LCII Startup Problem

T

Trevor C

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I have an old LCII that has not been used for several years. It was OK before it was stored away. Now I want to use it again I get no chime but a tone sequence and a blank display at switch on. I've replaced (substituted) the PRAM back-up battery but it makes no difference. Where can I get information about what the tones mean ?
Thanks for any ideas!
 
Sounds like you got the Death Chime, there could be a lot of things wrong, like something out of place, like bad ram or ram thats not seated right, try reseatting things that can come out and can be put back in, those might be loose.
 
Looking at my old LC service manual - an 8-tone error chord may mean bad RAM.
A 4-tone error chord could mean a bad drive. If this has been unused for several years the drive(s) might not be running. Try disconnecting the hard drive or the floppy, one at a time, and try the boot. If you disconnect both, and you still get the 4-tone, then the logic board has failed.
 
Thanks for the replies. I tried reseating the RAM boards and disconnecting the drives, but still no joy. I guess its ready for the bin !
 
Trevor C said:
Thanks for the replies. I tried reseating the RAM boards and disconnecting the drives, but still no joy. I guess its ready for the bin !
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You might want to advertise and see if you can sell it. There are some classic Mac aficionados that would pay for a dead Mac. Just don't expect to charge a premium for it.
 
Did you change the battery ? There should be one 1/2AA battery in the machine. It may behave badly when the battery is empty.
 
Well, 'cept this one. ;)

Although, I'm still hanging onto an original Mac Classic and a StarMax that I fire up every once in a while!
 
I still have an Apple IIgs, not sure if it works though (nothing to test it with). Also a Mac Classic II (love that computer). Isn't the StarMax, a Macintosh Clone?
 
icemanjc said:
I still have an Apple IIgs, not sure if it works though (nothing to test it with). Also a Mac Classic II (love that computer). Isn't the StarMax, a Macintosh Clone?
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Most definitely. I believe it was the first PowerPC machine to run an Apple operating system.
 
Back to life again!
I said in my original post that I had substitued the internal battery (with a bench power supply), but only for a few minutes while I did the tests. Prompted by Chevy's reply I thought I would leave it connected for longer to see if that helped. After one day, no change. After two days it worked OK. Now it works even if the power supply is not connected.
Thanks Chevy.
 
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