I recently acquired a Macintosh Classic II. I booted it up for the first time and it seemed to be working well. I then stepped away and returned, and the screen was frozen with an empty window box over the desktop. I turned the computer off after hopelessly trying to get a response out of it and turned it back on. I could hear the hard drive whirl, but no tone indicating boot up.
I tried several more times sporadically over the next two hours to no avail. Finally, I let it sit and after a while gave the Mac a gentle "love tap" and tried the power again. I got a dim jacked up screen. I turned it off and back on, and it booted up as normal. Hmm... lose connection inside? I left everything alone and touched nothing. After two minutes, the Mac let out an audible static sound, the screen got dim, and nothing worked. I turned it off and on again and it was jacked up again. Then it stopped working all together. I kept trying, gave it a few more love taps, and turned it back on again, and it booted up as normal... and after two minutes it got jacked up again.
Any ideas?
Did you open it up and blow all the dust out of it?
Not yet. My best friend, a computer engineer and systems administrator (who converted me to Mac), suggested the same thing last night. I'll do so and update this thread.
While you are in tthere, check for leaking capacitors.
Yeah. My best friend mentioned that, too. I recently had it shipped. It worked perfectly before shipment and doesn't work now, so I'm suspecting it was damaged in transit. Good thing I took out insurance.