but probably never used the Apple Multi Scan 15 monitor on the Mac II.

Dern - I guess I have to find that missing Mac monitor cable. Anyone have a spare?

 

[LCGuy]

Your best bet would be to get an old fixed resolution Apple display, such as a Macintosh Colour Display or something along those lines.

 

[pjeigh]

Yeah, I plan to try the original Mac II monitor next - just need to find the cable.

 

[equill]

... 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?

Wrong, as has already been mentioned. If your VM is reading high (a spanking-new lithium half-AA battery is never more than 3.67-3.68V), the other battery is just over 2.9V. Take it as a matter of principle that 3.3V is the throwaway point, and 2.8V and less can even be inhibitory of operation, depending on the Mac model. Macs with a single battery (for PRAM only) are often better off with no battery than they are with a failing battery.

By the way, treasure any remaining site that offers Apple's Service Source manuals for download, but don't post the URL in open forum, lest the site not be offering downloads tomorrow.

de

 

[pjeigh]

That's why I pasted the info. from the manual in my post along with the link - I figured ppl. could grab the file while it is still available.

Battery voltage appears to be a point of contention and it seems to be borderline. Since I really don't want to mess with soldering unless absolutely necessary, I'll scrounge up a 15-pin monitor cable and test with the original monitor first. I'd hate to brick my system with a slipped iron tip.

Now to find that/a dern monitor cable...

 

[pjeigh]

Here's an update on my Mac II. Someone from a local Apple society had a spare monitor cable.

I plugged it in and my Mac II runs like a charm.

(And I did not have to replace either of the batteries.)

I forgot how much good stuff I ran on this machine - Word, Quark, PageMaker, MacDraw, FreeHand and even a couple games. Not to mention all the little apps I gathered.

Thank you all for your suggestions. I likely would have gone through some major hair pulling with soldering batteries, buying a video card and other nonsense thinking the motherboard was bad when all I needed was the right monitor cable.

 

[MultiFinder]

Good to hear! I always love hearing about an old Mac pulled from the brink of forgottenness and put back to some sort of use

 

[chris]

Congrats! Whatcha gonna do with it?