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Thade · Aug 19, 2005, 11:38 PM

Hi all. I just received a MDD dual 1.2 that I purchased on eBay. It ran fine for about an hour. I shut it down & removed one of the RAM chips to inspect the brand & reinserted it. It booted & I got a couple of "you need to restart" error messages then all kinds of garbled text on the screen. On one restart attempt, it booted to the Open Firmware screen by itself but the KB didn't respond. Now when I press the power button the fans start up (quietly) then full speed after 20 seconds

I removed one, then both ram chips, unplugged everything, reset the MB button, replaced the battery, reseated CPU.

The seller is a design professional. The Mac was listed as Mint. I investigated the seller & judging by the way the transaction was handled, I am inclined to believe her.

Is there anything I haven't tried? Does the full speed fans after 20 seconds indicate a specific hardware problem? I'm desperate for solution, I'm stuck with this thing. Any help would be much appreciated.

Jeff

seanc · Aug 20, 2005, 04:59 AM

Perhaps the ram is faulty.
Is there any difference in the way it start's up with the ram removed?

Do you have any more ram to try?

Is everything seated firmly in place and are all fans working? Try reseating the ram chips and try different ones by themselves.

kick52 · Aug 20, 2005, 07:43 AM

does it boot to ur OS?

i aggre wit seanc, it sounds like faulty ram.
try leaving it overnite with it unplugged.

did you realease static before you started looking inside your mac?

chris v · Aug 20, 2005, 07:57 AM

There's a vague chance it could be a ram slot, too. Take 1 chip, and move it from slot to slot.

Will it boot from any kind of CD?

seanc · Aug 20, 2005, 08:13 AM

Judging by the description, It's not chiming, and i don't think he's getting any video.

I hope you did discharge yourself, otherwise you may have have fried something.

You did unplug the computer before you removed the ram and re-seated the cpu didn't you?!

Thade · Aug 20, 2005, 08:24 AM

no video and yes it was unplugged when I pulled out the ram. Reseating the CPU was a last resort but again it was unplugged. The OS doesn't boot & it behaves the same way with or without RAM. I left it unplugged over night & no change.

Jeff

seanc · Aug 20, 2005, 08:30 AM

Hmm.

Do you have any spare ram that you can try?

Try booting with no peripherals connected, only power.

And another long shot is to remove the graphics card and see if it chimes then.

Thade · Aug 24, 2005, 04:09 PM

I took a gamble that it's the CPU & ordered a Giga dual 1.3. I'll report back after it's installed.

Jeff

seanc · Aug 24, 2005, 04:14 PM

Hope it works.
If it does work, you just need to try and figure out what happened in the first place so that it doesn't happen again and you don't end up having to shell out for more cpu's.

Good luck.

Thade · Aug 24, 2005, 04:23 PM

The reason why I went for the CPU:

Very hot air coming out the back
Slow death over a few reboots indicates overheating. I figure a fried Logic Board would just work or not
Still have Power LED on Logic Board & power to fans
Reports from other users who swapped CPUs & prob solved

IF it's not the CPU, I'll be no closer to a solution. I suppose that would point toward Logic Board but doesn't rule out CPU if they both went out. The Giga is 100% refundable so that's a plus. Don't know how much longer I'll hang in there but it could be:

CPU, Logic Board, Power Supply, Front Panel switch (hard to find) or some or all of the above.

Jeff