9600 and No Video

A failed memory battery can cause the no video. Check this site for battery part numbers and sources.
Mac PRAM, NVRAM, CUDA/PMU & Battery Tutorial
http://www.geocities.com/texas_macman/pram.html

Cheers, Tom

Possibly an extension conflict?
Try starting with extensions off.
I had a Radon card that was very fussy...
I have an old IX3D card you can have for shipping.( for testing)
Worked fine in my 9600.
Also have several 9600 MB's and parts if you need anything.

Dave

Well, i never *GET* video, like the card is dead.

But i plug it into a starmax, and it works perfectly!

I definately need a new power supply, and I suppose I need a new motherboard.

pm me what you want for both

Do what mac man says. It's most likely the PRAM Battery, you might be able to rig your own, people should have stuff like that out on the net. Just rig one up and test it. It most likely will fix exactly what your description depicts.

So pressing CUDA + removing battery will not fix my problem?

I'll try a battery, I can buy one from Radio Shack tomorrow.

2 AA batteries
Build your own PRAM Battery with 2 AA's

EDIT: Just put the AA's in serial and attach it to the contacts. PRAM Batteries cost too much for what they do. Just get a hobby battery kit (like they use in kits for batteries) and put them in that and attach wires from that to the leads on the PRAM holder

EDIT2 (here we go again):
something like this::

Radio Shack charges an obsene price for PRAM batteries.
Like $13.00 =/-.
They are available from OWC for $5.00 or so.
I loved my 9600's, but can't see putting any more money into them...
I just picked up a Sawtooth G4 for $70.00 for a friend.
(leaves the best 9600 in the dust)
I'll be glad to send any parts you may need at shipping costs but honestly it it just not worth it.

Dave

There's something I cant get over about older apple hardware, but this buying stuff that doesnt work stuff is for the birds.

I love old apple hardware, but would honestly like a dual G4 or something.

Little strapped for money though.

I am not sure what kind of batteries these guys are refering to but your 9600 uses a
3.6V Lithium Battery.

David

You're absolutely right....

I've finally caved in. I think i'll keep my 2400c's and my first mac--a heavily modded performa 6116CD with a 18GB barracuda drive...

but i would like a recommendation I suppose on what to look for next.

I like the G4 cube, but I dont want to lock myself again with something that is very obsolete. Any recommendations?

Almost any thing in the G4 family is now considered "vintage",
and can be purchased very reasonably.
Really depends on your needs and your budget.
Everything becomes obsolete so quickly these days...

David

Have you tried any other video cards in the 9600? It may be the Radeon card, not the motherboard. When you zap the PRAM, don't do it just once, but three times in succession. Hold those keys down until you get three chimes, if you are getting chimes, that is. Well, now that I think of it, if it works in the Starmax, then it's not the Radeon, but I'd still try another video card first. Mach V motherboards sell for less than $10 these days when they come up on auction. B&W's aren't much more.

Blue and White G3's selling for a little more than $10?

wow

Not for ten dollars that I know of but you can get a nice B&W 400MHz around $58.50 shipped

He did post that the mobos are going for about that, not whole machines. I can pick up a dead or gutted B&W for $25 on occasion, locally.

I'm intrested.

Please let me know where I can find this gem

Check your PM for details

They show up on occasion at the actual shop of surplusexchange.org that I try to visit often. Good stuff goes through there, a lot. I was there Friday, and, uh, anyone need an IBM Netfinity server, or maybe a nice quad Xeon Dell Poweredge? (no, I didn't buy them, but they're still there, AFAIK)

QUAD XEON?!

oh my that mac looks pretty!

Before you give up on the logicboard try booting from a install CD.

Or try the IxMicro card that was offered. That's probably what was OEM in the 9600 and they work pretty well for that machine.

Are you sure the Mac Edition has a Mac video port ? Mine has a regular VGA connector and it is the original Mac Edition Radeon and not the 7000 version which also has a VGA connector.

Stock card was like a...ATI Rage card or something. It had a mac video port. My radeon 7000 Mac Edition has a regular VGA port, and it sthe card in question.

The ixMicro card probably was a stock item. I've got an almost-stock 9600 that came with an ixMicro TwinTurbo 3d card. It had both VGA and DA-15 Apple video outputs. The Radeon Mac Edition, as far as I know, had VGA and DVI, but not Apple connectors - it was introduced after Apple moved to standard VGA connectors. I myself am running a reflashed Radeon 7000 on my 9600 with no problem except for the lack of an NDRV meaning I don't see anything until about halfway through the boot process in OS 9. Works a treat in OS X.

So somebody running a radeon 7000 will NOT see anything on screen from the Radeon card until about halfway through the boot process?

Seems odd, because it worked at pre-boot on my Starmax.

I am still pretty sure that your problem is the PRAM Battery. I had the same problem with a client's 8600 that i serviced about 2 years ago. neither the internal, nor the PCI Video Card would send out video because of a dead PRAM Battery. At least test it instead of speculating. The best you can do is to take a multimeter to the battery and report back what the voltage is. That would help us figure out if it is the battery or not. You probably will just be able to take the battery to a hardware or electronics store and have them test it. They would do it for free. Then decide. It's cheaper than shelling out for a battery if the current battery is not bed, and CERTAINLY better than going out and buying a new system.

Do that, and it will help us figure it out faster

will do. I have two batteries, and while a battery that works in my performa 6116 may or may not work in my 9600, its time to buy a new one. I'll check that out and report back.

The battery in the 6116 is the same battery that goes in the 9600 (3.6V Lithium). If I remember correctly, the 61XX computers will not work on a dead battery, so if the 6116 works, then the battery is good. Lithium batteries are different from alkalines in that when they die they die very quickly, so their charge is good up until their demise, unlike alkalines that loose voltage gradually.

Exactly what I thought. Man that 6100 gets fidgity when the battery dies....

But it would start up fine when tinkered a little.

It depends on the card. If it is an original Mac Edition card, then it contains some 'native drivers' or NDRVs in ROM that allow it to function from the beginning. If it is a reflashed PC video card, the ROMs aren't big enough to include the Mac firmware and the NDRVs, so they leave out the NDRV, meaning that the card only outputs video once the OS loads the driver. (if that makes any sense).

makes perfect sense. I think i *DO* have a genuine Mac Edition card though, since it worked as expected in my starmax. I think i'm making this much harder than it's supposed to be.