Anyone? Chuck? :)
I have a perplexing problem that I hope someone out there may have experienced and solved. I'm the proud owner of a PC Power Center Pro 210, which has run superbly over the last 5 years. It's exceeded all of my expectations, run software seemlessly that had never been bench tested, handled all my peripheral additions/upgrades which include: 18 GB internal drive, CD-RW, Jaz drive, PCI cards (PC emulation, USB, audio card, etc.), printer, scanner. In short, I've never had a complaint until now. A few weeks ago, I began having intermittent problems at startup. The machine would boot but hang on one of the following: 1. the monitor never gets activation from the cpu, remains black (or off). 2. the monitor gets the green light, but remains at a grey/blue screen (no happy Mac icon). 3. gets happy Mac face, never gets beyond the initial Mac logo (before your customized settings take effect, extensions load, etc.) Now, I should make something clear before I continue. I bought a G3 laptop recently and own a PC. I'm *not* interested in upgrading this machine to a super-slick G4 right now (but maybe someday). My point is, I use this machine for specific tasks and don't need improved power or speed, *just* longevity. Anyway, the saga continues: I determined (based on some online resources) that this problem was probably due to a failing cache card. So I ordered a new one, popped it in, and voila! Things seemed to be right again. My satisfaction was short-lived, because soon afterward the same problems returned. Now, I have been through every possible configuration/software problem I could think of. I reformat and reinstall routinely, and I've basically ruled out a software problem (I run different Mac OS versions on different partitions). I've checked all of my peripheral connections, SCSI assignments, etc. No problems there. Anyway, it's the three symptoms that I listed above that persist. I get a clean boot every few startups, and I should add that once the machine is up and running there are no problems. I can send this machine in for repair, but alas it's no cheap or simple solution. I've run Mac OS 8.0, 8.1, 8.5, and 8.6 (primarily 8.0 and 8.6) without a hitch on this machine with 64 MB of RAM (all I need, but if I get this all worked out I'll probably go to 128). There have been no significant changes to this machine's hardware recently except for the replacement of the cache card, which as I mentioned, seemed to mysteriously fix the problem for a very brief period of time. Any help that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated. Still Thinking Differently, John __________________________________________________________________ Your favorite stores, helpful shopping tools and great gift ideas. Experience the convenience of buying online with Shop@Netscape! http://shopnow.netscape.com/ Get your own FREE, personal Netscape Mail account today at http://webmail.netscape.com/ -- Power Computing is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... 123Inkjets.com <http://lowendmac.com/ad/123inkjets.html> Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> Power Computing list info: <http://lowendmac.com/power/list.html> Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/powercomputing%40mail.maclaunch.com/> Using a Macintosh? Get free email and more at Applelinks! <http://www.applelinks.com>
