Restoring a 660AV Quadra -need advice (I have pictures)

[tthoms]

Greetings:

 I've recently attained a 660AV Quadra.  It looks like someone stacked boxes on top of it; the case is pretty beat up.  However, the insides look good as far as I can tell:



I'm waiting on the VGA adapter and the keyboard.  I thought once they arrived, I would turn it on, and see if I can get the ? sign.  It needs a hard drive, and I don't see a ribbon coming from the floppy.  Unless, they connect to the motherboard some other way, I'm guessing I'm going to need one. (I'LL need to figure out how it connects to the board).  It also is missing it's battery.  Other than not being able to keep the time, I don't know if this is a problem.

1)Is there something that I should do before I try firing it up?

2) Hard drive recommendations?

3)floppy ribbon recommendations?

4) Anything that I'm missing?

Thanks in advance.

 

[beachycove]

Actually it looks to me like it has the floppy cable plugged in. The tab is in the slot, at any rate, and the end of the cable seems to be there too.

It normally needs a battery to boot, but there is a workaround: if you turn the machine on, then immediately off and on again (pushing the button three times, basically, in quick succession), it’ll boot up (all else being functional). All the machines of this form factor seem to be like that.

 

[Unknown_K]

CDROM bezels are the same with the 6100 powermacs.

You will probably need to recap the motherboard and/or power supply.

You need a working battery ti run it.

 

[EvieSigma]

I think I have a CD bezel still, if you want it let me know and I'll dig around for it.

 

[tthoms]

Actually it looks to me like it has the floppy cable plugged in. The tab is in the slot, at any rate, and the end of the cable seems to be there too.

It normally needs a battery to boot, but there is a workaround: if you turn the machine on, then immediately off and on again (pushing the button three times, basically, in quick succession), it’ll boot up (all else being functional). All the machines of this form factor seem to be like that.

 I guess I wasn't expecting the ribbon to go straight down.  Whew, one less thing to worry about.  The batteries don't seem to be that expensive.  I'll just spring for one.

CDROM bezels are the same with the 6100 powermacs.

You will probably need to recap the motherboard and/or power supply.

You need a working battery ti run it.

I'm not adverse to recapping the system; but I'd like to see if it starts before I launch into that project.  I understand that you can't use polymer or tantalum capacitors in the power supply.  Correct?

I think I have a CD bezel still, if you want it let me know and I'll dig around for it.

Yes, I'd appreciate that!

Regarding hard drives, scsi2sd seems the way to go, but they seem to be in short supply at reasonable prices.  Did the manufacturer stop making them?

 

[Unknown_K]

I would use whatever type/spec was originally in the power supply if it needs reworked.

 

[jessenator]

 Regarding hard drives, scsi2sd seems the way to go, but they seem to be in short supply at reasonable prices.  Did the manufacturer stop making them?

I just ordered mine and they showed over 200 in stock. Never order them off eBay, FYI. Get them direct from inertial.

 

[danpoarch]

When you discover that the 15-pin is not showing any video and appears mangled by cap leakage, try falling back on the composite video out. This saved me some heartache on one of my 660AVs. Never have gotten the proper video port to work but I just use the composite if I need to bring it up. I plan on using it for donor chips to restore one of my 840AVs. All of the custom VLSI chips are the same for the two machines.

These boards can become pretty infected, so clean clean clean.

 

[tthoms]

I would use whatever type/spec was originally in the power supply if it needs reworked.

Understood.

I just ordered mine and they showed over 200 in stock. Never order them off eBay, FYI. Get them direct from inertial.

I looked a day and a half ago, and they had 4.  Thanks for checking on this for me!

When you discover that the 15-pin is not showing any video and appears mangled by cap leakage, try falling back on the composite video out. This saved me some heartache on one of my 660AVs. Never have gotten the proper video port to work but I just use the composite if I need to bring it up. I plan on using it for donor chips to restore one of my 840AVs. All of the custom VLSI chips are the same for the two machines.!

These boards can become pretty infected, so clean clean clean.

Will do. Thanks for letting me know this.  I'm guessing that means you get a composite signal at boot.  Maybe I don't have to wait for my adapter to give a preliminary start.

 

[Cory5412]

I'd have to look it up again to be 100% sure, but in my experience, the 660/840 won't output on composite/svid unless explicitly configured to. Basically, you have to get it up and running with an OS and a working PRAM battery before you can set to output to analog. I wouldn't count on the composite port for any part of your troubleshooting.

 

[tthoms]

So I have all of the parts to restart the machine, although I forgot to order the power cord to the scsisd, so that's a hassle.  Anyhow, I thought that I'd put in the battery and fire it up to check the status.  After struggling to figure out which way the battery goes (my eyes are not what they used to be), I powered it up a few times.  No chime, no sound, no video.  The power supply kicks on, the CDROM, spins up momentarily, and the LED lights.  Yanked the CDROM and the RAM: no change.

I'm going to pull out the board and clean it.  It looks like it has been partially recapped.  I'll try to finish the job.  

 

[Cory5412]

Do you have a working PRAM battery in the machine? If not, perhaps try to do the "pizzabox power-toggle" where you turn it on, then rapidly turn it off and back on. At that point, hopefully it will display video.

I recommend against leaving the machine in such a state where you need to do this frequently, but it can help get the machine on for testing.

 

[AlpineRaven]

Do you have a working PRAM battery in the machine? If not, perhaps try to do the "pizzabox power-toggle" where you turn it on, then rapidly turn it off and back on. At that point, hopefully it will display video.

I recommend against leaving the machine in such a state where you need to do this frequently, but it can help get the machine on for testing.

you do need to do Pizza box style power up or add PRAM battery.

Cheers

AP

 

[tthoms]

Do you have a working PRAM battery in the machine? If not, perhaps try to do the "pizzabox power-toggle" where you turn it on, then rapidly turn it off and back on. At that point, hopefully it will display video.

I recommend against leaving the machine in such a state where you need to do this frequently, but it can help get the machine on for testing.

you do need to do Pizza box style power up or add PRAM battery.

Cheers

AP

Thanks! The PRAM battery I put in was new.