1998 Bondi Blue iMac won't boot \ VOGONS

1998 Bondi Blue iMac won't boot

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First post, by TheAbandonwareGuy

Posted on 2016-09-02, 22:48

TheAbandonwareGuy Offline

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For some reason my Bondi Blue iMac won't boot. Normally I would think i was sold a bad PC.

But the lady i bought this from showed me it turned on running what i believe was OS X 10.2

Now, here's where I (think) the issue occured. The lady unplugged it from the wall while running.

As it sits it doesnt show anything that makes me think it has life. No power light, no electric sounds, no CRT power up sounds, no chime. Nothing.
I've tried holding the damn power button in, i've tried quick press, hard press, everything.

So somewhere between the place i met and my house (20 miles, i had it secured in my vehicle during transported and i carried it by the carrying handle) something has caused this.
I was very careful not to cause any big bumps or knock it into anything carrying it.

As far as i can tell there are 3 possibiltys:

It needs a CUDA reset (Not sure how to do that, but appears to require disassembly)
It needs a PVRAM battery (Costs money, but fixable)
The power flyback failed (Its a big paper weight)

I'm not a mac expert. Could somebody who has more mac experience point me in the right starting direction? I'm hoping its not a flyback failure (wouldn't really make sense but either way it would be the death of the machine for good). Right now I'm just going to let it sit for 12 hours while i research the issue.

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Reply 1 of 7, by JidaiGeki

Posted on 2016-09-03, 01:54

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Have you tried zapping the PRAM using a key combo on boot - Cmd + Option + P + R, hold that down, turn on the computer and after it chimes you can let go. Would paste a link but phone is playing up. It might not fix it but it's a usual first troubleshooting step.

Reply 2 of 7, by TheAbandonwareGuy

Posted on 2016-09-03, 02:26

TheAbandonwareGuy Offline

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JidaiGeki wrote:
Have you tried zapping the PRAM using a key combo on boot - Cmd + Option + P + R, hold that down, turn on the computer and after it chimes you can let go. Would paste a link but phone is playing up. It might not fix it but it's a usual first troubleshooting step.

Strangely enough letting it sit for about 4 hours fixed the issue. Working fine now.

Now to go about downgrading it to OS 8.5

Cyb3rst0rms Retro Hardware Warzone: https://discord.gg/jK8uvR4c
I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction

Reply 3 of 7, by luckybob

Posted on 2016-09-03, 03:57

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intermittent problems like that are very common with macs. 90% of the time it needs to be recapped. I LITERALLY have a PILE of mid 90's macs that all would require a recap to get into stable operation. I have neither the time or the money to do it right now.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 4 of 7, by JidaiGeki

Posted on 2016-09-03, 04:31

JidaiGeki Offline

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TheAbandonwareGuy wrote:
JidaiGeki wrote:
Have you tried zapping the PRAM using a key combo on boot - Cmd + Option + P + R, hold that down, turn on the computer and after it chimes you can let go. Would paste a link but phone is playing up. It might not fix it but it's a usual first troubleshooting step.

Strangely enough letting it sit for about 4 hours fixed the issue. Working fine now.

Now to go about downgrading it to OS 8.5

Great outcome!!

Reply 5 of 7, by yawetaG

Posted on 2016-09-03, 07:46

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luckybob wrote:
intermittent problems like that are very common with macs. 90% of the time it needs to be recapped. I LITERALLY have a PILE of mid 90's macs that all would require a recap to get into stable operation. I have neither the time or the money to do it right now.

This. It's not only mid 1990 macs, it's the whole CRT iMac and eMac range up to the last PowerPC models. The problem described by the OP was basically how my eMac (2003 1 GHz) began to fail, intermittent boot problems that magically resolved themselves after a few hours of not doing anything, getting worse and worse over time until the machine permanently failed to boot (this took several years). When I took it apart later on to retrieve the hard disk I discovered all the caps on a particular part of the power board were burst. The good news is that on the newer machines at least the salvageable parts will work fine in a PC.

The only thing I can recommend is to hook the machine up to a UPS and never switch it off, just let it sleep instead. For some reason the cap problem is only a major problem when booting in my experience.

Reply 6 of 7, by Jorpho

Posted on 2016-09-03, 15:53

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It's not just the motherboard battery dying, is it? I know that could cause some wacky startup behavior on some old macs.

Reply 7 of 7, by luckybob

Posted on 2016-09-03, 16:04

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It is both. Also, avoid the red replacement batteries, the brand escapes me at the moment, but they seem to have a track record of leaking.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

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