# PowerMac 7200 boot problem



## tjlazer (Apr 24, 2006)

I just got a Power Macintosh 7200/120.  It does not boot.  I get the chime and no screen just blank.  It has a plug in CPU card 604e 132MHz.  The motherboard has two video ram chips and two empty.  Originally when I got this the simms were in the bank 2, I tried them in bank 1 and no boot.  There is no battery installed and there are SIMMs I believe four 8MB in banks A1/A2 and B1/B2.  There is an empty ROM sim slot.  What all do I need to get it to boot?  I am using a VGA monitor with apple to VGA adaptors.  I have two types one has dip switches and one does not.  Tried all different modes on the one with switches and still no screen.  Any help would be appreciated!


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## infinite-loop (Apr 24, 2006)

This is a 10-year old Mac...so I would be VERY wary about spending any money on it. It's only worth a couple of quid..if that.! It will not run any OS after OS 8.  It sounds like the Ram Chips and/or the V-Ram chips have packed in. Possibly some Mother-Board components too..to be honest it's not even worth the cost of having it tested.


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## MisterMe (Apr 24, 2006)

infinite-loop said:
			
		

> ....! It will not run any OS after OS 8.  ...


This simply not true. The PowerMac 7200/132 shipped with MacOS 7.5.2. It will run all subsequent versions of the OS through MacOS 9.1. Check for yourself here. FWIW, there is a hack available which will allow the computer to run MacOS 9.2, though there is no need for that.

This computer needs to have the battery replaced. It will also accept a G4 upgrade daughtercard. These upgrades don't make economic sense, but they will make your old computer much more useful if you want to keep it in use.


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## nixgeek (Apr 24, 2006)

infinite-loop said:
			
		

> This is a 10-year old Mac...so I would be VERY wary about spending any money on it. It's only worth a couple of quid..if that.! It will not run any OS after OS 8.  It sounds like the Ram Chips and/or the V-Ram chips have packed in. Possibly some Mother-Board components too..to be honest it's not even worth the cost of having it tested.



So according to you my Macintosh Quadra 650 (a machine OVER 10 years old and a 68K to boot) that's hosting my family homepage isn't worth spending money on.  I beg to differ...

Before you try and replace anything drastic, it's possible that the PRAM battery has died.  This will prevent some Macs from turning on at all (happened to my StarMax 4000 Mac clone).  A simple replacement of this battery might solve your problems with this machine.

See here for some more information on the PRAM batteries in various Macs:
http://www.academ.com/info/macintosh/

In order to test to make sure it's just that PRAM battery, unplug the Mac and open it up (See here for your particular Mac).  Near the battery there should be a little button to press.  *ONLY PRESS THIS BUTTON ONCE AND FOR ONE SECOND!!* (Holding it for longer can damage the logic board).  After doing that, close everything up, plug the Mac in, and hit the power button.  Once you do this, the Mac should start up.

If the battery is dead, the minute you shut down your Mac it won't boot up again.  As I mentioned, replacing this battery will bring everything back to life.

As for operating systems, you should be able to install up to Mac OS 9.1 on it.  It's probably best to stick with 8.6 since 9.x might add more bloat and nothing that significant to warrant it's upgrade, but that's entirely up to you.

While you could upgrade it, you would probably be better served spending money on a new Mac, but if you have some extra old RAM (not EDO, has to be FPM DIMMs according to Apple) you can use that.  Any old SCSI hard drive should work as well.  Of course, since the 7200 has PCI slots you can install a mac compatible IDE controller and use an IDE drive in there.  You can also install some USB cards in there in order to use a different mouse and keyboard other than the hard-to-find ADB peripherals.

Here's more information on the 7200:
http://lowendmac.com/ppc/7200.shtml

Good luck.


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## infinite-loop (Apr 24, 2006)

That's perfectly correct..it isn't worth spending money on. A P/Ram battery on eBay would cost about £5 plus P&P which is more than your computer's worth. As you say, the money would be more wisely put towards replacing the Mac for a newer one. You mention 'if you have some extra old RAM' and 'Any old SCSI hard drive should work as well' this is my whole point. If this user doesn't have these items then it's definately not worth spending money on..! Who in their right mind would spend money on an ancient Quadra 650..you could get a PowerMac G3 for £20 - £30 on eBay which in my opinion is a much better option..


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## fryke (Apr 24, 2006)

btw.: the 7200 did have the processor _soldered_ to the mo-bo. no processor upgrades there... as far as i know, there might be some ways to do upgrades. one way is to get a 7500 mo-bo, but that's about as expensive as getting a 7500. so my advice would also be to get another older powermac off ebay or some school's sale of old computers or something...


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## nixgeek (Apr 24, 2006)

infinite-loop said:
			
		

> That's perfectly correct..it isn't worth spending money on. A P/Ram battery on eBay would cost about £5 plus P&P which is more than your computer's worth. As you say, the money would be more wisely put towards replacing the Mac for a newer one. You mention 'if you have some extra old RAM' and 'Any old SCSI hard drive should work as well' this is my whole point. If this user doesn't have these items then it's definately not worth spending money on..! Who in their right mind would spend money on an ancient Quadra 650..you could get a PowerMac G3 for £20 - £30 on eBay which in my opinion is a much better option..



That is your opinion, and it doesn't solve this person's problem.  That's like telling someone to reformat their computer because an application won't launch.  How helpful is that?

Also, why spend the extra money on a newer machine if this Quadra 650 works fine enough for me?  It was cheaper for me to replace the hard drive, battery, and RAM than to buy a used G3 (which would eventually need the same parts, so that's even more money spent).  I don't need the extra speed of the G3 since this machine is fast enough for what I want it to do.  

I never understand why some people are so quick to throw out a working computer just because it's not the latest and greatest.  Talk about wasteful.  Do you REALLY need a 1 GHz computer to type a document or browse the web? (I've noticed that this is the typical response from PC users and people who have just switched over to the Mac. )

OK, I'm done ranting....


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## sinclair_tm (Apr 24, 2006)

you go nix.  amen.  i love my 2 mac+'s and still have uses for them, and have spent money on them.  now before this agument gets started again, read here infinite-loop!

now for the 7200, the cpu is welded to the mobo, and i don't believe it has an upgrade path that way.  but it can have 512 mb ram.  as far as its not booting, do as nix said and try booting right after pushing the little button.  i think it needs a new battery.  many of these older macs were picky about it.  my 7500 was.  and judging by the stock cpu speed, the card you may be refering to is the pc compatible card it shipped with.  i got my 7500 used, and it had one of those in it, and it would not boot till i pulled that card out.  then it booted just fine.  later when i added the card back, it booted, so i never did figure out why it would not boot when i first got it.


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## nixgeek (Apr 24, 2006)

According to Low End Mac, there's an upgrade from Sonnet that i think install on the cache slot.

Here's the current link as the one from Low End Mac is old:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/crescendo_l2.html


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## sinclair_tm (Apr 25, 2006)

i forgot about those cache cpu upgrades.  but the one you linked is for the 7220, so it will not work on the 7200, which doesn't have a cache slot.  but sonnet does make an cpu upgrade that plugs into the 1st pci slot.


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## nixgeek (Apr 25, 2006)

sinclair_tm said:
			
		

> i forgot about those cache cpu upgrades.  but the one you linked is for the 7220, so it will not work on the 7200, which doesn't have a cache slot.  but sonnet does make an cpu upgrade that plugs into the 1st pci slot.



Woops!  That second "2" got past me.


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## tjlazer (Apr 28, 2006)

I got a battery from a spare Mac Color Classic MB I have (Did the Mystic upgrade) and no go.  There is a simm slot to the right of the SIMMs labeled ROM Simm, it is empty, do I need some kind of special SIMM for it?

Thanks


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## MisterMe (Apr 28, 2006)

tjlazer said:
			
		

> I got a battery from a spare Mac Color Classic MB I have (Did the Mystic upgrade) and no go.  There is a simm slot to the right of the SIMMs labeled ROM Simm, it is empty, do I need some kind of special SIMM for it?
> 
> Thanks


If you are serious, you will buy a Power Mac 7200 battery.


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## nixgeek (Apr 28, 2006)

Did you ever remove the CPU daughter card to see if that was the cause of the problem?  As sinclair_tm mentioned, that 7200 has a CPU already soldered on it (PPC601 CPU).  Test the system out without the 604 daughter card.


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## sinclair_tm (Apr 28, 2006)

i hope that someone didn't try craming a cpu ment for a 7500 into the 7200's pci or cache slot.


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## tjlazer (Apr 28, 2006)

Actually I have a different MB, there is no CPU onboard, I get the chime with card in and no chime with it out.  I see 820-0858-B on the board with a date of 1996.  I'm wondering if there is a problem with the video.  Again whats that ROM simm slot for?


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## nixgeek (Apr 29, 2006)

Sounds like the previous owner replaced the motherboared with that of a 7500.  As for the ROM slot, that's what holds the hardware ROM since it's an Old World Mac.  If that's missing, you won't be able to boot.  Even the Beige G3 had this.  Starting with the iBook, iMac, Power Mac G3 B&W, and PowerBook Lombard, the hardware ROM was replaced with a ROM loaded into RAM (software based) known as OpenFirmware.


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## tjlazer (Jun 5, 2006)

I actually got it to work, I got a Crescendo G4 400MHz card and it works!  Must of been a bad CPU card.  No ROM simm needed too.


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## sinclair_tm (Jun 5, 2006)

that slot that you have blank is a cache slot, and now that you have a working g4 cpu, don't get the cache card, it will interfear with the g4 because the g4 has onboard cache on the cpu card.  found that out on my 7500.  glad you got it running.


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