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Thread ID: 55334 2005-03-08 06:54:00 A question for the Mac people Agent_24 (57) Press F1
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331818 2005-03-08 06:54:00 *If anyone here can help, please do - if not can you forward me on to a forum for this kind of thing*

Problem:

I just recently (2 days ago) got given an old Power Macintosh 6100/66 computer, complete with all nessecary parts.

Turned out though that the monitor that came with it wasn't the best (when turned on it displayed bright white with horizontal and diagonal lines, made clicking noises and buzzed)

So I hooked up another old monitor which I knew worked to the mac's monitor adaptor.

(found out that the onboard video for this connects via a "HDI45" type plug, which goes through a little converter thing to standard mac monitor plug, then to VGA)

So I turned the mac on, to be greeted by a chime sound and nothing else.

Searching on the internet I discovered this is most likely because the PRAM battery is flat and needs replacing. I ordered a new one from jaycar, and after installing it today I was unhappy to notice the screen didn't work, although the harddrive appeared to make a noise this time.

So I tried restarting it a few times, wiggling the monitor adaptors at random intervals incase of a bad connection and finally managed to get a picture on the screen:

Grey background, with a moveable mouse cursor, this then changed to a grey screen with a picture of a mac in the middle. I wasn't able to do anything else. Pressing (what I found out later to be the 'command' key) and a large strange key at the top of the keyboard with no label just the indent of a left-facing triangle caused the grey to turn black, the mac icon to change to a mac that looked half dead and 000000x (where x was a letter, repeated a second time with a different letter) below it.

I moved it onto a table as I thought I had gotten it going, and it died again.

This time though, when turned on the monitor said "no signal input" then the chime sound, then the screen flickered black for about 2 seconds, as if it was getting signal, then back to "no signal input" again. after the black screen disappears the harddrive starts making normal harddrive noises. (though nothing seems to work)

this is the state it's in at the moment. - also the CD-drive can open and close, and if I put a floppy disk in before I turn it on it will eject it later on (after the chime).

either way I have no idea how to get it working, though I suspect the monitor adaptor, or, as I found on a website somewhere - "the screen settings are stored in the PRAM" - so I thought perhaps it wasn't using the right resolutions or something, perhaps it's trying to autodetect the monitor?

Help much appreciated and needed.

Thanks 		Agent_24 (57)
331819 2005-03-08 08:02:00 There may not be any one solution to your problems as there could be several things not working.

The large key at the top with the triangle will be the power button for turning the computer on/off

Try starting with extensions off which is like starting in safe mode on windows.
Hold the Shift Key down while starting and it should startup with extensions off.
Go to the Apple menu at the top left and select control panels and go to Monitors
There should be an option to change the display resolution there. 		Safari (3993)
331820 2005-03-08 08:44:00 Ok, I have tried using a different monitor, and of course it works (I suppose that's all it was)

Either way it gets to the mac on a grey screen again, this time I left it for about 15 min, came back to find it had changed to a picture of a floppy disk with a flashing question-mark on it.

Now I suspect this means something is corrupted or buggered, or does it mean I have to put in a floppy disk? 		Agent_24 (57)
331821 2005-03-08 09:01:00 Are you sure you don't have a floppy stuck in the drive and it is trying to boot from this.

Try this
Resetting PRAM and NVRAM

1. Shut down the computer.
2. Locate the following keys on the keyboard: Command, Option, P, and R. You will need to hold these keys down simultaneously in step 4.
3. Turn on the computer.
4. Press and hold the Command-Option-P-R keys. You must press this key combination before the gray screen appears.
5. Hold the keys down until the computer restarts and you hear the startup sound for the second time.
6. Release the keys.


If you try to start your Mac OS or Mac OS X computer and see on your screen a disk icon with a blinking or flashing question mark, this means that your computer was unable to identify a startup disk that has a working copy of the operating system on it. This problem can be caused by either hardware problems or corrupt software. To find out which it is, try to boot your computer from the System CD that came with your computer, or some form of disk utility such as DiskWarrior, TechTool Pro, or Norton Utilities. To do this, follow the steps below:

Insert the CD or DVD into the CD or DVD drive and restart your computer while holding down the *c* key.


Once your computer has finished booting, release the *c* key and launch the disk repair utility you wish to use. If you started from the operating system software installation CD, use Disk Utility (Mac OS X) or Disk First Aid (Mac OS 9 and earlier). In Mac OS X, from the Apple menu, select Open Disk Utility...*, click the icon for the disk you wish to repair, then under the First Aid tab click Repair or Repair Disk. In Mac OS, open Disk First Aid from the Utilities folder on the CD.

Some useful links

docs.info.apple.com

66.102.7.104

66.102.7.104 on+mark&hl=en 		Safari (3993)
331822 2005-03-08 09:49:00 Ok, I've tried holding down shift, this doesn't appear to make a difference,

tried resetting the PRAM, but still doesn't work

There is no disk in either the CD or Floppy drives

I can't boot from anything else as I have no macintosh cd's whatsoever, and all the floppies seem to be software/drivers


I am beginning to suspect the HDD has failed, it's a very old 500mb quantum, and my experience (and other people's) has shown that the old quantums such as this one seem to have a habit of dying in a great way.

(had a win 95 comp with a quantum 1gb in it, it got the clunk syndrome and managed to corrupt explorer.exe) 		Agent_24 (57)
331823 2005-03-08 10:01:00 You could be right about the HDD

You are a bit stuck without a system CD

Do you know what system is on the computer, suspect it will be OS 8 something. 		Safari (3993)
331824 2005-03-08 10:21:00 Pretty much sounds to me like someone did the old hard drive format on it to erase data and so left you without a workable OS (a startup disk in mac terms).

Its so much easier if the original OS on CD is handy as you can run into problems where you need the right model to match the CD (due to firmware differences).

Heres a good link (http://lowendmac.com/) to find info.

Your model here (lowendmac.com)

I can try a locate one of many original CDs at work that might help you get an Os installed/fixed .. unless the hard drive is truly dead (but I've seen far more ancient macs that still have working Hard Drives). Send private message if ya want one.. 		gibler (49)
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