Checkerboard Screen on a Classic?

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Checkerboard Screen on a Classic?

After 4 years I decided to plug in my old Classic and use it. It works fine under 7.5.x (can't remember).
I used it for about 10 minutes, turned it of, and turned it back on 15 minutes later just to make sure it was working. When I turned it on an odd Checkerboard Screen showed up. No chime. No error message.
I turned it off and turned it back on, same thing.
I'm thinking the ROM chips may be messed up or something, or it can be something entirely different.

Is it savable or better off as a Macquarium?

Any suggestions?

Message was edited by: InuNacho

Power Mac G4 (AGP) 500mhz, Mac OS X (10.4.11), My LCII's CPU went kaplewy and died 80GB Silver Classic

Posted on Mar 17, 2008 10:58 PM

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Answer 1

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Grant Bennet-Alder

Level 10

126,979 points

Mar 20, 2008 6:32 PM in response to InuNacho

These Macs use a memory-mapped display. What you see on the screen at startup is an indication of what is in RAM memory. A checkerboard pattern means your RAM memory is goofed up. Since these Macs used only tin-plated contacts on their RAM modules, corrosion was the major issue in the past. But as pointed out above, the age of the capacitors is becoming more of an issue today.

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Answer 2

Mar 17, 2008 11:07 PM in response to InuNacho

Sometimes re-seating the RAM after cleaning the contact surface will fix it.

More often it is from leaking capacitors. Pulling the board and washing it under warm water with mild soap will fix it temporarily. A dishwasher is the best way to clean the board.

If neither of those work you need to replace some leaking caps on the board or find a replacement logic board.

It's not an Aquarium yet.

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