I think I killed my Twentieth Annaversery Macintosh HELP

[froggytreafrogg]

Hi, My TAM has never failed me. Today, I wanted to finally install the SCSI enternet card into the unit. The scsi cards came with the computer when I bought it used. After that, the TAM would power up, chime, but no picture would ever come up on the screen...stayed black. I removed the addtional cards, still did the same thing. I tried resetting RAM, Cache, pressing the reset button on the motherboard, all in vain. I don't know what to do, but im really worried i ruined it. Thanks for any help.

 

[Intell]

Try unplugging everything from it and removing the PRAM battery. Let it sit for a few hours (overnight) and try it again. That seems to fix the no startup after chime problem on one TAM I used to work on.

 

[froggytreafrogg]

Try unplugging everything from it and removing the PRAM battery. Let it sit for a few hours (overnight) and try it again. That seems to fix the no startup after chime problem on one TAM I used to work on.

thanks for quick response. do you happen to know if the pram battery has to have a charge on it for the comptuer to operate? thanks

 

[Intell]

On some Old-World Macs, the TAM is one of them, the PRAM battery has to be good for it to work. On others, it will still work just fine. But the clock won't keep time and some other settings won't be saved. I am unsure into which category the TAM falls into. My guess is that it will still work even with a dead PRAM battery only because it was one of the last Old-World Macs. Have you tried turning it on without a PRAM battery?

 

[froggytreafrogg]

On some Old-World Macs, the TAM is one of them, the PRAM battery has to be good for it to work. On others, it will still work just fine. But the clock won't keep time and some other settings won't be saved. I am unsure into which category the TAM falls into. My guess is that it will still work even with a dead PRAM battery only because it was one of the last Old-World Macs. Have you tried turning it on without a PRAM battery?

yea it still just chimes and the fans spin. but it never displays a pic. I've unplugged it and let it sit for about 2 hours. Ive also got a new pram batt in now. thanks

 

[tayloralmond]

You don't need a PRAM battery for your TAM to run. I removed the PRAM battery from mine completely and the only downside is it forgets the time if the power goes out.

If you want to clear the PRAM, unplug the TAM, remove the battery, and let it sit overnight. I had to do this with mine when my PRAM got corrupted when trying to install OS X with XPostFacto.

 

[froggytreafrogg]

You don't need a PRAM battery for your TAM to run. I removed the PRAM battery from mine completely and the only downside is it forgets the time if the power goes out.

If you want to clear the PRAM, unplug the TAM, remove the battery, and let it sit overnight. I had to do this with mine when my PRAM got corrupted when trying to install OS X with XPostFacto.

hi. thanks for the reply. FWIW, when i reboot the tam and hold cmd,opt,p,r it never resets. Ive got it unplugged with the pram batt out and ill give it another shot tommoro.

 

[skinniezinho]

hi. thanks for the reply. FWIW, when i reboot the tam and hold cmd,opt,p,r it never resets. Ive got it unplugged with the pram batt out and ill give it another shot tommoro.

Have you tried reseating your ram?or tried to boot with just one stick?

 

[froggytreafrogg]

Have you tried reseating your ram?or tried to boot with just one stick?

yep. I tried everything again this morning after letting it sit overnight. still no luck. really getting concerned. could adding the scsi ethernet card have done any damage? i did it properly while machine was turned off and everything. and what is the possibility that the cache card may be causing the issue?

 

[skinniezinho]

yep. I tried everything again this morning after letting it sit overnight. still no luck. really getting concerned. could adding the scsi ethernet card have done any damage? i did it properly while machine was turned off and everything. and what is the possibility that the cache card may be causing the issue?

Everytime I get that kind of stuff on my powermac is due to faulty ram, that it is all I can tell you.
I usually tried starting it stick by stick.

 

[Lil Chillbil]

I hate to see something so historic get destroyed like that, its like betty white falling down a flight of stairs.

 

[tayloralmond]

hi. thanks for the reply. FWIW, when i reboot the tam and hold cmd,opt,p,r it never resets. Ive got it unplugged with the pram batt out and ill give it another shot tommoro.

TAM's can't zap the PRAM by using the CMD+P+R key combination. Before you give up on it, I'd just unplug everything (including the battery) and let it sit longer this time (at least 24-48hrs). I know it's hard to just let it sit and not try to make it work, but that's what I had to do with mine. Mine acted exactly as yours did and doing that fixed it. Lastly, I doubt your TAM is fried because you're still getting the start-up chime.