Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

lamont_ancient · May 26, 2004, 01:05 AM

I recently carefully upgraded the RAM and HD of my iMac 266. When I tried to start I only got the orange light and fan - nothing else at all.
I have since reverted to the old RAM and HD getting the same result.
I have done the Power Flow tests in the manual and they are all OK as is the fuse. I have used the SCUDA and reset the logic board.
The Firmware was up to date before I started and the PRAM battery is OK.

Any suggestions?

bgordon · May 26, 2004, 03:06 PM

Don't know about the RAM, but I had a problem replacing the HD on my trusty old Bondi iMac - I put a new drive in with the wrong jumper settings (the little plastic things you stick on the pins on the back of the HD to make sure the computer "reads" it properly as the master drive.) Clueless of my screwup, I even took the computer in for repair, and they told me I needed a new motherboard...wrong! Turns out I had just put the jumpers on incorrectly. Once I solved the problem, I was okay (I think it turned out that I didn't need ANY jumpers for that particular HD.) It varies from HD to HD, manufacturer to manufacturer, so make sure you've got the right settings for the right drive. Perhaps you took jumpers off the original drive to put on the new one...both incorrectly?

Hope this makes sense...don't know if it's relevant or not.

- bgordon

vmarks · May 27, 2004, 01:25 PM

make sure that the drive is jumpered for single.
make sure the drive is partitioned so that the OS is within the first 8 gb on the drive.

take the ram back out and make sure the processor is firmly seated on the motherboard.

lamont_ancient · May 27, 2004, 08:39 PM

Before my original post I did find that the HD jumpers were wrongly set, but this didn't help.
Can't partition the hard drive until I can startup from the OS CD.
I have had the RAM in and out and in all combinations and the processor has been properly seated each time.
Thinking of giving up (not economical to take it to Apple).
Anybody interested in an iMac (not working) for parts on eBay?

Detrius · May 27, 2004, 11:00 PM

if you can get your hands on another tray-load iMac, an important diagnostic would be to see if the logic board (assembly) works in another iMac case. This will tell you whether the problem is in the "can" or the display assembly.

bgordon · May 27, 2004, 11:02 PM

Okay, I'm talking out of my arse here, but is there a way to boot into open firmware and reset the iMac's firmware to the original factory settings? Or is it impossible to even get to that point?

I vaguely remember doing this, too, at one point...geez, wish I could help you...

gto47 · May 30, 2004, 11:04 PM

Originally posted by bgordon:
Okay, I'm talking out of my arse here, but is there a way to boot into open firmware and reset the iMac's firmware to the original factory settings? Or is it impossible to even get to that point?

I vaguely remember doing this, too, at one point...geez, wish I could help you...

-apple + option + O + F

-commnand prompt will come up

-enter this series of lines

reset-nvram <hit enter>

reset-all <hit enter>

-system will now reboot. if it does not enter the following

mac-boot <hit enter>

But honestly my bet its that the RAM or processor card are not seated properly.

Talk2Angus · May 31, 2004, 04:13 AM

My bet is on the ram that is not seated correctly

lamont_ancient · May 31, 2004, 11:25 PM

My thanks to gto47 and Talk2Angus.
All along I had been just TOO gentle on the processor board.
Gave it a FIRM push, it moved a tiny fraction and I'm now up and running.
The up side of all this is that I can now strip down an iMac 266 blindfolded.
Thanks again.......

Detrius · Jun 5, 2004, 11:27 AM

Originally posted by lamont_ancient:
My thanks to gto47 and Talk2Angus.
All along I had been just TOO gentle on the processor board.
Gave it a FIRM push, it moved a tiny fraction and I'm now up and running.
The up side of all this is that I can now strip down an iMac 266 blindfolded.
Thanks again.......

Those processors are just as tough to get back in as they are to get out.

Come to think of it... I probably actually could do a processor replacement on one of those blindfolded...

maybe... I don't know if I could safely wedge something under the processor blindfolded.

msuper69 · Jun 5, 2004, 07:13 PM

Slightly OT but I recently upgraded the HD and RAM in my Bondi iMac 233 (the original).

I wanted to run Panther on it so I needed to boost both the drive and memory. The original 4 gb HD and 128MB of RAM were not going to cut it. So I decided to do a little hand-me-downing. I upgraded my Cube to 80gb and 1.5gb RAM, installed the old Cube 40gb HD in my iMac DV SE and installed the old 13gb HD from the DV SE into the Bondi. I also upped the RAM in the Bondi to 256mb.

Funny thing is, I ended up with some extra screws from the Bondi upgrade. Works just fine though. And I am never going to upgrade the Bondi again. What a royal PITA. That machine is not designed to be upgraded unless you enjoy a lot of pain.