My PowerCenter is dying and I need your help to resuscitate it

[livingfortoday]

Ok kids, a bit of a pickle here.

I moved recently, and brought along my trusty PowerCenter Pro 210. It'd been sitting and collecting dust for a while when I decided to boot 'er back up and see if I couldn't get Jaguar running on there and use it as a little server for my webpage. Problem is - it won't boot up. Most of the time when I push the power button - nothing. Sometimes the light will turn on, though, fans will spin up, and then it shuts off. I have gotten it to even start and stay on for a while - but with no video out.

I figured it might be the PSU, but after swapping that out, I still get the same result. I've pulled everything out and reseated it (which is no small feat in this case) multiple times, and still no luck. I've tried the PCI video card and on-board graphics too, and no video on the few times it has appeared to boot up. I've taken out cards, put cards back in - to no avail.

It worked totally fine before the move - anyone have any ideas? It is getting a bit long in the tooth nowadays, but I figured with it's G3 upgrade and maxed out RAM, it could still do its job. So! Help would be appreciated.

 

[livingfortoday]

Blargh.

 

[livingfortoday]

Ok, I took the whole thing out of its case, and was able to get it to "turn on" with a new PSU and mobo battery. Thing is, it's still not showing video. The hard drive spins up, I hear it working for a few seconds at first, and then it just sits there. The XLR8 card is blinking it's little LED the whole time, I don't know if that's a bad sign or what.

Now it's gone back to not booting up at all again, so I'm gonna put it all back together and see what happens.

Any advice on this? I'm starting to think that the mobo may just be on its way out, or even the CPU, but I'm hoping it's something much simpler.

 

[DZ/015]

If you have the original processor, you should try booting with it installed to rule out the upgrade as the source of your problem. Have you tried booting from a CD, external drive or diskette?

 

[livingfortoday]

If you have the original processor, you should try booting with it installed to rule out the upgrade as the source of your problem. Have you tried booting from a CD, external drive or diskette?

I don't have the original CPU unfortunately, I bought it upgraded. I've tried booting from a CD, but nothing happens. I also don't have an external drive for it (SCSI's the only option here), though if I can dig up the big ol' SCSI card that used to be in it maybe I can try from my external CD-ROM drive or something.

At this point I'm fairly sure it's either the mobo or the ZIF card carrier that's the issue, as everything else has been tested and swapped out.

 

[gkarris]

Ok kids, a bit of a pickle here.

I moved recently, and brought along my trusty PowerCenter Pro 210. It'd been sitting and collecting dust for a while when I decided to boot 'er back up and see if I couldn't get Jaguar running on there and use it as a little server for my webpage. Problem is - it won't boot up. Most of the time when I push the power button - nothing. Sometimes the light will turn on, though, fans will spin up, and then it shuts off. I have gotten it to even start and stay on for a while - but with no video out.

I figured it might be the PSU, but after swapping that out, I still get the same result. I've pulled everything out and reseated it (which is no small feat in this case) multiple times, and still no luck. I've tried the PCI video card and on-board graphics too, and no video on the few times it has appeared to boot up. I've taken out cards, put cards back in - to no avail.

It worked totally fine before the move - anyone have any ideas? It is getting a bit long in the tooth nowadays, but I figured with it's G3 upgrade and maxed out RAM, it could still do its job. So! Help would be appreciated.

Dead MoBo... sorry...

 

[livingfortoday]

Dead MoBo... sorry...

Damn, that's what I figured too. At least I can part it out and upgrade other Macs with it. It had a good run - 9 years as a server for a small business, and then retirement with me.

RIP PowerCenter Pro!

 

[Mac SK]

After you changed the pram battery did you mash the cuda button next to the cpu? Pull out the cpu and reseat it, also the memory sticks , these stick are not the same as the ones in power macs, different voltage. The cd rom is not Apple brand and uses a third party driver. You have to boot from a floppy with cd rom tool kit on it.Then the CD will work.

 

[DZ/015]

Sorry to hear that you do not have the original processor. My money is on that being the problem. These older machines require an extension to boot from an upgraded cpu. This would account for not being able to boot from a diskette or cd. The logic boards on these units were pretty reliable. Upgrades were not.

 

[livingfortoday]

Sorry to hear that you do not have the original processor. My money is on that being the problem. These older machines require an extension to boot from an upgraded cpu. This would account for not being able to boot from a diskette or cd. The logic boards on these units were pretty reliable. Upgrades were not.

Yeah, I'm assuming it's the carrier board for the ZIF processor or the logic board at this point. Money's on the logic board.