uncacj@uncecs.edu (Charles G. James Jr.) (12/13/89)
Help! I have a Mac SE/30 with 1M RAM and a 40M internal HardDisk about 30% full. What started out as a intermitent error now has become constant. I turn on the computer and it will go through the normal startup procedure, I assume. It will display the Startupscreen and show an INIT icon. The screen and menus will look normal and act normally as long as I do not start anything. I can select and deselect the hard disk icon and pull down all of the menus. If I try to do anything either by menu or double clicking it will begin with the expanding box graphic then the system hangs. Even if I try Shutdown at this point, it will hang. If I reset the system same behavior. For a while if I turned the computer off and waited a while(1 day) the problem would disappear. Now, no dice. I tried to start the computer using a floppy disk based system folder which gave the same behavior. If I try to use some of the DA,s same behavior. In each case it looks normal with the mouse cusor responding etc, until I actually try to do something. The computer is still under warranty so I cannot open the case to explore but our dealer always wants to know what is wrong before they fix the problem. By the way this is the second problem I have had with this SE/30, it seems I was one of the ones who got the bad hard disks. Any help will be appreciated. -- Charles G. James, Jr. Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Asheville 2 Asheville NC 28804 BITNET: uncacj@ecsvax
dlugose@uncecs.edu (Dan Dlugose) (12/15/89)
In article <1989Dec12.203141.23952@uncecs.edu> uncacj@uncecs.edu (Charles G. James Jr.) writes: >Help! > I have a Mac SE/30 with 1M RAM and a 40M internal HardDisk about 30% full. What >started out as a intermitent error now has become constant. I turn on the >computer and it will go through the normal startup procedure, I assume. It will >display the Startupscreen and show an INIT icon. The screen and menus will look >normal and act normally as long as I do not start anything. I can select and >deselect the hard disk icon and pull down all of the menus. If I try to do >anything either by menu or double clicking it will begin with the expanding box >graphic then the system hangs. Even if I try Shutdown at this point, it will >hang. If I reset the system same behavior. For a while if I turned the computer >off and waited a while(1 day) the problem would disappear. Now, no dice. I tried >to start the computer using a floppy disk based system folder which gave the >same behavior. If I try to use some of the DA,s same behavior. In each case it It certainly seems to be hardware related. Since everything is ok up until the operating system starts processing certain kinds of events, but not others, (can display menus, select icons, but not handle menu selection), it seems to be something that involves either code that was in ROM or (less likely) a ROM patch from the System. Given that ROM code is loaded at certain locations in RAM, it is possible, though perhaps less likely, that it is a problem with some of the RAM. I assume you're using System 6.0.4. There doesn't seem to be much to try. Reset PRAM (parameter RAM) by booting with command and option keys down. Or does that only rebuild the desktop? I can look it up. It's probably not worth reinstalling 6.0.4, unless you want to try everthing. Never mind. From what you've said, I assume you can't launch any application? Dan Dlugose UNC ECS