I have no idea why I'm loyal to a Starmax, but I do appreciate the existence of this
list in helping with troubleshooting, so I have an obligation to return the favors.
I think I have an explanation for some of the continuing headaches and here's what
I've found:
The SM and most macs going back to the beginning have a Cuda manager which is a chip
that controls many things from power-on sequences to keeping the selections of the
user in PRAM (PaRAmater Memory). The Cuda chip is a tremendous asset and keeps
everything simple for the user, but it controls so much that when it fails or gets
its instructions garbled, there seems to be an infinite number of symptoms that
mislead all of us as to what is the culprit. The chip depends upon the internal 4.5v
battery velcroed to the motherboard and therein lies most of the many problems we
have been writing about.
Since the Starmax batteries must be nearing the end of their lives about now, we all
either have had a bad battery or are about to.
The symptoms people have reported so far range from no-power to no-video to
not-recognizing-disks and so on. In my observation, chasing down each of those
possibly bad devices or units can be futile shouldn't be done until the battery is
first checked. A bad or low battery corrupts the PRAM and can give us symptoms all
over the map.
Here is a download site for a utility called PRAMChecker that can give a bit of
forewarning about a failing battery:
http://www.polar-orbit.com/downloads/PRAMCheckerInstaller.hqx . It's not a bright
program, it only checks the clock during startup to see if it hasn't reverted to
default--something you can see if your clock is kept on the menu bar. But it may
help you catch the impending problem before you go to fix everything else that seems
to be messed up.
And here's what I think of the Cuda system, switch, and instructions about using it:
The battery keeps the internal clock running along with other functions I don't know
about. Keeping the SM plugged into the wall keeps the battery charged. If the SM is
unplugged, as I did for a week, a marginal battery will discharge or get too low in
voltage to keep the PRAM accurate in its settings. Any corruption in the PRAM can
give rise to different symptoms--when I came back I had no power and thought my
power supply went bad.
The battery also feeds a capacitor that holds a charge to keep from losing the PRAM
settings while you're changing the battery, so don't go have a sandwich while the
battery is disconnected. If you do or if the battery level already corrupted the
PRAM, you'll have to push the Cuda reset button on the motherboard. This action
causes the factory settings that came within each new Mac or clone to be reread into
the PRAM and should solve any problems.
However, pushing the Cuda reset button is not simply a mechanical act; it is, as I
understand it, a reinsertion of instructions into the PRAM--and reprograming the
chip that alway should require voltage. If the battery is dead or missing, if the
capacitor is discharged, or if the unit is unplugged, there is NO VOLTAGE for the
resetting of the PRAM and pushing the reset button won't make any difference. (!)
This would explain why there are such inconsistencies in the reports of various
problems not being solved by the cuda button. I also assume that if a marginal or
low battery will corrupt the PRAM data, resetting the PRAM with the same low voltage
will corrupt any new settings as well. This might mean that your symptoms stay the
same, or that it may seem fixed, but the problem, same or new, can come back again.
It's somewhat of a crap shoot, but the only real fix is a new battery--whether or
not we like it--or can find one.
The biggest headache is getting to the battery. I didn't even know my beast had one,
it was so well hidden by Motorola and Apple. I'll produce my own fixit guide in a
while and publish access to that guide. I'm also sending this in here as more than 3
paragraphs for people to read or not read--not much I can do about that.
In any case, don't waste your time on power supplies, RAM, cards, connections, etc.
unnecessarily. The most expectable failure at this point in the lives of our
Starmax's are its batteries. Certainly other thing can and will fail, but check the
battery first. Or better yet order one now and replace it then or hold the new one
until that failure occurs. Unless you already have a new battery, it probably won't
be long now...
Isn't that what the rabbi said...
Bob Wulkowicz
--
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