I finally got a CD-ROM drive for my PDQ that had come without one, but it's not even trying to boot from it, even with me holding down the C key. Now, this PDQ is weird about starting up and doesn't even show a green LED when powered on, so maybe there's a power problem? Could this be PRAM battery related?
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Wallstreet PDQ not even trying to boot from CD-ROM
- Thread starter EvieSigma
- Start date
Tried pushing the reset button on the back?
Anything is possible, of course, with dying components et al., but the Wallstreet in my long experience of it (I used one as my main laptop for several years) was a model somewhat afflicted by GLOD. So yes, the backup battery (it’s not a pram battery, as its functions are greater) can cause anomalies if it has been sitting awhile without power. Once going, however, it should be fine — assuming you have a main battery installed or keep it plugged in. If all power is removed, you can get problems with these machines.
For anyone not in the know, GLOD = “green light of death”.
Anything is possible, of course, with dying components et al., but the Wallstreet in my long experience of it (I used one as my main laptop for several years) was a model somewhat afflicted by GLOD. So yes, the backup battery (it’s not a pram battery, as its functions are greater) can cause anomalies if it has been sitting awhile without power. Once going, however, it should be fine — assuming you have a main battery installed or keep it plugged in. If all power is removed, you can get problems with these machines.
For anyone not in the know, GLOD = “green light of death”.
...what reset button on the back? I don't see a reset button anywhere.
Sorry about that. That will teach me to rely on what I call my memory! It has been a long time since I touched the old gal, but i just dug it out to check.
Shift-Fn-Ctrl-Power is the reset combo, apparently. I DO remember having to reset the machine occasionally, however, and that my backup battery was definitely dead. I seem to recall I used to have to reset it with the power plugged in, too, which is not supposed to be the case but I believe was for me. Maybe it had to do with those dead coin cells.
Anyway, among the Apple machines I have used professionally over the past thirty years, the Wallstreet was a particular favourite. I especially liked the keyboard, which for me was superior to even the Pismo’s. I probably wrote 300,000 words on a Wallstreet.
A refurb of my machine is on my “to do” list now that I have retired; I have a rebuilt backup battery ready to go, and a recapped charge board, which is a common point of failure. All I need is to get through all the other things I need to do first…!
Shift-Fn-Ctrl-Power is the reset combo, apparently. I DO remember having to reset the machine occasionally, however, and that my backup battery was definitely dead. I seem to recall I used to have to reset it with the power plugged in, too, which is not supposed to be the case but I believe was for me. Maybe it had to do with those dead coin cells.
Anyway, among the Apple machines I have used professionally over the past thirty years, the Wallstreet was a particular favourite. I especially liked the keyboard, which for me was superior to even the Pismo’s. I probably wrote 300,000 words on a Wallstreet.
A refurb of my machine is on my “to do” list now that I have retired; I have a rebuilt backup battery ready to go, and a recapped charge board, which is a common point of failure. All I need is to get through all the other things I need to do first…!
Not sure about the CF to IDE adapter but when I upgraded mine with an mSATA SSD to IDE it started having issues with the CD drive too. I think there is something weird going on with the Master/Slave/Cable Select settings with new (in my case cheap) storage solution IDE adapters. I just permanently switched to using my floppy drive on that machine and hook it up to an external CD drive when I need it.
That's the case on all the PDQs/Wallstreets I've had. It's really irritating but normal I guess?
I noticed that no-CD boot on my 12" PDQ 233Mhz, too. tried to install a fresh 9.1 on a mSata-IDE adapter with a 128 GB Crucial M550 mSata on it, but as soon as I plugged in the mSata adapter the CD wouldn't boot anymore, the CD is being read but not fully spin up..changed back to the old hdd and CD spins up and it boots again. The green IDE board connector is fine..I wonder if the original Toshiba hdd is somewhat Apple-branded/factory-set to slave/master instead of master/slave as in the 1400 series.
