adv@drutx.ATT.COM (Andrew DeVoss) (02/10/90)
I have a cold start problem that I have yet to see on the net (six years and counting) and would like some help. I have a macSE2.5 dual disk drive with a modem, printer, and an external hard disk - and therein lies the problem. When I start up after an overnight poweroff, the mac crashes miserably. I get everything from 'Initialize Hard Disk?' to garbage lines and buzz. All is not hopeless because I hit the interupt switch, insert a bootable floppy, wait about 20 minutes, restart (from the hard disk) and everything is fine. I rebuild the desktop and work until all hours of the morning. Currently I always boot from the floppy disk, wait 20 minutes, and then restart from the hard disk. This always works! Why can't I boot from the hard disk after the mac has been turned off for a few hours. What does 20 minutes of warm up time do for the SCSI port? Will I have the same problems with an internal hard disk? I have wrestled with this for about a year now so rest assured that I have tried almost everything to try and localize. 1. I have left the hard disk on all the time and just turned the mac off: no affect, still crashes 2. I have reformatted the hard disk, installed the system (all flavors of 6.0.#) and no other software: no affect, still crashes 3. I have varied the time the mac has been turned off and found that it needs to be off about 4 hours or more to crash. 4. Depending on the amount of warm up time seems to determine how far the startup routines get. Cold - lines, buzz, and garbage screen 2min - gets to happy face and then garbage lines and buzz 5min - gets to 2nd or 3rd init and then restart prompt and ID-03 10min - gets through inits and then restart prompt and ID-03 15min - appears fine until serious disk access then ID-03 20min - works fine, lasts long time When I boot from floppy, and the hard disk mounts, it wants to initialize so I Cancel and then wait the 20-30 minutes, reboot and things are fine. 5. I have not replaced the hard disk, though when I have connected it to other macs it works as it should. ANY help will be appreciated | A permanent solution is desired... I am starting to code with THINK C++ and would like a stable hardware platform. Please reply to: Andrew DeVoss at 303/538-1087 or mail to att!drutx!adv