Thanks to Dan, moss and Simon Royal for their responses. I did finally manage to test my PRAM battery and it's quite strong -- about 4V according to my meter, which is only a bit inaccurate.
I don't remember what motivated me to check it, but I decided to try different RAM configurations, and it seems (tentatively) that one of my 512-MB sticks may be defective, or perhaps incompatible with the rest of my RAM. Anyway, my computer seems to be running a lot more reliably with just the remaining three sticks in it, and 1.5 GB is enough RAM for whatever I do, although I imagine that switching between programs may be faster with more physical RAM. - Aaron My original post: >Date: Sat, 20 Sep 2008 17:19:20 -0700 >To: g3-5-list@googlegroups.com >From: Aaron <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >I'm sharing this here, since a search of my archive of the list doesn't turn >up this info. > >A couple of days ago, when I was doing various cabling changes inside my >FireWire 800 MDD, at one point it wouldn't start up at all. I mean no visual >or aural indication of any activity when I pressed the power button in various >ways. Then, after other changes, it finally did and then, shortly after in the >same configuration, it didn't! > >To make a long story short, after I had given up and was starting to move my >drives and more into my old Dual 867 MDD, a friend came over for help with his >Pismo that he was having a problem with.* I was able to do a web search that >quickly turned up the solution: > >::: When the MDD won't power up, just unplug the power cord for 10 seconds and >plug it in again! > > I realize that if I had done the right thing and unplugged the power cord > before working inside the computer, the problem wouldn't have arisen during > that process, but it might have shown up the next time I shut down and tried > to restart after I finished working on it. > >QUESTION: Is it likely that this strange behavior presages any more serious >problems? If so, what can I do about it beforehand? > >Also, (1) can I check the PRAM battery without removing it and (2) how does >one remove it? I'm guessing the PRAM battery may be bad because, when I >reconnect after disconnection, I get the message about the computer's date >being too old. (Since the computer automatically connects to the internet, the >date & time get corrected quickly.) > >Note, though, that the same person who reported the solution above also said >that replacing his PRAM battery, although it solved other problems, didn't >solve the startup problem. > > - Aaron --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed Low End Mac's G3-5 List, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to g3-5-list@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
