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G4ME · Feb 16, 2002, 10:17 PM

MY boss just upgraded his ram in hie 6500-250 Power mac with a 64 meg stick the only thing is that now he can't use his CD Rom, IE the Cd won't mount on the desktop. It works fine other than that, it shows 96 megs of ram. What I can tell you is he is running 8.5 and he hasn't done any firmware updates what do you guys think, is it the ram or is it the mother board software.

yukon · Feb 16, 2002, 10:45 PM

who knows? I'm sure some one has come across it, but I'd have no idea without being there or owning a similar setup. anyway, it is unlikly that the ROM would get corrupted.

it is a little known fact that you need to reset the motherboard when adding ram. it isn't supposed to be a problem, but it's better to be safe. press the CUDA button (on the motherboard, probably near the battery). that will kinda do a super pram zap.

also, try a boot cd, and see if it works. if it does, then it's the software on the hard drive. if not, check the cdrom in another computer. the boss could have broken something.

oh, and update to 8.6 anyway. better performance and bugfixes. if not, at least 8.5.1.

Big Mac · Feb 17, 2002, 02:05 AM

Neither the ROM nor the RAM seem to be to blame. If ROM were faulty, then your system simply wouldn't boot; if RAM were faulty, you would be experiencing serious errors. It sounds to me like there's some system software corruption there, or else the drive is out of alignment/damaged. Try to boot from a startup CD by restarting with it already in the drive and holding down the "C" key. If it doesn't boot from the CD, then it's almost definitely the drive.

[ 02-17-2002: Message edited by: Big Mac ]

G4ME · Feb 17, 2002, 10:01 AM

Do you have a link where I can find the update for 8.6?

yukon · Feb 18, 2002, 12:10 AM

umm...thats a throwback. just check ftp.apple.com. it takes a little navigation, but the updaters are there (apple software updates->macintosh ->older system->updates, i guess).

yeah, big mac is right with the ram probably not being to blame. the only times I had the problem, the system would only boot once in a while, and crash quickly. of course, possible symptoms are endless.

probably just the cd drive, or the software controlling it.

Mac-Guy · Feb 18, 2002, 02:25 PM

Here's your OS 8.6 download

Also, when adding RAM, it's easy to dislodge either the power connector or the SCSI connector. Reseat them, press the CUDA, rebuild the desktop, and I betcha the drive is still there and fine.

G4ME · Feb 19, 2002, 01:27 PM

The thing is the Cd rom won't work only when the 64 mb stick is in the computer, removed the cdrom is fine. BTW thanks for the downlaod