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Oct 19, 2013 10:30 AM in response to Phabidalyby kaz-k,★HelpfulRepace PRAM battery could solve the problem.
http://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/legacy/pm8600.9600.ws9650.pdf
http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Power+Macintosh+8600(250)+Teardown/3093/1
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Oct 19, 2013 1:50 PM in response to Phabidalyby Jeff,I agree with replacing the internal 3.6-volt ½AA lithium battery on the motherboard. When the computer has been disconnected from electricity for an extended period of time, any remaining charge that the battery has is completely drained while it attempts to preserve the PRAM settings. When the battery's dead, the PRAM settings are lost, with the most obvious symptom being an incorrect time & date displayed when the computer starts up. Other settings - like the designated startup disk - can also become corrupted/lost. That's why the computer remains half-dead when you start it up. Battery specialty retailers in your area probably carry this battery, as it's also used in some alarm system components. You shouldn't pay more than $8 (USD), but if you're desperate, you can pay about twice that amount and get one from Radio Shack (although I wouldn't). Online dealers sell it for about $6 (USD). Unfortunately and unlike the Power Mac 8600/9600 series that kaz-k referenced, your 8500's mini-tower design is not the same nor was it as well-designed as the latter 8600, 9600, and beige G3 mini-tower. You need to remove the motherboard from the chassis, to gain access to the motherboard's battery holder/retainer. The procedure is a bit involved, but not a headache.
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Oct 20, 2013 9:01 AM in response to Phabidalyby Allan Jones,If you wish to do further testing to insure it is the PRAM battery at fault before ripping into the computer, there are a couple of things that always worked for me if the battery was really the problem:
1) Zap the PRAM--cold boot and immediately press and hold these four keys simultaneously:
command
option
p
r
Keep holding until you here a total of three (3) startup chimes, then let go the keys. NOTE: In some Mac models, the second and third start-up chime tone during a PRAM zap can be rather quiet. Either crank up the volume, do the zap when the room is quiet, of use headphones to be sure you are hearing teh tones.
2) See if the computer will boot from a system disk by holding c during boot. The disk can be a full retail install disk, a system restore disk supplied with the computer, or a utility disk like DiskWarrior or TechTools that allows booting. If the computer boots and you get video, you can feel confident that the only thing needed is a PRAM battery. You can do a hot boot back to the hard drive and the computer should work as long as someone doesn't unplug it again.
However, if neither of these work, that can mean something more sinister than a PRAM battery has gone walkabout.
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