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Performa 6400/200 troubleshooting help needed

Gary_W

Well-known member
Hiya gang. I scored a free Performa 6400/200 a cpl of weeks ago. It has 256 Meg cache, 2 DIMMs (unknown size at this point), the Avid cinema card. I fired it up at the time I got it, and it started up to OS8.6. I poked around and even got online. It kept locking up at random times.

Tonight I fire it up again and it will not boot past the Mac OS 8.6 splash screen. I pulled the motherboard out (what a pain taking that case apart) and reseated all cards-same. I pressed the reset button-same.

I am not familiar with this model of Mac. Any ideas on what it might be? Would a dead PRAM battery cause this?

Thanks for any info,

Gary

 

equill

Well-known member
As one who has often resuscitated Macs, most of them unknown to me before our first meeting, may I suggest a process similar to this:

1) Put the 'new' Mac on a suitable work surface, and ground it only, with a power cable. Open the case.

2) Remove/blow out the accumulated detritus/dust/hedgehogs/stray camels/whatever, and verify the presence or absence of PS, MLB, CPU, RAM/VRAM, drives, cache, expansion cards and whatever you fancy, and reseat/reconnect them all.

3) Replace the PRAM battery with at least a known good one (>3.3V in-circuit), and preferably with a new one. <2.8V in-circuit is potentially more inhibitory than no battery. Reset CUDA, if there is one. You know, a priori, that many Macs will not boot without an adequate battery, so why waste time discovering that the new one is one such?

This saves a lot of delay in getting the Mac going.

de

 

Gary_W

Well-known member
Great minds think alike! Having already gone through steps 1 and 2, I pulled the battery, ready for a trip to the local Radio Shack as it tests at 1.2 volts.

I'll start over then with the fresh battery.

What's the best OS to run on this (or on the 6500, as I got one of those too)?

Gary

 

equill

Well-known member
My experience will be only indicative of possibilities, because it relates to a black (DE) 5400/180 and three black 5500/250s, which have L2-slot G3/400MHz upgrades now, and max. (EDO) RAM. They run OS 9.1 with verve and élan. The previous owner of one of the 5500s (a schoolie) used it for music composition and writing (with a MIDI interface), in un-upgraded condition, under EMagic Logic Pro 3.0. Mine also have PAL (you'll need NTSC, of course) TV tuners and A/V cards, so their possibilites as entertaining companions are many.

de

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
The 6400/200 PRAM is a square RAYOVAC 840 4.5VDC Alkaline, probably $15 at radioshack. I run my 6400/200 fine without a battery.

 
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