Performa 5200 and powerMac 5500

Question

Level 1

8 points

Performa 5200 and powerMac 5500

These 2 computers are very similar and the 2 motherboards can be swapped around.
The Performa has a 75MHz chip which is dreadfully s l o w and the 5500 has a 250MHz chip.
One day when I was rather drunk I stupidly crammed an OS 10 installation disk into the 5500 and i started it up pressing 'C'... it seised to work.
I knew it was the motherboard and I salvaged all the important bits from it (HD, keyboard etc) and i still have the motherboard and the old 5200 (which works fine).
Currently the 5500s HD is in the 5200 and works fine, but with such an old processor it is rather tedious to do stuff because it is so s l o w.
When the 5500s motherboard is plugged in and turned on it still makes the startup chime and the HD starts to whirr away too, but the screen remains vacant and not even a flicker of light comes out of it. :'(

Is it beyond fixation? Or will I have to make do with 75MHz 😟

iMac, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Aug 12, 2008 3:46 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 12, 2008 8:20 AM in response to Euan Morton

Just to get this straight, your problems began when you tried to install OSX? That's it?

My first thought is that your PRAM battery is dead, it should be given these are the square Rayovac alkalines which have a lot shorter shelf life than the Lithium 1/2 AA's. So I would probably unplug that battery and try rebooting. I don't remember offhand if you have a PMU reset on the motherboard but if so you might try hitting that as well.

The 5200 has the same PRAM battery if I recall though it's most likely long dead too.

Kevin

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Answer 2

Aug 12, 2008 9:03 AM in response to Euan Morton

When you install something like Mac OS X, only two areas are modified -- the hard drive and the PRAM and NVRAM.

1) You know how to modify the Hard Drive to take it back to its initial state, you just initialize it.

2) To return the PRAM and NVRAM to a "factory fresh" state, press the CUDA Reset button. At that point, all modifications have been undone. If your battery is bad, it will not maintain the parameters or NVRAM and you are wasting your time trying anything else.

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Answer 3

Euan Morton Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 12, 2008 11:46 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I unplugged the pram battery and pushed the little button on the motherboard but it didn't change anything.
The little green light at the front of the machine doesn't come on either which I forgot to add.
And as for the HD, it works fine when it has the 75MHz board in it. The HD has system 8.1 on it.

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Answer 4

Aug 12, 2008 12:05 PM in response to Euan Morton

Has the 5500 board ever worked in the chassis you are using now?

Are there any "repairs/modifications" (extra blue wires, added components, etc) on your 5500 board?

The 5500 board has a PCI slot, and it requires a 3.3 Volt supply that the 5200 chassis does not supply. But many of a random sample of boards I saw when I was working on these had a small modification to derive the 3.3 Volts from the 5 Volts already on the board. My memory was that it was a small black IC device and a couple of wires.

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Answer 5

Euan Morton Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 13, 2008 1:59 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

The monitor on the 5500 bust a long while back so as the 2 boards were exactly the same shape (because the computer is almost the same) I tried the 5500 one in the 5200 It worked perfectly and same when the HDs were switched too. I threw the broken 5500 box out and kept the HD and board as they till worked but then the board broke when I was drunk one night :S

http://i217.photobucket.com/albums/cc113/oryhara123/Photo2.jpg
(the one on the left is the 5500 board)
No wires except the battery ones

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Answer 6

Aug 13, 2008 9:03 AM in response to Euan Morton

Based on what you are saying....

It feels like the video on the 5500 motherboard is bad or shot since you get no video on the 5200 when you try it though it starts up. You also mention that the screen died on the 5500, are you sure it was actually the screen and not the MB's video going kaput?

Or basically you fried the board while drunk? Perhaps something got spilled on it and it's now fried.

Kevin

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Answer 7

Euan Morton Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 13, 2008 9:30 AM in response to Niteshooter

The screen does nothing and neither does the little green 'on' light, but it makes all the right noises:
the start up chime is normal
the hard drive buzzes normally
the fan goes round and round
but the screen doesn't 'click' on (it does that with the 5200 board)

I'm sad and I want it to work because i hate the slowness of the 75MHz
"****" is what I shout when it lags e v e r y s e c o n d.
)-:< (angry face wouldn't work other way round)

Message was edited by: Euan Morton

Message was edited by: Euan Morton

Message was edited by: Euan Morton

I didn't spill anything on it- its still as dusty as goats sh*t on a plate

Message was edited by: Euan Morton

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Answer 8

Aug 14, 2008 7:51 AM in response to Euan Morton

In the immortal words of Deforest Kelly...... 'she's dead Jim'.......

Go to the pub and raise a pint to your dearly departed....

Dusty, well you could try and blow the dust off with a compressor. I don't like canned air for this as you can spray propellant on your board if you aren't careful. There may be dust in the connector strip and that could also cause your problems or....... it's fried.....

K

Message was edited by: Niteshooter

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Answer 9

Euan Morton Author

Level 1

8 points

Aug 14, 2008 8:30 AM in response to Niteshooter

:'(
sniff

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Answer 10

Aug 14, 2008 2:09 PM in response to Euan Morton

Every signal in the entire computer goes through that Big Connector at the back of the board. If the gold fingers are getting dull, rubbing lightly with a white (non-abrasive) eraser can shine them up, Don't scrub too hard, as the gold is quite thin and you can easily scrub it all off.

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