I'm pretty sure it is the PRAM "battery", as it was when I used the battery-powered regulator for it that trouble was starting, and it was only when that ran down that the mac's hard drive caused trouble every time.
Now, when I do the double-flick thing to start it, the hard drive never works properly. I have read in Wikipedia that the double-flick works on this very model. My question is, why does it never work (the mac boots from a floppy and the video does start up, but the hard drive doesn't work).
Finally, I have included a detail of each kind of startup my mac goes through (I have not timed this accurately).
Successful:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-breif hard drive and fan dip as video starts up, normal fan/hard drive sound restored
13 sec-hard drive starts clicking
15 sec-happy mac, "Welcome to Macintosh"
17 sec-extensions start loading
25 or 30 sec-main desktop appears and mac is now usable
Unsuccessful:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-breif hard drive and fan dip as video starts up, normal fan/hard drive sound restored
13 sec-hard drive spins down
15 sec-blank grey screen with moveable cursor
17 sec-floppy disk with flashing "?"
Unsuccessful with bootable floppy:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-breif hard drive and fan dip as video starts up, normal fan/hard drive sound restored
13 sec-hard drive spins down
15 sec-happy mac, "Welcome to Macintosh"
About a minute later-main desktop appears, mac is usable, but hard drive is not present on desktop and is not recognised by "disk first aid" or any other programs on the utility disk
Double-flick:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-hard drive spins down
6 sec-power switch off (sometimes I do this before hard drive spins down at 5 sec)
7 sec-power switch on again, follow unsuccessful startup from 0 sec
I know this is rather long, and I know I could replace the PRAM battery, but I just want to know why it won't boot when I do the double-flick thing and if there's anything I can do about this
.
The startups are not inconsistent. I have read about people who say it their mac starts up "about every third time, although today it started up twice with no trouble". I did at the time find it strange that my mac always started up fine every second time, with the alternate time causing the exact same trouble every time. It never deviated from this pattern, even when I had left it for days. I even did a cold restart and it did it again :lol: !
Now, when I do the double-flick thing to start it, the hard drive never works properly. I have read in Wikipedia that the double-flick works on this very model. My question is, why does it never work (the mac boots from a floppy and the video does start up, but the hard drive doesn't work).
Finally, I have included a detail of each kind of startup my mac goes through (I have not timed this accurately).
Successful:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-breif hard drive and fan dip as video starts up, normal fan/hard drive sound restored
13 sec-hard drive starts clicking
15 sec-happy mac, "Welcome to Macintosh"
17 sec-extensions start loading
25 or 30 sec-main desktop appears and mac is now usable
Unsuccessful:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-breif hard drive and fan dip as video starts up, normal fan/hard drive sound restored
13 sec-hard drive spins down
15 sec-blank grey screen with moveable cursor
17 sec-floppy disk with flashing "?"
Unsuccessful with bootable floppy:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-breif hard drive and fan dip as video starts up, normal fan/hard drive sound restored
13 sec-hard drive spins down
15 sec-happy mac, "Welcome to Macintosh"
About a minute later-main desktop appears, mac is usable, but hard drive is not present on desktop and is not recognised by "disk first aid" or any other programs on the utility disk
Double-flick:
0 sec-power switch flicked, fan and hard drive spin up
2 sec-startup chime
5 sec-hard drive spins down
6 sec-power switch off (sometimes I do this before hard drive spins down at 5 sec)
7 sec-power switch on again, follow unsuccessful startup from 0 sec
I know this is rather long, and I know I could replace the PRAM battery, but I just want to know why it won't boot when I do the double-flick thing and if there's anything I can do about this
.