My Performa 635CD is Being Lazy!

[Juliet Elysa]

My Performa has a strange quirk. It seems to be morally opposed to giving system errors with text in them. Either that, or it's just too lazy for words.

These errors pop up when I leave the Performa running unattended for a certain period of time. Also, like most system errors, they sometimes appear for no apparent reason. The crashes don't interrupt normal use of the computer - it crashes about as often as most other computers do when they're actively being used.

The Performa has been in my family since before I was born, and nearly all of the bomb errors I've seen have looked like this:

I believe my Performa runs System 7.5.1. The crashing isn't a huge problem. It's just really weird, and I'm curious if anybody else has (or knows of) a computer that crashes like this.

 

[Macdrone]

My performa 63x's do that. Usually due to dead pram battery. It's a square battery on the slide out motherboard. Also update to 7.5.5 if you get a chance.

 

[Juliet Elysa]

Does a dead PRAM battery have any other noticeable symptoms? Other than the blank bomb messages I don't recall ever seeing anything abnormal.

Thanks!

 

[Macdrone]

No its just kind of quirky that way.  

I always noticed it more on waking from sleep on my 638CD.  It doesn't hurt anything but 7.5.5 took away some of the issues.

 

[Juliet Elysa]

OK. Little glitches and stuff like that are what make computers most interesting, in my opinion.

Thanks again!

 

[wilykat]

Isn't the 630 series the last of low end Macs before 68k was completely retired in favor of PPC?

 

[Macdrone]

Yes.  They were LC 040's and no real expansion.

 

[XBHS1997]

If you want to replace the PRAM-battery (I think it's a Rayovac 840), you can do this by soldering 3 AA-batteries together. Did that on my 4400/200, works just fine.