IIsi; white screen on boot up; no chime; bad PRAM battery?

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doug-doug the mighty's picture
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IIsi; white screen on boot up; no chime; bad PRAM battery?

IIsi, pulled out of the garage, unplugged for a while (months to a year), had fresh PRAM battery when stored, gives blank white screen on boot up, no chime...

...bad PRAM battery?

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I'm suspicious of the hard dr

I'm suspicious of the hard drive. Unplug it and restart, and tell us what happens...

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k...

...unplugged the HD and rebooted. No change in results. The current hardware config was known to work the last time it was up and running.

I really think it is the PRAM battery. I cannot find my multimeter to make this easy.

*EDIT* I have a floppy in the drive as well. The system should not be able to recognize the OS on it and eject it on boot up. The floppy never spins up, the HD spins up (when installed), but only scratches one or two times (I/O activity) then just spins.

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Disconnect the floppy . . .

Hey,

First place the mobo goes in search of a system is the floppy drive. So . . . disconnect it or at least paperclip the floppy out (or try pressing on the mouse button during startup). If that doesn't work, then it's the pram battery or the board is blown. Why not take the pram battery out of that 8600 and try it? Same battery.

William
www.williamahearn.com

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yeah...

...Given that it did not work BEFORE I put in the floppy, and I know the board is good, that settles it that it must be the PRAM then. I have a diassembled machine in the garage who will not mind me borrowing the battery for a bit; I just got my 8600 nestled nicely away in a desk the other night and do not plan to pull it out until I upgrade the RAM.

Thanks!

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UPDATE

given the time between posts, you can tell this is not a high priority of late (although I really do need to get it back up and running)...

I put a known good PRAM battery in and tried to power up, no change. I pulled the PDS adapeter (which has a "NIC card" *subtle jab at Jon* Wink ) and there was no change in the results. These cards were there when it last booted up IIRC, but pulling them was to check the base condition.

So I know I am getting power to the mobo (fan spins, HDD spins, lights go one, some kind of video output goes to the monitor). HDD has the original drive with a good OS (on a good drive). Floppy is not ejected on boot attempt (nor is it even scanned).

This has got to be so obvious only because I I have thought about it for too long...

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UPDATE - found my service manual :D

found the service manual for my IISi on soft copy. Doesn't look like I will readily find what I want in it, but I will seek inspiration in it noetheless...

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next step

The next thing I'd do is check the PSU pinouts for correct voltage. Power up with the lid off, and check each pin on the PSU against ground. 'Course, you'll need to find your multi-meter. Wink

Next, I'd fully strip the board of all removable components, including all socketed chips, or at lest loosen and re-seat, and pop them back in. Give the board a good brush or compressed air.

I'd try starting it with no drives or peripherals installed, and the minimum ram, and cycle the simms, too, in case one's a dud.

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Today I removed the hard driv

Today I removed the hard drive, diskette drive and Nubus adapter card, then tried power up again. Again, nothing. Even the fan does not spin. I removed all the memory and tried again; nothing. I then put one SIMM back in; nothing. I tried both the first and fourth memory slot for this one SIMM. I then put everything back together. I am thinking now, maybe I can rescue the data off of the HD if I can figure a way to get it to work. Maybe an external case? Thx in advance for any comments.

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Sorry, I posted in the wrong

Sorry, I posted in the wrong place.

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