From: "Adrian O'Sullivan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wed, 03 Aug 2005 19:18:52 -0700
Help! (Jeff Walther and Will S RU there?!).
Well, after all these years with Supermacs, I feel like a newbie again!
BUT ... on the negative side ... I've just attempted to upgrade its
sister
vessel (an identical S900 with the same 50 MHz bus speed, also built
by me
from more-or-less empty case) from a Sonnet G3 Crescendo 400 to a
Daystar/XLR8 G4 ZIF (also purchased new from Daystar). And it's a dead
parrot!! No chimes. Black screen. Nothing. I've swapped out the chips
several times. Done all the usual PRAM-Zap and CUDA routines too. I've
stood
on my head at least three times, and I've prayed to many different
deities,
but no luck.
The thing is ... I even remembered to install the XLR8 software before
swapping out the processors. So, now I'm dead in the water and stuck
on a
sandbar, with precious cargo in the hold (my inaccessible 80GB hard
drive!).
Help, someone!
Adrian
Well looks like jeff and others have pretty much covered what to check.
I'm going to start by saying Motherboards & power supplies are IMHO the
most often mistake to replace items in a computer. Unless there is
smoke or physical damage motherboards(at least Mac) rarely fail. A
power supply usually acts up or the fan goes out or it smells bad. It
shouldn't just quit in the middle of an upgrade. I know Jeff has the
info on which wires to check for 5volt & 12 volts with a voltage meter
before you bother trying to replace. I'd be willing to bet that fully
50% or more of the motherboard & power supply replacements are nothing
but a waste of money & time. I've never replaced either in many years
of computer use except in a PC I upgrade.
I'm going to guess corrupted NVRAM or bad CPU,RAM or PCI slot
connection or filled with dust etc. I've had a PCI slot work fine for
years & then not work with a different card in the same slot( the old
card may well still work fine). Well different cards use different pins
and few cards use all the pins. So Jeff's slot cleaning trick can be a
real machine saver.
It's true you should get a chime but there are times when you don't for
one reason or another. Sounds like NVRAM/ Black screen of Death to me.
More then once if I'd of had the money I would have bought a new
machine. Black screen of death drove me nuts in the early days of OSX.
It simple really .
Remove the battery and unplug the machine(this point is often missed)
wait 12 min or longer and push the cuda for 30 sec. Put the battery in
push the cuda again for luck and away you go. I got good with this in
the OSX development days before the public beta.
There are button combos for clearing the NVRAM but they need to be used
from an off start and not a restart. A restart doesn't clear as much
out. Is it option,apple ,p & r keys?
Unplugging the machine and pulling the battery and pushing the cuda
does a full NVRAM clear out and sets to factory default.
Installing the XLR8 software before doing the upgrade while recommended
I believe is so much voodoo . The G3&4 upgrades will both run with no
software just dog slow. Now that I think of it the software that came
with my last XLR8 G4 upgrade kept my machine from booting until I
removed it(I installed it first as directed). Gary was kind enough to
send a newer version for Panther and I was back in business . i needed
another version for Tiger but it didn't keep the machine from booting.
Best of luck let us know how it goes. Will S
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