Macintosh classic not booting

Hi Jonny,

The first picture seems to show a grey background only. Did an arrow/pointer appear at some stage? Was there a sign of a flashing floppy icon at some point?

I assume that a startup sound could be heard immediately after the computer was switched on. Could you describe the sound that you mentioned a bit more in detail? Any other sounds/tones?

The interrupt button is intended for use with debugger software. The other button (the one with a triangle) is for restart.

Do you have access to a startup floppy for this computer?

Jan

Jonny,

It is a bit confusing. The display as such appears to be working, but nothing appears on it (except for the error message when you pressed the interrupt button).

To begin with, you may want to check if anything changes if you try to reset the PRAM.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1379

You could also test whether pressing and holding down the four keys Command(Apple) + Option(Alt) + Shift + Delete(Backspace) immediately after startup has any effect at all.

What computers do you have access to if you wish to create a startup floppy? Any other older Mac (model?)?

Jan

Jonny,

In Larry Pina's book Mac Classic & SE Repair and Upgrade Secrets (ISBN 1-56609-022-9), the plain gray Desktop and the error code are mentioned as possible symptoms of a faulty filter network on a Macintosh SE or SE/30 logic board. I do not know whether the same could be true for a Macintosh Classic.

It could perhaps be worth checking whether the logic board battery is OK. Sometimes a bad battery can cause strange effects.

Normally, an older Mac with a built-in floppy drive is used (together with Disk Copy 4.2 or 6.3.3) to create properly sector-copied floppies from (for example, System 7.0.1) disk images downloaded from Apple.

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/

http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English -British/Macintosh/System/System_7.0.1/

The article below indicates that it may be possible to use a Mac OS X computer (I have not tested that). It may be something similar with Linux.

http://lowendmac.com/brierley/08pb/classic-mac-boot-floppy.html

If absolutely necessary, one can even create some floppies on a Windows PC (via a special procedure, with an appropriate utility for disk images).

Jan

Jonny,

You are welcome. Good luck! Do not hesitate to post back if there are additional questions.

Also, the Macintosh Classic contains a small system in ROM, which would allow one to boot without a floppy (through the use of a special key combination).

http://lowendmac.com/compact/macintosh-classic.html

However, I think that it may well be a hardware issue in this case. It is probably not a bad idea to check the battery first.

Please note that it can be very dangerous to work inside a compact Macintosh computer because of the high voltages involved. Such work must only be carried out by someone with the necessary expertise.

Jan

Hi I am having the same problem with my Macintosh Classic...gray screen no mouse cursor and the startup beep coming every 5-10 seconds.

I have tried to boot from ROM Command-Option-O-X but nothing happened.

furycd001 did you manage to solve this problem?

Have I fried my Mac CLassic?

Thanks