awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) (07/30/88)
I don't want this to be long and whiney, but I just got my first Mac II and I'm having the occassional strange problem. My monitor hasn't come yet, so I'm borrowing different monitors daily. When I was using a 13" Sony color, I noticed that sometimes the apple in the upper left would be color and b&w other times--but I was always set for 256 color. It would be a rainbow, I'd load an application and come back to find it black. It's a borrowed, well-used video card, too, I should mention. Now that I'm using the same video card with a used Apple monochrome monitor, I'm finding that some programs (such as Crystal Quest) hang coming back to the Finder. The screen just blanks out and I have to push the reset button. To me it's just one more illustration of my theory that new computers have to be 'taught' how to behave. Almost every new computer I've gotten or built (ah, the good old days) "acted up" initially. Eventually, something would happen to convince it to behave nicely and from then on no problems until old age. My extra 1MB in my Mac Plus started acting up, so I drove fifty miles to the place that installed it. Naturally, at the doctor's office it was on its best behavior. I haven't had any problems since. So I'm not alarmed at the Mac II's behavior, I'm just posting this in case there is some known solution that I haven't heard. Or this sounds like some known lemon behavior so I can return this thing quick. :-) /alastair/
arti@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Arti Nigam) (08/03/88)
Speaking of wierd crashes, we have a MacII that caused us headaches for a long time. I never noticed a correlation with the color setting. But it would crash, intermittently at first, and at seemingly random points: while in an application, while on the desktop, when accessing the hard disk, when just moving the mouse around, or when opening a file. We had the motherboard changed, memory chips changed, various diagnostics programs run with no findings, and we had it sit in the shop for a month or two, all with no effect. Then we noticed that, when the problem arose, if we opened up the computer, took out the video board, generally fiddled with it (maybe randomly press chips down, or other superstitious behavior), and replaced it, the problem would go away for a few days. So, as we have a second MacII, we used the scientific method, played swaptronics, and convinced ourselves that the video board was at fault. This was even though diagnostics programs showed it to be just fine. The video card was replaced a few days ago, and looks like no more problems. But it certainly was a wierd-looking problem while it lasted. Arti Nigam.
peterson@peterson.applicon.UUCP (08/10/88)
I have had similar problems with the apple chaning from color to black, but the solution was very easy. When I first picked up my mac, the salesman & I installed the system. We must have chosen one of the special instalation scripts by mistake. I then had the color/black problem. I decided to re-install the system following the instruction to the letter for a full install. That fixed it. Joe Peterson ...!mit-eddie!applicon!peterson
bob@accuvax.nwu.edu (Bob Hablutzel) (01/25/89)
> I'm having a peculiar problem with my machine that someone has > hopefully encountered before. After the machine has been running for a > while, the hard disk suddenly switches off, then after a few seconds > switches on again, repeating this cycle. The machine continues running > as if nothing has happened until it notices that the hd is dead. I > have just installed a 1 meg upgrade(256k simms) so now the machine has > 2 megs, and the problem only started since I fitted the new simms, so > I presume that there is a relationship. I have heard of this happening > to another Mac II, but can't get hold of the person to whom this > happened. > Any advice anyone ? Is the drive an internal one? It is possible that during the installation of the SIMMs that you loosened the drive connection cables, as the drive sits just above where the SIMMs are installed. There are two cables - a power cable which consists of 4 wires, and a SCSI ribbon cable. If either of these is loose at either end you could get the noted problems. > Pramod. > pramod@drizzle.cs.uoregon.edu Bob Hablutzel Wildwood Software BOB@NUACC.ACNS.NWU.EDU Disclaimer: All hardware problems can be solved with a brick and a warranty.
jwste@PacBell.COM (Jerry Steffler) (04/06/89)
A co-worker is experiencing a problem with her MAC II. She powers the MAC up in the morning and things run fine for about 1/2 hour when "blue dashes" appear on the screen at random locations. This happens in any application she's using at the time. Shortly after the blue dashes appear, the dreaded bomb box/system restart message comes up. Selecting restart doesn't help. The MAC is hung. The MAC has been sent in for diagnostics twice now, the first time the technicians not finding anything wrong. Still awaiting the status of the second visit. Apparently, this phenomenon will occur sooner if the MAC is warmed up. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about the environment, other than getting confirmation of connection to the Appletalk network during start-up, and having a PCOX 3270 emulation software/hardware. If the MAC was here, I could have determined the OS revision, etc... Any answers to the cause of this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
carlton@betelgeuse (Mike Carlton) (04/06/89)
In article <25251@pbhya.PacBell.COM> jwste@PacBell.COM (Jerry Steffler) writes: >A co-worker is experiencing a problem with her MAC II. She powers the MAC up >in the morning and things run fine for about 1/2 hour when "blue dashes" >appear on the screen at random locations. This happens in any application >she's using at the time. Shortly after the blue dashes appear, the dreaded >bomb box/system restart message comes up. Selecting restart doesn't help. The >MAC is hung. The MAC has been sent in for diagnostics twice now, the >first time the technicians not finding anything wrong. Still awaiting the >status of the second visit. Apparently, this phenomenon will occur sooner if >the MAC is warmed up. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about the I've had the "blue dashes" problem hit me twice now. The problem was caused by video memory chips working loose from the video card. I simply pushed them back in to make sure they were seated properly and the problem went away. You need to be careful about static electricity when doing this, the chips are CMOS and can be damaged by small amounts of static electricity. You need to ground yourself carefully. If you're not comfortable with this, have someone else do it for you. Cheers, -- Mike Carlton, UC Berkeley Computer Science | More bits, carlton@ji.berkeley.edu ...!ucbvax!ji!carlton | Give me more bits.
goldfarb@hcx9.UCF.EDU (04/12/89)
/* Written 11:27 pm Apr 5, 1989 by carlton@betelgeuse.UUCP in hcx9:comp.sys.mac */ In article <25251@pbhya.PacBell.COM> jwste@PacBell.COM (Jerry Steffler) writes: >A co-worker is experiencing a problem with her MAC II. She powers the MAC up >in the morning and things run fine for about 1/2 hour when "blue dashes" >appear on the screen at random locations. This happens in any application >she's using at the time. Shortly after the blue dashes appear, the dreaded >bomb box/system restart message comes up. Selecting restart doesn't help. The >MAC is hung. The MAC has been sent in for diagnostics twice now, the >first time the technicians not finding anything wrong. Still awaiting the >status of the second visit. Apparently, this phenomenon will occur sooner if >the MAC is warmed up. Unfortunately, I can't tell you much about the I've had the "blue dashes" problem hit me twice now. The problem was caused by video memory chips working loose from the video card. I simply pushed them back in to make sure they were seated properly and the problem went away. You need to be careful about static electricity when doing this, the chips are CMOS and can be damaged by small amounts of static electricity. You need to ground yourself carefully. If you're not comfortable with this, have someone else do it for you. Cheers, -- Mike Carlton, UC Berkeley Computer Science | More bits, carlton@ji.berkeley.edu ...!ucbvax!ji!carlton | Give me more bits. /* End of text from hcx9:comp.sys.mac */