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HELP! My old Power Mac has died!

A

Alan M

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 7, 2003
3
0
UK
I recently took my old Power Mac 4400 160 (Power Mac 7220 in Australia and Performa 4400/160 in North America) out of storage and tried to power it up but no joy! It was working fine before it was boxed up (For about 18 months) so I’m almost certain it’s a battery problem. The thing is I have no idea what battery I need to replace it with. http://www.macbattery.com/index.html has a list of Macs and compatible batteries but my 4400 isn’t on there 

Any help would be much appreciated and if you think it’s not a battery issue please let me know.

Thanks.

Alan.
 
Welcome!

Take a look at the battery and see whether there's anything printed on it that might be a giveaway. Apart from that, I can't really help :(
 
Just pop the battery out and take it to a battery or electronics shop. For a few quid you'll have a new battery and all should be well. Also try cleaning all the dust from inside the case (RAM as well.)
 
Is this the battery you have? It says it works with the Power Macintosh 4400 series. I don't know if it will work in a non-U.S. model though.
 
Yeah, that’s the one! I just managed to prise it out of my ailing 4400 (It does have a G3 expansion card so it’s not completely useless!) Apple built this computer like a tank!

Thanks for all the help, I’ll see if I can find anywhere in the UK that could replace it otherwise I’ll see if I can ship one in from America. Fingers crossed it’s just a battery problem.

Thanks again for all the help.

Alan
 
I forgot that the old batteries looked like that! I'm used to the cylindrical ones they have these days (some systems use standard CR2032 button batteries now, they're easy to find).
 
If it turns out to be more than a battery problem I have an old clone that's based off the 4400. I also have a 300 Mhz G3/L2 (1Mb) cache if you are interested in speeding it up a little (it made a profound difference in my computer). I have working 128MB RAM and everything works great. So let me know if you want to buy anything.

I also don't think it's a battery problem because as far as I understand, the battery basically stores the time while the computer's off. Doesn't affect whether or not the computer will start.
 
I believe theres a CUDA button on the mother of that 4400. MAybe pressing it will help. Also make sure that all the ram is seated properly and taht the cpu doughtercard is seated properly too
 
Cheers, I’ll put it all back together, give it a good clean and see how it goes.

Any idea what I need to look for regarding the “CUDA button” is it a dip switch or something like that?
Thanks for the offer of the “300 Mhz G3/L2 (1Mb)” card but that sounds exactly like the G3 card I have in the machine. I hope I get it working again, it was a great machine and more than capable of doing the graphic design/DTP that I used to throw at it!

When I was at art college if a Mac just died nine times out of ten it was a battery issue (These were old first generation PPC, 601’s) so that’s why I thought mine had the same problem.

Thanks everyone for your time, help and suggestions!

Alan
:)
 
how many years do logicboard batteries last on average? mine is the 3.6 volt in my blue and white tower. think I should have a spare in the wings just in case?
 
would leaving your tower on 24/7 with no sleep mode used for over 4 years now be considered "normal use"? hehe i'm one of those people that all I ever turn off is the display and thats only when I go to bed or work.
 
On a Blue and White it wont matter if the PRAM battery goes dead. Only late model Quadras and early PowerMacs had a boot problem when the PRAM battery was dead. Also, the more you keep the computer on (running) the less the PRAM battery is needed, so in theory, the battery would NEVER be used.
 
I did it but cheaply! (Re: power mac 4400 battery)

Hi, there!

Hopefully, this is not too late.

When I pulled my PowerMac 4400 out of box for my kids, it was dead. After I found out the PRAM battery could be the problem, I checked Radio Shack's web site and was shocked by the price tag, $19.99 plus tax and shipping. So I decided to go cheap.

I went to Radio Shack store and bought an AA battery holder ($1.68) which holds 4 AA batteries. I put 3 AA batteries in and short cut the fourth slot with a jump wire. The output is exactly 4.5v.

I pulled out the dead battery and cut of the wires at the battery end. Then I matched the color and connected those wires with the ones from battery holder. Then I inserted the connector back to the pins. When I pushed the power button, I heard the wonderful guitar sound.

The total cost: you do the math.(as compared to $20 plus)

The PowerMac 4400 has plenty room for this battery holder. I just taped it along a metal beam after I wraped it with plastic bag. With this new batteries (much more power than the original battery, my mac will NEVER have the same problem. If it ever does, I just replace batteries with no sweat and again cheaply.

Good luck to my friends who have passions for old Macs.

Alan
 
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