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Portable - two steps forward one back

techknight

Well-known member
I read through that, appears its a disk you have to boot from an SE that performs the tests on the Portable. 

Wonder if anyone has gotten a copy of said disk and archived it. 

 

mg.man

Well-known member
you have to boot from an SE that performs the tests on the Portable


I've been following this... but now I'm even more interested.  I've just brought an SE back to life - complete with '030 accelerator courtesy of @Bolle - and working their way to the top of my repair queue are a couple of Portables.  One I know was working fine - but had a dead vertical row of pixels :-(  - when I shelved it a few years ago... and another I acquired recently which would not boot... "Sad Mac" :-(   It'd be great if someone has that magic diskette tucked away somewhere... 

 

at0z

Well-known member
I think I found it

https://macintoshgarden.org/apps/apple-mactest-pro

i remember the standalone box from my distant past working in AASP in UK. I don’t recall us being hugely impressed as it was a pass/fail device which meant swap the motherboard out service exchange with Apple, no board level shenanigans in those days...

I will take another look. It might be worth rescuing an SE for. My Color Classic is now back with the living but doesn’t look like I can use that as a 68k host.

Ive often thought if we could make use of the test pads that would be cool but I’m not that gifted...

 

mg.man

Well-known member
I think I found it


Nice!  Not sure when I'll be able to get to my Portables... maybe this w/e ...  Will report back once I've had a spin.   

I did note in the description... "MacTest Pro is a subscription diagnostic product..." - hope it won't be a false start!  :-/

 

at0z

Well-known member
Nice!  Not sure when I'll be able to get to my Portables... maybe this w/e ...  Will report back once I've had a spin.   

I did note in the description... "MacTest Pro is a subscription diagnostic product..." - hope it won't be a false start!  :-/


This was in the days before the Internet - a subscription meant you got an envelope of CD every month as long as you kept paying Apple $$$$

I think we had the TechStep on trial for evaluation and we didn't end up keeping it. The main advantage to keeping it was that if it reported a component as failed, you could use that as proof to Apple Service Exchange that a replacement was warrantied. It was to prevent some shops from just throwing parts at a problem machine and charging Apple for them when they were perfectly fine. If Apple tested a return and found it working, then they charged back your account. Didn't tend to make the boss very happy.

 

360alaska

Well-known member
Two cases I can think of where techstep has helped me:

1. Had a macii board that would intermittently sad Mac with no video, the techstep revealed it was failing cpu tests so I solved the problem by reseating the cpu.

2. Had a se/30 sad Mac but could not see the error code, I did a ram test and the techstep indicated that the board could not see SIMM 1, I found a single open trace that looked good under magnifying glass.

 

at0z

Well-known member
Two cases I can think of where techstep has helped me:

1. Had a macii board that would intermittently sad Mac with no video, the techstep revealed it was failing cpu tests so I solved the problem by reseating the cpu.

2. Had a se/30 sad Mac but could not see the error code, I did a ram test and the techstep indicated that the board could not see SIMM 1, I found a single open trace that looked good under magnifying glass.


I'm not dissing the techstep in these days of "vintage" hardware - just back in the day when you could still get a replacement logic board from Apple you could just throw parts at it ;-)

I guess we wait to see if @mg.man gets his SE to talk to the Portable....

 
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mg.man

Well-known member
I've had a few things get in the way... but hoping to have a go at bringing my Portable back to life in the coming week... I've downloaded the various MacTest options from the link above, but the document refers to a special 'combined' version... AppleCat/MacTest Portable.

/monthly_2020_11/large.20201122_014525.jpg.b19e90abf444888f9193b9c6a9f69063.jpg

I'll have a trawl through the files from MacintoshGarden... but has anyone listening heard of this unicorn?  :-/

 

360alaska

Well-known member
You will use the 1996 disk, here is the read me I extracted:

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥ READ ME ¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥

The February 1996 Macintosh Family Diagnostics Update Mailing includes separate CD's, diskettes, and User's Guides for MacTestª Pro for 680x0-based Macintosh computers, and for MacTest Pro for Power Macintosh.

The information in this READ ME file refers to MacTest Pro for 680x0-based Macintosh computers, and is effective as of 02/21/96. This file contains important information about the MacTest Pro application, its test modules, and the MTP Emergency application. This information supersedes some sections of the MacTest Pro User's Guide for 680x0-based Macintosh computers (073-0326-F).

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
WHAT'S NEW

¥ MacTest Pro v1.3 and MTP Emergency v1.1 are designed to launch only on 680x0-based Macintosh computers; these applications will not launch on Power Macintosh computers. Use the MacTest Pro for Power Macintosh and MTP Emergency (PPC) applications to diagnose Power Macintosh computers.

¥ For Macintosh Quadra and Centris computers upgraded with the Power Macintosh Upgrade Card, and for Macintosh 630 series, LC 475, LC 575, and Quadra 605 computers upgraded with the Macintosh Processor Upgrade Card, use MacTest Pro v1.3 (for 680x0-based machines) with the Power Macintosh Card Tests module, and use MTP Emergency v1.1.

¥ For 68000-based Macintosh computers (Macintosh Plus, SE, Classic, Portable, and PowerBook 100) only the MTP Emergency application is available. For 68020, 68030, 68040, and 68LC040-based computers, both MTP Emergency and the MacTest Pro application are available.

¥ The following test module updates include minor bug fixes and enhancements:

    Communication Ports Tests v1.3
    Expansion Card Tests v3.0
    File Checker v2.1.1
    Hardware Info v1.9.7
    Software Info v1.9.1

¥ The Display Service Utility v1.0 is now included on the MacTest Pro CD and on the "MacTest Pro (App+Mods Vol2)".

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
BOOTABLE MACTEST PRO CD

The MacTest Pro CD v5.0 is bootable on almost all 680x0-based Macintosh, PowerBook, and Performa computers. Instructions for booting from the CD are included in the CD Guide booklet. Electronic copies of current MacTest Pro documentation and the most recent System Software Enablers are provided on the MacTest Pro CD.

You may launch MacTest Pro, MTP Emergency, and the printer and display utilities from the CD whether or not you to boot from the CD. Please refer to the electronic document "How to Use this CD" located on the CD for more information.
 
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
BOOTABLE DISKS

Two of the four disks in the MacTest Pro (for 680x0-based Macintosh computers) disk set are BOOTABLE emergency startup disks. Between the two, these disks will boot all 680x0-based Macintosh computers except for the PowerBook 190 (see the User's Guide section "MTP Emergency - Creating Emergency Disks" for more information). The MTP Emergency application is the same on both of the bootable disks. Instructions for using the MTP Emergency disks are included in the "Using the MTP Emergency" section of the MacTest Pro User's Guide.

¥ Use the "MTP Emergency (680x0)" bootable 1.44MB disk with Motorola 680x0-based Macintosh computers which are equipped with a 1.44 MB floppy drive. This disk contains the MTP Emergency application and System 7.5.  

¥ Use the "MTP Emergency (SSW 6.0.8)" bootable 800K disk for 680x0-based Macintosh computers which are equipped with only an 800K floppy drive. These include the Macintosh Plus, SE, SE/30, Macintosh II, IIx, and IIfx -- if the computer has never been upgraded to include a 1.44 MB floppy drive. This disk contains the MTP Emergency application, System 6.0.8, and Finder.

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
NONBOOTABLE DISKS

Two of the four disks in the MacTest Pro disk set are nonbootable; they do not contain System files.

¥ "MacTest Pro (App+Mods Vol1)" contains the MacTest Pro application, the commonly used CPU and peripheral test modules, Hardware Info, Software Info, and the READ ME and VERSION INFO files.

¥ "MacTest Pro (App+Mods Vol2)" contains the MacTest Pro application, tests for serial ports, modems and cards, and printer and display utilities.

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
OPERATING TIPS - WORKAROUNDS - KNOWN BUGS

The "Operating Tips - Workarounds - Known Bugs" listed here are either new with this release or represent issues that all MacTest Pro users MUST be aware of.  An electronic copy of the most recent MacTest Pro User's Guide is included in the Documentation folder on the MacTest Pro CD.

¥¥¥ MacTest Pro CD ¥¥¥
If a PowerBook 160 has been set to "24 bit mode", the MacTest Pro CD will not boot the machine. You may boot from the MTP Emergency disk, or you may set the PowerBook 160 to "32 bit mode", then boot from the CD.

Because Display Service Utility's "settings restore" option creates a file to temporarily store settings, it cannot be run from the CD-ROM or other locked media. Move the Display Service Utility to the hard drive or to an unlocked disk before using it.

If you boot a Macintosh Classic II, Color Classic, or SE30 from the MacTest Pro CD, then use the Shutdown option in the "Special" menu within the MacTest Pro application, you may get a dialogue box requesting that you "Please insert the disk: MacTest Pro", even though the CD is still in the drive. After a moment the Macintosh will shut down properly, however you may need to eject the CD manually. To avoid this problem, quit MacTest Pro, and then use the Finder "Special" menu, Shutdown option.

¥¥¥ MacTest Pro Application ¥¥¥

Help text cannot be printed.

Drag launching a test module causes window refresh problems, and the module will not appear in the Test Selection region of the Main Window until you refresh the window.  Also, a "did not load" message will appear in the Operation Info log even though the test module actually did load.

Test modules that turn off AppleTalk (see User's Guide for additional information) can interrupt some network services, such as the Apple Laserwriter Bridge.  This results in an alert to the user, which must be dismissed by the user before testing will continue.  This interruption can impact the looping of tests.  Do not leave the machine unattended until at least one loop of testing has been completed.

If you already have a version of the Help test module loaded in MacTest Pro, do not manually load another version of the Help test module.  If you wish to use a different version of the Help test module, quit MacTest Pro, move the old version out of the Test Modules folder, and replace it with the new Help test module.

¥¥¥ MTP Emergency Application¥¥¥

Always connect SCSI hard drives to the standard SCSI connections provided by the Macintosh hardware before running diagnostic tests. If you run hard drive tests on drives connected to a 3rd party SCSI bus (i.e. expansion slot card), then MacTest Pro may hang, or may incorrectly report a hard drive failure. If you subsequently run a Logic Board Test, MacTest Pro may incorrectly report a logic board failure. Do not reject a hard drive or logic board based solely on these false reports. Turn off the Macintosh, reconnect the SCSI hard drive to a standard SCSI connection and restart the Macintosh. Then launch MacTest Pro and start the tests again.

On a PowerBook or PowerBook Duo, always disconnect external monitors before running MTP Emergency, unless you are specifically testing the external VRAM. In that case, be sure that video mirroring is OFF before launching MTP Emergency, otherwise the system may crash.

On a PowerBook Duo 250 running under System 7.1, MTP Emergency may incorrectly identify the machine as a PowerBook Duo 230.

On a Macintosh Centris 660AV, MTP Emergency may quit with a "type 3 (illegal instruction) error" after looping for four or more hours, when the machine is booted from the CD or a floppy. Do not reject a logic board based solely on this behavior. Boot the computer from the hard drive, and rerun the test.

On the Macintosh Centris 610 and Quadra 610, MTP Emergency may crash or hang after looping for four or more hours; do not reject a logic board based solely on this behavior.

On the Macintosh Centris 610 and Quadra 610 MTP Emergency may incorrectly report that VRAM has failed at address "$1"; do not reject VRAM or a logic board based solely on this behavior.

On a Macintosh 630 or 640 series DOS Compatible computer, MTP Emergency may quit with a "type 2 (address) error" after looping for four or more hours, when the machine is booted from the CD or a floppy. Do not reject a logic board based solely on this behavior. Boot the computer from the hard drive, and rerun the test.

To launch MTP Emergency on a Macintosh LC which has System 6.0.8 on the internal hard drive, you must boot from the MTP Emergency disk. (On a Macintosh LC, if you boot with System 6.0.8 from the hard drive, and then launch MTP Emergency from either the hard drive or a floppy, the machine will hang. If you attempt to launch MTP Emergency from the CD, an inappropriate dialogue will appear indicating that the CD desktop is damaged and must be rebuilt, which is not true since the CD is read-only media.)

On some machines (e.g. the Macintosh Quadra 900, the Macintosh LC II, and the PowerBook 540), the percent numbers reported in the status line "Running Video RAM test... (___% complete)" do not appear to match the patterns being displayed on the monitor. This is caused by the interaction between the screen-handling routine and interrupt timing, and does not indicate any problem with the functionality of computer's VRAM or with the VRAM test.

The CPU clock speed that is displayed in the Hardware Info Log and by MTP Emergency is an approximation based on information gathered from the system; the presence of accelerator cards may affect the accuracy of this information.  

¥¥¥ Communication Ports Tests ¥¥¥

Do not loop the Network File Transfer option of the Communication Ports Tests in combination with logic board tests. If the looping feature is used with a logic board test marked "(Must Restart)", then the Network File Transfer test will report a false failure.

The Network File Transfer option of the Communication Ports Tests requires that the file server selected in the Setup window be in the same "zone" as the test machine; if it is not, then the Network File Transfer test may report a false failure.

¥¥¥ Ethernet Card Tests ¥¥¥

The "Test Info" and the "Operation Info" in the MacTest Pro application state that you may run the Ethernet Card Tests while the card is connected to a network. This is INCORRECT. Running the test while connected to a network may result in a crash or false failure of the test. To run the test correctly, disconnect the card from the network, and restart the Macintosh before launching MacTest Pro.

¥¥¥ Mass Storage Device Tests ¥¥¥

The Mass Storage Device Tests module is designed to test all CD-ROM drives, hard drives and tape drives released by Apple, when installed with driver software by Apple. The test module will load and attempt to run on non-Apple devices (see below) and/or with non-Apple drivers (such as FWB CD-ROM Toolkit), however MacTest Pro has not been tested with third-party CD-ROMs and drivers.

Mass Storage Device Tests does not currently support CD-ROMs with blocksizes other than 2048 bytes, or hard drives with blocksizes other than 512 bytes (such as 4Gb drives which may have blocksizes larger than 512 bytes). Any results which may be obtained will not be reliable.

Mass Storage Device Tests can test a PCMCIA card which is an IDE hard drive (except on PowerBook 500 series computers). The test module may load and attempt to test other PCMCIA devices (such as flash cards), however any test results which may be obtained will not be reliable.

When you are testing a DDS-DC tape drive, be sure to use a properly formatted known-good tape (for example, if you insert a 'Helical Scan' tape, the test will fail). Also, if the write protect switch on the tape is enabled, the test will fail.

When running Mass Storage Device Tests, if the CD-ROM test disc was already inserted in the CD-ROM drive when a test failure is detected, the CD-ROM test disc may not eject from the CD-ROM drive. To eject the CD-ROM test disc, run the CD-ROM portion of the Mass Storage Device Tests again, and then cancel the test after the CD-ROM test disc is ejected. Or, reboot the computer, and the CD-ROM test disc will be ejected automatically.
 
¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥
VERSION INFO

Information about the current versions of System Enablers, and MacTest Pro test modules can be found in the accompanying VERSION INFO file.
_______________________________________________________________
© Copyright Apple Computer, Inc., 1996
END OF FILE

 

at0z

Well-known member
So, does that suggest I might be able to run the MTP Emergency floppy on my Color Classicand connect to the Portable mobo ? Worth a try...

 

mg.man

Well-known member
does that suggest I might be able to run the MTP Emergency floppy on my Color Classic


In that original doc I was referring to, lower down it stated:

/monthly_2020_11/large.20201122_081232.jpg.0eac159983c464208fde0d1e9cbfb9df.jpg

So my guess is any (68k?) Mac that'll run AppleCat/MacTest (and has a modem port) should work... Obviously the Color Classic wasn't out at that time... ;-)

I'll see if I can at least give MacTest a spin today... 

 

at0z

Well-known member
So I thought I would take another look with the flashlight under the pcb trick around that 74AC244 alaska360 pointed to (U13C) and thought I might have struck lucky with this

IMG_0069 2.jpeg

I ran a through wire to the other side but hasn't changed the Sad Mac start. But looking at the schematic I didn't see pin 14 connected to anything any way...

So despite my Google Fu attempts for explanation videos, can someone share some images of okay, bad and suspect examples from the backlight test ? Was this "fools gold" ? The one or two videos I did actually find someone doing this, they didn't run anything suspect, so it's hard to know what they actually were looking for...

On a parallel topic, has anybody found an SOP-> DIP adapter that works for these chips ? The one that came with my programmer isn't quite wide enough to capture both sides securely to test. And obviously I don't want to start cutting off anything. 

 

mg.man

Well-known member
I didn't see pin 14 connected to anything


I think you'll find that's pin 7... assuming that chip follows TTL counter-clockwise numbering convention.

I'll see if I can at least give MacTest a spin today... 


I did try out MacTest the other day... but not on a 68k machine (all mine were out of action).  I couldn't see anything obvious about 'remote' mode, however, but I suppose that may be a vintage 68k-only thing...  I gotmy SE back up and running today, so I'll have another go with the period-correct version tomorrow or over the weekend.

Something else... I was pointed by an acquaintance (who used to work for Apple years ago) to the following...

https://mac68k.info/wiki/display/mac68k/Diagnostic+Mode

He hadn't heard of that Portable version of AppleCAT, but suspected that all it did was tap into the 'diagnostic' feed...  May be worth trying to connect with MacTerminal.  Since the Portable is able to talk to the display [as evident by the Sad Mac], maybe Diagnostic Mode is available?

 

at0z

Well-known member
The notched side is on the right so that would be pin 14 though 

Interesting note on the diagnostic mode makes sense as a way of emulating the Techstep. 

 

at0z

Well-known member
Okay got the RAM test working on my programmer and a socket to fit the chips so I guess time to pull all the onboard memory and validate it. Hopefully it shows a bad chip or two which might solve the problem 

 

at0z

Well-known member
Pulled the chips off the board and some of them give inconsistent test results on my TL866 so I ordered a few new ones to be safe.

While I had the board cleared down, I thought I would ask if anybody more versed in the backlight trick can see anything here which may warrant more investigation...?

3283F762-3AE9-486B-A6EA-590B3B5F362D_1_105_c.jpeg

 

at0z

Well-known member
New RAM finally made it through the quagmire of postal parcels, soldered on and now getting Sad Mac straight away data bus or RAM.  Not sure how to decode the minor error. I’ll go back and recheck my work, here’s the code in case someone has a eureka moment 

B614BBB4-9888-42EA-A976-E8B5E6A8805E.jpeg

 
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