Macintosh 128k Boot Problem!

It's possible the drive is not reading the disk properly. These drives get really gummed up over time. A good cleaning might help. Check to see that the little felt pad that presses the disk media down onto the drive head is still in place. If you can locate a copy of a long out print book by Larry Pina called "The Dead Mac Scrolls", it will help immensely.

Out of curiosity, where did you obtain a new system disk and what system number is it? I run 3.0 on my 128k. See below for Sad Mac codes.

These error codes are for the Macintosh 128K - Macintosh Plus

Sad Mac errors are in the following manner:
Class Code + Sub Code = YYXXXX

The class code tells you how bad of an error occurred and the sub code tells you what or where the error is.

Class Code
01XXXX = ROM test failed Replace ROMs on motherboard
02XXXX = Memory test - bus subtest Memory chip failure- See Single Chip ID below
03XXXX = Memory test - byte write Memory chip failure- See Single Chip ID below
04XXXX = Memory test - Mod3 test Memory chip failure- See Single Chip ID below
05XXXX = Memory test - address uniqueness Memory chip failure- See Single Chip ID below
0FXXXX = Exception - Software Error- See Exception chart below
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Single Chip Identification
YY = 02 - 05
Data Bit Location Sub Code
0 F5 0001
1 F6 0002
2 F7 0004
3 F8 0008
4 F9 0010
5 F10 0020
6 F11 0040
7 F12 0080
8 G5 0100
9 G6 0200
10 G7 0400
11 G8 0800
12 G9 1000
13 G10 2000
14 G11 4000
15 G12 8000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Exception chart
YY = 0F
Sub Code
YY0001 Bus error
YY0002 Address error
YY0003 Illegal instruction
YY0004 Zero divide
YY0005 Check instruction
YY0006 Traps instruction
YY0007 Privilege violation
YY0008 Trace
YY0009 Line 1010 or Trap dispatch error
YY000A Line 1111
YY000B Other exception or trap
YY000C Unimplemented trap
YY000D NMI (normal indication)- Interrupt button on Programmers switch was pressed
YY0062 64K ROM Mac reading a HFS formatted disk
YY0064 Couldn't Read System File into Memory or 64K ROM Mac reading a HFS formatted disk
YY0065 Bad Finder
Most exceptions are caused by a bad System file on the startup disk. Try replacing it with a backup.

How do I fix this

You need to find an alternate startup disk or insert the floppy into another old Mac which you can boot to repair or replace the existing floppy.

could it possibly be the memory

Probably not. If it was, you would have gotten a different error code. If the first two digits in a Mac Plus or earlier's Sad Mac error code are 0F, it's a software problem.

(40507)

In a diskette drive, the heads ride directly on the media -- no cushion of air is involved. Manufacturers of the media predicted that their media should last a really long time. Apple did some research into the possible causes of higher than expected diskette media failure rates.

One conclusion was that a lot of the failures occur in the area where the heads are likely to be before Eject or Shutdown. Excessive wear may occur at this location when the diskette is re-inserted later and the heads slam into it.

The diskettes you use for your System on a regular basis should be thought of as subject to sudden failure. You should always have a spare available, or keep a "Master" \[almost never used in the drive] and a "Working Copy" \[for daily use, and expendable as it wears out].

Since you are pretty sure you've got good disks, the next most likely culprit is the drive head being dirty. You'd need to either crack the case open (with one of those really long Torx screwdrivers) or use a 3.5" head-cleaning diskette (if they still exist).

That means the system software on the disk couldn't be loaded into memory. It's probably corrupt and needs to be repaired or replaced. Try a different system disk.

(40458)

Craig Patton wrote:
Out of curiosity, where did you obtain a new system disk and what system number is it?

There's a place that sells them here:
http://www.rescuemyclassicmac.com/