Could my CPU be dead?

Hey Allan,

Good to hear from you!

I've kept it cleaned out. The one thing I have suspected is my CD ROM. It got to where it wouldn't boot my Disk Warrior CD or the OS CD...at least without a lot of fudging around.

I haven't tried disconnecting that. I need another one anyway, and I see Best Buy has a Pioneer for $39.

I'll try taking it off and booting and then report back.... The beige has been just as solid as a rock for all this time! I'm using a 1.2GB PC a friend gave me, now. I really think my Mac was just as fast and much easier to use than this thing. The only thing I had some trouble with was watching videos on the net. Hey, it is only a 266MHz chip!....

Al

Hey guys,

Good to be back....except under the circumstances.

I disconnected the CD ROM; no luck.

The power supply seems to be the one thing working. I pressed the CUDA, and checked all the cards. I had a broken glass sound a few times upon booting, and thought I had a memory problem. I messed around with taking the different sticks out, but it didn't help, and things only got worse over a few days.

Eventually I got a blinking question mark and then nothing.

I thought it just may be the boot drive, but I can't get to the other one either. I have OS 9 on both drives, and 10.2 on the 2ndary one, too. Nothing.

So, if I disconnect both drives from the ATA card, and the CD ROM, it should get past the chime?

It all came on a little slow. Just one day the broken glass... then worse and worse over a couple of days. I thought for sure the battery had died.

I moved at the first of the year, and wonder if I could even find my original jumper block to get it back to the original 266MHz.

I may be the recipient of a used G4 tower soon, but it may not be till October, or when the new OS releases.

I miss my Mac....and I loathe these PC's....arrgghhh!!

I unhooked the 2 drives from the ATA card. CD is still off, too.

No sound when trying to boot.

Power supply seems strong and normal. I've taken it apart before and cleaned it out.

I suppose I should take the ATA card out, huh.

I have the keyboard disconnected because I'm not sure about it. I've been using a Logitech USB keyboard for a while, but it has no power button. The Mac keyboard will power it on, but it won't do the emergency shut down sequence. So, I figured, just use the power button on the front of the box.

Al

That's what I thought, too. I took all the memory out without any help. I got the sound on a few start ups, then no more. Then startup just got worse and worse.

I have the bus OC'd to 70MHz. All memory was new 5 or 6 years ago.

So far, no chime or any other noise for that matter. I'm stumped.

I may need to find me another Mac keyboard. I've been using a Microsoft USB keyboard. The 2 Mac keyboards I have are flaky. It will start the Mac up from the keyboard power button, but it won't do the emergency shut down sequence.

So, I disconnected all keyboards and used the power button on the front of the box.

I'll try again when I get home today.

Well, I actually raised my computer from the dead. But, things are still all messed up. I'm on my copy of 10.2 right now. It's been a long time since I used this OS. I just needed to take a break and get back online with my Apple before I continue on anymore.

I took all of my cards, memory, rom, and personality card out, and cleaned the contacts, and re- installed everything back to the way it was before it started acting up.

I got it booted and into a volume with OS 9. Then things start acting up again. I can't get anything to boot from CD. The OS 9 volume will give a warning that the disk is not readable, do I want to initialize...I cancel, wait a minute or so, and then the same box, but suggesting 134GB size instead of 4.3 like before. Cancel, wait a minute, then it boots into 9. My Panther volume shows as untitled. 2 other volumes on that disk show as unmounted. All of my volumes on this disk show up.

I'm going to try and launch Disk Warrior again but from this OS 10.2 volume.

My problem started with XPF. It won't synchronize. It says it's copying the mach_kernel, then stops with a dialog box saying could not complete your request because there was a problem copying the mach_kernel.... hmmm.

I used to be able to use XPF to boot right into Disk Warrior. Not now.

Any ideas?

At least I'm getting some clues now. And, at least I'm back on my beloved Mac again! even if it is in 10.2. It was only giving me the power supply and nothing else!? I'm not sure what fixed that part, but, I love it. This thing is like an old ford. Just keep tinkering with it. It ain't dead yet..!

I'm gonna try and get DW launched. If nothing else. I'll hook the PC up again later to see if I have any replies.

Thanks,

Allen

Something is wrong with XPF. It won't launch. It gets stuck on the splash screen and gives the spinning beachball.

I downloaded XPF 4 again and it did the same thing. I have to force quit.

It seems like something has all my boot instructions messed up. I'm guessing it lies somewhere with XPF or or something. The only volume I can get into somewhat normally is 10.2.8 on one disk.

I wonder why I can't even get XPF to launch? And my CD ROM won't boot anything. I know I'm close, but I can't figure it out.

That's the problem. I can't get anything to boot from the CD. It seems like XPF is hung up in some way. Old versions won't launch, and neither will the new one. And neither version of OS 9, on two different disks, will boot correctly. They both do the exactly the same thing.

One clue is that XPF won't synchronize, saying it has a problem copying the "mach_ kernel file...?

I'm not sure if I'll be able to spend the time on it today.

I wonder if the XPF forum is still alive?

OK, it looks like I may have it! I disconnected the CD ROM and it booted up nice in 10.2.8, and I was able to open XPF and install extensions without a hitch.

Can a CD ROM just finally go kaputz like that? It's the original I assume. Or, could be be something else to do with the CD ROM? It wouldn't boot any CD, then when I just inserted the DW disk into 10.2.8, it crashed the system.

That's a pretty easy fix if that's all it is. I still don't see my other disk on the desktop, but, I forgot to reset the CUDA last time when I disconnected everything.

I'l reset and reboot and try OS 9 again. I bet it boots to it ok now. Lets hope so.

I'll let you know my progress. Man this machine is strong! It's sure been fun owning it.

Al

Yeah, I wonder. I've examined them all real good, but haven't seen anything yet.

I thought I had things going. But, I'm back to having some weirdness. It has to be in a cable, and/or my controller card. It's close, but still no cigar. It went back to booting weird in OS 9 and when I launch XPF in OS 10.2.8, it hangs everything up. The keyboard won't even shut it down at that point.

Right now, I just wish I could boot from the DW CD and try and repair things. I'm sure I'll figure it out, but it's taking massive amounts of time. Back to work tomorrow, so......

Stay tuned!

Allen