Performa 6116 does not start

[Dimitris1980]

Yesterday i turned on the performa and i came with this:

The screen was black. I thought that it was the monitor but i realized that the machine does not boot. I just hear the start up sound and everything stops there. I can put a cd in the drive and i can also eject it. I also put a disk but it stayed there. I left the machine on for about half an hour and i realized that the power supply is cold. So, maybe this is the problem?

Technical specs:

Performa 6116 with sonnet nubus g3 500mhz installed

136mb ram

Apple pds 1mb

4x cd rom

73gb hard drive

System 7.5, Mac OS 8.1 and Mac OS 9 installed

Macintosh color display M1212 monitor

 

[uniserver]

its amazing what a dead pram battery will do to some of these vintage macs.

get a good pram battery in there.

in the mean time you can flip it on.. then off and then on again really quick.

should boot up.

 

[Dimitris1980]

I bought the performa some years before. The list of the specification that the seller sent me writes 'new pram battery installed on 2009". Can this battery last so little?

 

[uniserver]

well check the pram battery with a meter. should be 3.6v

if the pram battery is not dead… then maybe you have a more serious issue.

 

[unity]

I bought the performa some years before. The list of the specification that the seller sent me writes 'new pram battery installed on 2009". Can this battery last so little?

Define "new". I needed a camcorder battery and looked for a new one. The "new" ones I found were produced in 2009! While 4 years old may not be too bad for an unused battery, its not new enough for me. So while the previous owner may have installed a new battery, it may have been already been an older one. They are dated. A quick look would not hurt.

 

[waynestewart]

A volt meter is a handy thing to have.

 

[Dimitris1980]

The battery is 3.7V. The volt meter measured until 2.5V. According to this apple link http://support.apple.com/kb/TA35928 the battery must be changed. But when i turn on the computer, i hear the starting sound and the hard drive starts spinning but until there (it doesn't continue booting). The power supply is cold (i have left the performa on about half an hour), the cd rom drive can be opened and closed as many times(with a cd or no cd inside) as i want and the diskette stays inside the floppy drive. Can the pram battery cause all these?

 

[Macdrone]

Did you try the double tap boot? Yes the pram battery can cause this.

 

[Dimitris1980]

Yes nothing happened. I also tried holding down the Command-Option-P-R keys but again nothing.

 

[uniserver]

looks like we better watch it,

apple is still trying make $$$$ from these vintage machine repairs.

your computer should be brought to an Apple authorized service provider to have the lithium battery voltage checked. If the voltage is below 3.0 volts DC, the battery should be replaced. If the battery voltage is above 3.0 volts DC, the logic board is likely the cause of the no video condition and should be replaced.
Last Modified: Feb 18, 2012 <---------------------------------------------

 

[uniserver]

has anyone tried to bring a dead vintage mac into the apple store… and said fix it?

 

[mcdermd]

I think it would be like bringing a 1976 CB750 into a modern Honda shop - they would say they don't work on models that old and you'll need to find an independent.

 

[uniserver]

 

[Dimitris1980]

Hello, i just came home and i took from the basement the battery from a damaged Powermac 7500. I connected to the performa 6116 and nothing happened. But i tried the double tap boot with the power button. Before i had tried that many times with the reset and nothing happened. With the power button the performa started again! The disk was automatically ejected and the machine booted to mac os. The battery was reset to 1956. I turned off the computer again, then turn it on again and nothing again. I tried again the double tap boot with the power button and again the performa started but again the date was reset to 56!

 

[Macdrone]

That means the battery is dead. If it resets the pram is not holding the date. The 6100 series did not have soft power is why it's a strange bird. Even when I had my first 6100 fifteen years ago with a good battery I had to double tap often.

 

[Dimitris1980]

Until now, when i turn off the performa, i have to do the double tap boot in order to start again. When i just restart the machine everything is ok.

 

[Macdrone]

Yep because power doesn't shut off and it retains it date.

 

[Dimitris1980]

I guess that i will try to get a new 3.6V lithium battery. I would like to ask if the mAh are important.

 

[uniserver]

i think the ones i have are 1200ma