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5400 boot dilemma

Submitted by simon_C on December 9, 2006 - 8:03am. PowerPC Macs

help! i pulled apart one of my 2 5400s today to add a 2 port ide cable to it. i put it back together and it worked fine and booted. problem os, i got some error message when os9 booted and now, when i boot all i get the the no-disk flashing floppy icon. ive tried 3 different scsi cd drives, 4 different hard drives, and 2 different known working logic boards. what could be the issue?

thanks all, and im glad to be back after almost a year and a half of not coming here.....

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coius's picture

Blinking question mark of death

Submitted by coius on December 9, 2006 - 2:50pm.

well, it's not the death, but what it is, is that the system can't find the boot disk/folder/os. try booting off of either the original discs, or try and find a Boot Floppy from apple's software archive. See if that works. If it doesn't, report back. We can go from there.

BTW: When it boots, check with the disc utility to see if it shows up on the bus if it doesn't show up at the desktop. It could be something as simple as the hard drive file system is corrupt, and may need to be wiped and reinstalled. If you don't find the drive, report back, as it may be a hardware issue.

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cwsmith's picture

Bad cable?

Submitted by cwsmith on December 9, 2006 - 2:52pm.

Maybe the 2-port IDE cable you added is wonky? Or the SCSI cable leading to the CD-ROM?

Are all devices on the IDE chain jumpered properly? You should have 1 master and 1 slave, not two of either; or both should be set to cable select if you have the proper cable.

Does this series even support cable select? I'm not sure. Somebody chime in?

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simon_C's picture

well it desnt booot off of CD

Submitted by simon_C on December 9, 2006 - 4:05pm.

well it desnt booot off of CDs at all anymore. and i know its not the drive itself, as it reads just fine on my macbook though a usb/ide bridge.i have a feeling it might be the cable. theerror i got at the mac os9 startup screen before it killed itself was error 102(System is too old for this ROM) ill yank it apart (AGAIN!!!) to see if the cables are funked. but before i do that ill write a boot floppy and try that.

» Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it,
charge it, point it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, cut it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quit - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it,

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dankephoto's picture

Of course . . .

Submitted by dankephoto on December 9, 2006 - 4:36pm.

y'all know the 5400 (and its close relatives) cannot use more than one ATA device on their onboard ATA port . . . right?

dan k

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simon_C's picture

meep.... all that work for no

Submitted by simon_C on December 9, 2006 - 4:56pm.

meep.... all that work for nothing

well was worth a shot anyway. still wont boot either way, one disk or 2

» Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it,
charge it, point it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, cut it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quit - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it,

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simon_C's picture

FIXED!!! i figured out the pr

Submitted by simon_C on December 9, 2006 - 5:08pm.

FIXED!!! i figured out the problem was a broken wire in the ide cable. i re-clamped the connector on a pfresh part of the cable and viola

EDIT: i was wrong...it shwed the happy mc for a few seconds then wenyt back to the flashing disk of death...gr back to woork

» Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it,
charge it, point it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, cut it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quit - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it,

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Try a PRAM zap. See Mac PR

Submitted by Texas Mac Man on December 9, 2006 - 7:01pm.

Try a PRAM zap.

See Mac PRAM, NVRAM, CUDA/PMU & Battery Tutorial
http://www.geocities.com/texas_macman/pram.html

Cheers, Tom

»
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simon_C's picture

no luck. i cant seem to shake

Submitted by simon_C on December 9, 2006 - 11:23pm.

no luck. i cant seem to shake this damned "?" disk

» Buy it, use it, break it, fix it, trash it, change it, mail - upgrade it,
charge it, point it, zoom it, press it, snap it, work it, quick - erase it,
write it, cut it, paste it, save it, load it, check it, quit - rewrite it,
plug it, play it, burn it,

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