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mrchanggg

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2022
1
0
Hello everybody, I'm new to the hobby of vintage computer collecting and I am having problems with this particular Macintosh classic. I've just been totally overwhelmed by all the information I've researched about these Macs and I would like some guidance for some troubleshooting. I recently found my dad's old Mac classic and when I went to turn it on nothing happens besides a whirring noise which I assume to be the SCSI drive, a blank screen pops up and a cursor appears on the top left corner. I tried the command "cmd + ctrl + X + O" but nothing happens. I am quite lost at exactly what could be the issue or is there just something i'm doing wrong. I don't think there's anything wrong with the CRT but could it be something wrong with the analogue board? the motherboard? If anyone can point me in the right direction and help me figure out what on god's green earth is going on with this computer it would be greatly appreciated. (I attached an image of what I see when I turn on the Mac)
 

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m1maverick

macrumors 65816
Nov 22, 2020
1,362
1,265
Hello everybody, I'm new to the hobby of vintage computer collecting and I am having problems with this particular Macintosh classic. I've just been totally overwhelmed by all the information I've researched about these Macs and I would like some guidance for some troubleshooting. I recently found my dad's old Mac classic and when I went to turn it on nothing happens besides a whirring noise which I assume to be the SCSI drive, a blank screen pops up and a cursor appears on the top left corner. I tried the command "cmd + ctrl + X + O" but nothing happens. I am quite lost at exactly what could be the issue or is there just something i'm doing wrong. I don't think there's anything wrong with the CRT but could it be something wrong with the analogue board? the motherboard? If anyone can point me in the right direction and help me figure out what on god's green earth is going on with this computer it would be greatly appreciated. (I attached an image of what I see when I turn on the Mac)
Try command + OPTION + x + o.

It looks as if it's in operational condition however it can't boot an OS (though I would expect the flashing floppy icon with a question mark). It's likely the capacitors have begun to leak and, if the above command doesn't work, that's where I would look first.
 

cjbriare

macrumors member
Nov 8, 2008
69
97
Las Vegas, NV
Try command + OPTION + x + o.

It looks as if it's in operational condition however it can't boot an OS (though I would expect the flashing floppy icon with a question mark). It's likely the capacitors have begun to leak and, if the above command doesn't work, that's where I would look first.
Agreed with this.

Since you don't have the flashing '?' im wondering if it could be a disk error. I seem to recall bad SCSI drives making a few machines I've had hang at boot.

I would try disconnecting the hard drive completely then see if you get the '?' or can boot into the ROM disk.

You will need specific tools to crack it open unfortunately. It's essentially a really long allen wrench, which you may have something similar already.

Good luck!
 
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