Old school (Mac IIci) question:
Mister Bumpy73
had a true 680x0 Mac around here since my IIfx left a few years ago.
Anyway, the hard drive spins up but just flashes the question mark that we all
used to know and fear. I popped the top off and noticed that the ROM SIMM is
gone.
Here's my q: is the ROM SIMM the only thing keeping me from booting at this
point, provided there is actually an OS on the HDD? I didn't think I'd even get
a boot screen without that SIMM but I have one.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!
Quadrajet1
Either your HD is hosed, or this is no OS on it. Either way, the ROM SIMM
does not exist. Please see the other post. Your IIfx had one, but not all
Macs used ROM SIMMs.
The first one I recall with one was the IIx and SE/30. The same one works on
either machine.
Raymond
Mister Bumpy73
a IIci before and it's been a long time since I saw any specs.
Thanks!
Jerry
inches back from the second memory chip from the hard drive. If the jumper is
not on those two pins it won't boot.
jerry
Don Bruder
mister...@wmconnect.com (Mister Bumpy73) wrote:
I've seen discussionof the ROM SIMM slot in the IIci quite a few times
over the years, and it all seems to come backto the same thing:
Certain IIci units (For some reason, the "Assembled in Ireland" ones are
coming to mind, but don't even CONSIDER taking that as gospel) were made
with no ROM soldered to the motherboard. That version needed a ROM SIMM
installed to fire up. The rest of them had their ROMs right on the
motherboard, and had no need for the SIMM.
True or not? You decide:
At least one anecdote I read years back suggested that plugging a ROM
SIMM into a IIci with ROMs soldered to the motherboard would cause
ungodly havoc, at least, and possibly even permanent damage to the
machine/SIMM, or both, at worst. I don't recall ever seeing a definite
verdict on that particular tale's veracity, though.
If you can see chips soldered down on the various ROM spaces, you don't
need a SIMM.
What you're describing with your rig is a textbook perfect example of
"Either there ain't no system on the drive, or the drive is unreadable
for some reason". The reason may be a loose cable, a badly placed jumper
on the motherboard, or the drive has just plain died of old age. The
fact that you're getting as far as you are in the boot process (flashing
question mark) makes it an absolute certainty that your empty ROM SIMM
slot *is not* the culprit.
--
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Shon Howell
Bumpy73 at mister...@wmconnect.com wrote on 5/19/03 1:31 PM:
I have a cache card for the IIci, and a rather nice NUBUS video card that's
yours for the asking. E-mail me your address & I'll get them packed up.
Thanks!
Mister Bumpy73
Nope, just checked and the jumper is there just where it should be so I guess I
should just assume that the previous owner wiped the drive before they got rid
of it. I'll try reinstalling an OS on there and see what happens.
Thanks!
Rick Ireland
(apple), P and R keys. You will get a chime tone after a few seconds
and then release the keys.
The problem is most likely a dead battery that keeps power on the PRAM
when the machine is not powered up. The PRAM keeps such information as
what the boot drive is. If the battery has not been recently replaced
on a machine that old, it is the most likely culprit.
If it starts up doing this, simply power down, replace the battery and
reboot zapping the PRAM again. After that, it should boot without any
problems.
Sometimes it is necessary to hold the keys down for two chime sequences.
Rick Ireland