Apologies for this long post which happy owners of working 2400s can skip. Fellow listers in recent issues of DuoList have been describing their dead 2400 woes and asking for help. I won't summarize them all but will assume some 2400 owners have been following the threads. I'd like to make some observations / possible recommendations based on my recent experiences with OS 8.6 on various Macs and on some (apparently extraordinary) 2400 anomalies. Jason Place <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Well, it finally happend to me last night too! I was surfing the web on my > 2400 when it just froze-up. I shut it down and could not restart it again. > All I get is a crackle from the speaker when I try to turn it on. > Reseting the powermanager didn't help. > > I know I've seen people here have similar problems with their books, how > did you resolve it? My warrenty is out. I've found that OS 8.6 is EXCEPTIONALLY sensitive to ram and disk directory integrity. I have a G3 tower with 512mb ram. Everything ran fine on 8.5.1 (which is quite fault tolerant) but I had repeated system bus errors after upgrading to 8.6. Careful checking narrowed this to a bad 64mb ram module (1 of 8) which ran faultless under 8.5.1. Each module was individually tested with TT2.1.1 and isolated bootup. My 2400 (S# 157420C7AJN for DuoList compilation) was completely rebuilt on 4 consecutive trips to Apple (Rochester) just 2 days after I bought it (received open box from Outpost with a note saying it was because they checked it). MB/CPU/I-O boards and SCSI were all replaced. Then for over a year no problems, even after upgrading to G3/240-6.4gb HD/80 mb ram. About a month ago while surfing the web it (MSIE 4.5) also froze. After an unsuccessful Force Quit, I routinely rebooted with the 3-finger salute and got the dreaded question mark. I requote my post made on July 21 because the finished story actually wasn't by a long shot!: > Recently I had a 2400/G3-240 "disaster" when I hot-rebooted after a screen > freeze during a net surfing session--the dreaded flashing ?. No problem, I > thought, and inserted a Type III PC card drive (Plan A) but I got several > freezes partway through the bootup process. (Same w/extensions off, PRAM > resets, power manager resets etc. etc.). OK, onto Plan B w/an external 2.5" > PC card drive but it wouldn't mount on the desktop, despite obtaining bus > power during several reboots w/extensions on/off. Well, I thought Plan C > should do it as I put my 2400 into SCSI mode to mount w/my G3-300 tower to > initiate disk repairs. No dice, as the startup was always interrupted at the > same point despite several reboots w/extensions on/off. Now I was starting > to get concerned. > > Plan D was considerably more involved because I desperately needed to access > my last 200+ emails (not backed up) which were on my 6.4g HD inside the > PB2400. I had to dismantle BOTH my 3400/G3-250 (3500 board upgraded) to pull > a 4.3g HD and swap w/my 2400 6.4g HD. After swapping, I reverted to Plan A > by inserting the PC card drive to repair the 6.4 g HD (now in my 3500) and > successfully repaired the very corrupted drive (5 out 5 partitions all had > major errors) w/a suite of disk repair utilities--on which this email is now > being written. > > After the swap, to my surprise and concern, the 2400 continued to > deteriorate as the mint 4.3g HD also did not work--despite many power > manager/PRAM resets w/battery in/out, AC/DC power cord plugged/unplugged. > Also, I had lost the boot "bo-o-o-n-ng" sound by now and the green diode > light stayed on permanently. I swapped the CPU card from the G3/240 back to > the 603e/180 but this also did not solve the problem. > > Plan E was to pull the battery and AC power to let all power drain until the > green light went out. I left the 2400 alone for a few days. Eventually I got > around to reinserting the battery FIRST (I did this to eliminate any > possible problem of voltage variation that might be extraneously introduced > by the AC/DC power supply since I knew my battery was OK), and, voila`, > everything worked again! (Oh, is that 603e/180 CPU slo-o-w!...and Plan F was > to check ram to eliminate the last 3rd party item before sending it to > Apple). I've been understandably too lazy to open both computers all the way > again to swap the drives back, but I'll get around to it soon. My foremost > incentive is that I'm reminded again my 3500 is a real 8lb arm-breaker since > I've had to take it to meetings w/papers in my briefcase. The 2400 can be > tilted on its end nicely and leaves just enough room to slip additional > papers upright alongside so my briefcase stays much slimmer (and lighter). > I'll get back to this "perfect" 2400 as soon as convenient. > > In conclusion, I believe that both PRAM and the HD were simultaneously > corrupted by the hot re-boot while online, even though I had done it many > times before w/o problems when earlier browsers were less stable. The moral > of the story is that any "hot" action, even those supposedly OK (we > specifically exclude ADB & SCSI), can bite back at any time. BTW, on Macs > since '84, the deep PRAM corruption was a first for me. Last week, in a fit of misplaced ambition, I finally overcame inertia and got around to swapping my drives back. That's when a MASSIVE new round of problems began and the real point of this post, because, even though both computers were working perfectly, my problems were far from over. The 6.4g HD (OS 8.6) drive worked beautifully in my G3-3500 and the 4.3g HD (OS 8.1) worked beautifully in my G3-2400 after being pulled from my G3-3500. OS 8.1 shows how long I actually didn't seriously use my 3500! After I swapped back the drives the 6.4g didn't work at all in my G3-2400, even though the board architectures are supposedly quite similar between the 2400 and 3400 (except that the 3400/3500 does not have a CPU daughtercard). Reversing the procedure, again, I proceeded to pull the ram, swap CPU-G3/240 to CPU-603e/180 and back, and test these individually with the 4.3g/OS 8.1 HD back in the 2400. Everything worked fine. I was really stumped and again ran Norton 4.0.4, 5 beta, Disk Repairs etc. etc. Everything supposedly perfect but another disk swap and still the flashing ? on my 2400. I even tossed System, Sys Resources, Finder, Sys & Finder prefs and dirty copied the first three from another mint OS 8.6 partition. The reworked, optimized 6.4g ran like blazes in my G3-3400 (or 3500) but just would show a grey screen or flashing ? on the 2400. External SCSI HDs would also run the 3400 but would freeze on the 2400 or just show up as ?. Short of reformatting my 6.4g drive (and reloading a lot of software serial numbers), on a strong hunch with the experience of OS 8.6 fault intolerance, I downloaded Disk Warrior to build clean directories as a last resort. Now after doing this everything works!!! OS 8.6 and the 2400 are far less fault tolerant than their predecessors and successors. I have no explanation for why this is so, but to isolate all of the possibilities I had to dismantle my 2400 well over 10 times. During the deep PRAM corruption the PB2400 showed signs of apparent MB or CPU failure. My conclusions are: --Screen freezes while online (and probably offline) can severely corrupt PRAM and disk directories. --Severe PRAM corruption exhibits dead MB/CPU characteristics and requires more than Command-Option-P-R to reset. --In these situations, completely drain the PRAM battery before PRAM and Power Manager resets and before concluding on a dead MB/CPU. --The 2400 perhaps demands a cleaner disk directory than other PBs, irrespective of 603e or G3 CPU, but this may be specific to OS 8.6 (remembering that a clean install of 8.6 is not possible for OS 8.5 updaters and may have partial influence) --Don't trust DFA 8.5.2, Norton 4.0.4 (or 5.Beta), TT2.1.1 to fully resolve disk directory problems (and don't accept their clean bill of health for granted) but Disk Warrior seems to go much further. --OS 8.6 appears more intolerant of marginal ram or slightly corrupted disk directories (at least on the 2400). Anybody else have unusual/inconsistent experiences? --- Sidney Ho [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------- Duo/2400 List, The friendliest place on the Net! A listserv for users and fans of Mac subportables. FAQ at <http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/DuoListFAQ.shtml> Be sure to visit Mac2400! <http://www.sineware.com/mac2400> Dr. Bott LLC | Get a LapBottom with new �GRIPPIER� gripper pads! | http://www.drbott.com/prod/lapbot.html $23.00 Midwest Mac Parts <http://www.midwestmac.com> | After-market parts for Macs. Fix your ticking dock for $59 w/ trade-in of PS. 888-356-1104 PowerBook Guy is | Click here! Everything PowerBook! | http://www.powerbookguy.com
