PM9600/200MP startup chime but no video or activity??

[Schmoburger]

So, my latest conquest has still not successfully run under it's own steam yet and I am beat as to why.

It will chime, and will power up the monitor (I have tried both my old Phillips 107T5 that works on basically anything and my Graphite CRT Studio display with the same results) momentarily and then sleep it again without displaying a raster. I have tried disconnecting all drives, removing power from all unneccesary devices, removing all cards except the graphics controller, removed PRAM battery, installed another PRAM battery, reset CUDA, switched between the original board and the replacement board i got with the machine, and tried both the ATI R7000 that was in it when I got it and the stock Rage128 from my G4 (both of which work in the G4), to no avail. With drives connected there appears to be no access activity after the initial bong. I have tried various combinations of RAM, even switched between the Sonnet Crescendo card and the original 200MP card to no real avail.

Anybody got any ideas?

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

You try reinstalling the OS, or swapping with a drive with a known-good OS?

 

[Schmoburger]

Can't even get to the point of being able to boot unfortunately... It powers up the screen just after the startup chime without displaying anything then just drops it back to power saving mode, and there appears to be no disk activity after the initial post-startup detection of drives.

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Is the cable good? No bent pins?

 

[unity]

Odd.

So basically you have to machines on two displays that do not work - if I am distilling this right. I mean you tried to displays, two main boards, two video cards. Right? And with drives connected or not, same results? So that leaves the power supply, no?

 

[Byrd]

Is the RAM installed the right configuration - and have you done a CUDA reset (just press the button for a second)

 

[Charlieman]

Go slowly.

Install some known working RAM.

Remove all PCI cards other than video.

Reset CUDA. Go for a walk and make a cup of tea.

And clean the plugs on the PSU, test them for volts without power demand. 

 

[Schmoburger]

Odd.

So basically you have to machines on two displays that do not work - if I am distilling this right. I mean you tried to displays, two main boards, two video cards. Right? And with drives connected or not, same results? So that leaves the power supply, no?

 Yeh this is pretty much the way of the world... have two logic boards, an a 64Mb R7000? Mac Edition and a 16Mb Rage128 that is a stock Yosemite/Yikes video card, and a generic Phillips 17" CRT and a Graphite 17" Studio Display (Yikes/Sawtooth era so should be compatible with at least the stock Yikes card) and both cards work perfectly in my Yikes with both displays. But any one of the above combinations isnt working after the initial bong even with all other cards removed.

Have had the CPU and graphics cards in and out a squillion times and made tripley sure they were seated correctly, even played with the position in which the graphics card sits in the slots, which I read on here worked for somebody ages ago with a troublesome 9600.

Have tried various combinations of RAM, and run randomly selected pairs and even singular sticks to no avail.

Reset cuda a few times now with PRAM battery out and power off... even to the point of resetting it every time I changed hardware configurations. No dice.

Even tried the On-Off-On trick a few times that seems to work for some people with glitchy 9xxx-series machines but no difference.

It is always possible that both boards are faulty but this seems a stretch... I am inclined to start suspecting PSU but then again who knows? I presume there is no other PSU that is a direct plug and play with regards to pinouts and plug configuration? I have various 7xxx series machines that work but I have this suspicion that the power supply of the 9600 has a bit more to it.

 

[Strimkind]

I would try the basic basic setup.

Pull all RAM except 2 x 16 MB DIMMS, A twin turbo card if you still have it or the oldest PCI video card in PCI Slot 1 (close to the CPU), connect one drive, one floppy, and the 200 MP PROCESSOR, replace the PRAM, then hit the CUDA switch.

Then test.

 

[Schmoburger]

Had a bit of a positive development which I posted about here because I couldn't find this thread (even though it was staring me in the face lol)... basically put a 3rd video card in and it now works reliably still after 2 days in a row. It's still a temporary measure as the card I am using is faulty, however definitely an improvement, and is actually making me lean towards a PCI connectivity issue. time will tell I guess.

 

[soviet]

I have the same issue using a 200MP dual 604 board on my 9600 get chime sound but dont get video, same problem on a 8600.

The trouble seem to be the L2 cache on the 8600 removing the cache simm get the machine to work perfectly (but slowly) on the 9600 the l2 cache is soldered on board this is the reason that fails (i think so).

 

[Schmoburger]

Hmmmm interesting.  I'm using a Crescendo 400/1M G3 CPU to preserve the stock card (and have more speed), and I actually noticed I have the Powerlogix control panel app and extension sitting in a folder on the desktop just now too and when I flashed it up, it was displaying the status of both caches as disabled... the onboard 512k onboard cache and the backside 1Mb cache on the Sonnet card. I set both to be on, then restarted and whilst the logic board cache still was switched on, the backside cache was switched back to disabled. I installed the accompanying extension and then tried again switching it back and a restart and this time it is still saying the backside is on as well as the onboard. Interestingly however, System Profiler was still saying there was a 512K external cache before I played with the control panel, meaning it was at least registering that the onboard cache is there, however even more oddly, it is saying there is no backside L2 cache present... I can't tell if the powerlogix app is lying to me, or the System Profiler panel simply can't recognise the backside cache on the Sonnet card, even though it is there and working. It certainly feels like the machine is more sprightly since apparantly enabling the backside 1Mb cache... Hmmm. Odd.

EDIT: I should reiterate the fact I DID in fact get the 9600 working quite some time ago now and it actually works flawlessly, however it will only show a display with certain graphics cards installed... I am running a stock TT128 card ( I beleive it is actually the 8Mb card that came with the final 350MHz variants of the 9600 but stock for all intents and purposes) in it with no hassles at all (aside from having to do the on-off-on thing due to a flat PRAM battery), and my old faulty Revision 2. Rage128 16Mb card from my G4 also displays video and boots. However my perfectly functioning Rev. 1 Rage128 from my G3 does not, nor does the R7000 that works perfectly in my G4. It's a very inconsistent but at the same time very consistent and confusing fault.

 

[2dfx]

I get the same issue with my 9600/200...however shutting it down and turning it on will always fix the problem.  Oddity indeed.

 

[Schmoburger]

I get the same issue with my 9600/200...however shutting it down and turning it on will always fix the problem.  Oddity indeed.

Ah yes this sounds like the flat battery/double boot peculiarity that seems to be specific to the 8600 and 9600.... Basically, if the PRAM battery is flat or missing, they will chime and go no further and display no raster on the first power-up. To get around it you must hit the power, turn it off after a couple of seconds and turn it on again, after which it will work. Mine just seems to have an affliction to certain video cards though also... it's really quite bizzarre. I havent tried it with my Kansas board to see if it makes a difference.