[MusicMan]

I was just given an old Mac portable by the company I work for (please hold the jabs). I would like to get it working a bit and perhaps use it as a rudimentary laptop for MIDI and WP.

Every time I start it up it either chimes repeatedly, or gives me the sad mac and Chimes of Doom. I am powering it with an adapter, and tried to charge the battery, but it holds no charge (of course). It won't boot from a 7.0 floppy or it's own HD.

Any ideas? If I can't get this working inexpensively, I will consider buying a used wintel machine. That oughta scare anybody...

Dan

[John Strung]

Might be helpful if you told us what kind of a Mac Portable it is. Surely not the original 15 pound white Mac Portable!

[MusicMan]

Sadly, yes...were it a powerbook I would have said...

It's the original, non-backlit version. Any hope for it? I know I could buy an old powerbook for a few hundred dollars...

[Walter J. Ferstl]

MusicMan,

you got a very rare bird here.

If you are prepared to open the case, have a look at the RAM module (there isjust one, in a special form factor for the Portable). It might have come loose in its socket (remember to ground yourself properly before you touch anything inside the enclosure). Such a RAM module not well seated would be the most probable cause for the chimes at startup.

Did you try the usual Mac startup tricks?

Reset PRAM by holding down option-cmd-P-R.

Connect an external SCSI drive containing one of these OS versions:
6.0.4, 6.0.5, 6.0.7, 6.0.8, 7.0, 7.0.1, 7.1, 7.1.1 (Pro), 7.5, 7.5.1, 7.5.3, 7.5.5. If you do so, use a small, older drive if possible.

As to trying to boot from a System floppy, according to Apple the Portable has a 1.44 MB drive, but if you can get System 6.x on an 800k floppy somewhere (e.g., from a Plus or SE owner), give this a try, too.

The Portable also has a socket to connect an external floppy drive. This socket is 15-pin (maybe 19-pin) sub-D, otherwise similar to the SCSI socket.

Basically the Portable is something like a mobile version of the original Mac SE (MC68000, up to 8MB RAM, but running at 16 MHz). The internal hard disk (SCSI) connection is a little special in a sense that is has a special 34-pin ribbon and connector that is not easy to find as a replacement nowadays. If you have to replace the internal hard drive you may use a standard 50-pin SCSI (1/3 height) drive using an adapter available at

http://www.micromac.com/products/portable_scsi.html

Good luck,

Walter.

[This message has been edited by Walter J. Ferstl (edited 01-10-2001).]

[MusicMan]

Thanks...I'll try your suggestions.

Dan

[Walter J. Ferstl]

Dan,

regarding hard disks with the Portable, see also the entries in the thread "Mac Plus- it's so *?king cute, what's a good... " in this forum.

Walter.

[MusicMan]

Now that I look inside it again...there doesn't seem to be any RAM in it...! I'm looking in the right place right? Between the battery chassis and the drives? Four empty slots, labled PDS, RAM, ROM, and MODEM, respectively...

Portable RAM is REALLY expensive, too...8MB can be $375, at least where I looked for it...

Anyone have some Portable RAM they wanna sell cheap? (heh heh)

[This message has been edited by MusicMan (edited 01-10-2001).]

[MusicMan]

actually there is 1 mb in it...i did some checking and found out that it shipped with 1mb on the motherboard...so it must be a problem with the motherboard or something else...