Chris writes, <Im a little confused as to why your system isnt working. Ive never heard of a beige not working due to a processor before. So, I am curious to know the details of this.>
Okay, well, if you really want to know -- and it did shock the daylights out of us, too: I mean, from what I've read on LEM lists, upgrading a processor isn't exactly a brand new, untried and highly experimental procedure -- I'll try to reconstruct what happened. 1. Preparation: You may recall that I posted an email on this list for instructions, which I got, along with a link to a site with jumper settings which would allow for both running at rated speed and overclocking. I saved all the emails that came in response to my request and bookmarked the link. That was my end. My bf tested a 400 MHz processor from a B&W: the machine it came from -- he hooked up a keyboard, monitor and mouse to it, and booted it. It booted and the computer worked with it, so he pulled the chip. He also found and collected numerous of the tiny little jumpers and took a heat sink. Together, we read the G-list emails I'd saved on this subject, then I went to the bookmarked URL and printed it out, which had a chart of the jumper settings. 2. I powered down the Beige, we opened it up and looked at the Grackle chip to check the bus speed. It was a 66, not an 83. 3. He pulled the existing heat sink out, removed the existing 266 MHz processor and replaced it with the 400 MHz processor. Both of us being on the conservative side, we made a mutual definite decision to run at rated speed, so we turned to the jumper settings chart and he jumpered it for rated speed with a 66 Grackle (the chart also contained settings for 83 Grackle). Since my original heat sink was identical to the one he'd brought along, we put mine back in after the transplant and jumpering. So far, so good, and much to my shock, easy as pie, except for handling those tiny little jumpers, even for him (but he was able to handle them). 4. Uh-oh....the Beige refuses to boot from the hard drive. Then I remember I that I forgot to press the CUDA button, so we power it down -- alas, a hard shutdown, not a nerve pinch, but there was no choice at this point since it wouldn't respond to a nerve pinch -- so, well, I did that, but after pressing the CUDA it still wouldn't boot. As with the first attempt to boot with the new processor, it got partway into the boot process, but then it hung up. This brought on my decision to zap the PRAM, but that was all messed up too. Instead of getting the chimes (in fact, I never heard the Beige chime again, not even when we did boot it from a CD), what I got was the otherwise dark monitor flashing "staticky white" lines while I held down the opt-cmd-p-r keys. Even worse, during these boot attempts, the hard drive starts making these "chunka chunka whirr" noises which my boyfriend says are death rattles. Um, no, I hadn't ever heard anything like that from this hard drive prior to this attempt to upgrade the processor. Anyway, it was these noises which made my bf suggest we try to boot from a CD. It did (at first, anyway, even though it didn't chime). However, besides the fact that this hard drive had not been making those or any other strange noises BEFORE (and only made them now when I tried to boot from it), my bf thought it was weird that when booted on CD, not only was the hard drive showing up on the desktop, but we could still read the data on it and everything was in place: in his experience, when a hard drive made noises like that, it was unreadable toast fit only for the garbage can. 5. While booted from my Utilities CD, even though the data on the hard drive looked fine, we decided it would be a good idea to run diagnostics on it on account of those death noises it was making when trying to boot from it. I ran both TechTool and Disk Doctor on it, and came up with "serious problems" (which had not existed prior to this either: I had run TechTool a week prior to the attempted upgrade as my "regular maintenance" just before my regularly scheduled CD backup update and all tests had passed), all of which I told these utilities to fix. All right. At this point, things started getting nuts, so my reconstruction of events will only get get less coherent. Here are things that happened/things we did: More attempts to reboot from the hard drive after running the utilities. Unsuccessful, but no death rattles. Re-running TechTool and being told there were multiple system folders on the hard drive -- which I looked for and couldn't find. Error messages and bombs. Sometimes the error messages referred to "address" errors and "bus" errors. Reseating all the innards to make sure there weren't any loose connections. Checking and rechecking the jumpers/jumper settings, even taking them off and rejumpering even though according to the chart, this had been done correctly. Pressing the CUDA button again and trying to zap the PRAM again too (same result as the first time). Pulling the RAM sticks out and trying to boot with them one at a time (grasping at straws here obviously: all three of them were working just fine before I got myself into this mess). When the error messages suggested restarting with extensions off, trying to restart with extensions off -- and ending up hanging up in the same place with another bomb and a repeat of the same error message suggesting I restart with extensions off. Booting into Open Firmware and typing in the "magic words." Absolutely none of this worked; the Beige would NOT boot from the hard drive. Finally, I decided to try a clean install of OS 9.1. Had I stopped with this and decided that living with 9.1 would be okay for a few weeks until my bf's next visit (for which he would bring real tools and more parts), I MIGHT still have my Beige, but oh, no, 9.2.2 rocks and I really love it....you see, when I got 9.1 installed, my Beige booted from the hard drive...thing is, I said I MIGHT have it, because while it booted up on 9.1, it still didn't chime, and that's just not right, so maybe that means something else would've gone wrong with it...However, here's what I did. Once I had 9.1 on it and it was up and running from the hard drive, I proceeded with the 9.2.1 and immediately into the 9.2.2 updates. Then it wouldn't boot with 9.2.2 on it -- and now it wouldn't boot from a CD either. The next morning, I asked my bf to take the new processor out and put my Beige back the way it was when he first got here -- which was beautifully set up and functioning perfectly. He did this, but it didn't solve any of the problems. No booting from either the hard drive or a CD, no chime, no nothing. There was nothing more we could do here except to give up and send it up north with him since he's got access to good tools and parts to perform more thorough troubleshooting and replacing things. So, we dragged out my old 7200/120, which I'll be using until he fixes/partly rebuilds my Beige. Trust me, after this incident, I won't be doing any more hardware upgrading. The only time I'll ever have anything to do with monkeying around inside any of my Macs again is if something is actually wrong with one and it legitimately needs repairs. ~Yersinia. ________ Got mole problems? Call Avogadro: 602-1023. -- G-List is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 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