Need help bringing a Quadra 610 back to life

Oh, no! The Quadra 610 is one of my very favorite Macs. Sorry to hear about your trouble!

The sound you are hearing is the death chime - which signals something is wrong with the Mac. First thing to do would be to pull the RAM and reseat it. Check your clock battery voltage, look for corrosion, etc. Now, with everything back in place, try to turn on.

BTW - Be sure to take usual anti-static precautions.

Kyle-

Kyle,

Thank you very, very much for your very prompt reply. I really appreciate your comments.

I used this computer to get through college and I really hate to give it away. I really miss the great games I had (have) on it, the C/C++ lanuages and so on. I was really afraid that those odd sounds were trying to tell me that the shadow of death had passed over this beauty.

I'll do as you suggested and get back to you. And, yes, I am very much aware of the damage that static electricity can do to IC's. Thanks for the warning anyway. Good advice.

This entire computer has been packed away for over 4 years. It was very well packed, but I will look for any sort of residual damage that I can find when I pull the cover off.

Thanks again for you help.

Kyle,

I pulled the RAM and re-seated it - twice! Nothing.

Battery voltage approx. 0.009 VDC. Can you recommend a place I could find a replacement battery?

I did not see any rust but that does not mean that there isn't any because it doesn't take much to cause a problem on a PCB. The PCB connectors were all nice and shiny, no oxidation to be seen anywhere.

Whatever happened to this computer, happened rather suddenly because it was running fine after I connected all the cables and booted it up earlier. Actially my problems began in earnest when I launched Ambrosia's 'Centipede'. It froze on opening, and so it went.

Of course, the fact that it had not been used for over 4 years was probably a major contributor to my problems.

I appreciate your help.

Try an electronics store like Tandy or whatever, or a place that specialises in selling batteries like Battery World (if you have 'em there). You're after a 3.6V half-AA lithium battery.

Try an electronics store like Tandy or whatever, or a place that specialises in selling batteries like Battery World (if you have 'em there). You're after a 3.6V half-AA lithium battery.

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Thanks for that bit of info. I'll have to look again, but I thought I saw some printing on the battery that said '0.5V' or something similar. Maybe that's what the 'Half-AA' means that you referred to. I thought that that was pretty weird, but this is all new to me.

I just hope I can get this beast running again. Thanks agian. I appreciate the help.

Phillip

"Half-AA" is a standard battery size, and refers to the shape of the battery. It is the same diameter as a standard AA battery, but it is only half as tall.

"Half-AA" is a standard battery size, and refers to the shape of the battery. It is the same diameter as a standard AA battery, but it is only half as tall.

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Tyler,

Thanks for that bit of info. I just hope I can find one. I know tomorrow.

Take care.

Hmm. Next, I would try to unplug the HD and any external SCSI devices. Turn the machine on with the HDD disconnected. See if you get a blinking ? disk icon.

Try pulling the PRAM battery altogether.

Try turning on the machine, and, at the chime, press command-control-power to restart the Quadra. Maybe a "soft reset" will help jumpstart it.

If none of those work, try them in various combinations. They aren't necessarily in any particular order - just things that I might try if a machine were acting up.

Kyle-

Thanks, Kyle.

I'll do all of that tomorrow and get back to you. I appreciate all the help.

Have a good evening.

Also try starting up with the PRAM battery in place, leaving it powered up overnight, and then doing a very quick power-off power-on cycle. This can sometimes get it to restart.

Another possibility is bad RAM. Try pulling the RAM out altogether and restarting. There's 4MB of RAM on the motherboard, so even with no sticks installed you should get some action.

If that works, replace one stick at a time and restart, to narrow down which one has gone bad.

Finally, just remember that a Death Chime can often be resolved, so don't give up! If the motherboard is functional enough to give you that sound, it's not far off of booting Mac OS.

Try turning it on, then immediately recycling the power by turning it off and on again. This usually will kickstart a Quadra 610/660av with a dead clock battery.

Bad News to report.

I have given up on trying to resurrect my Quadra. I am also all out of candles and incense. I was willing to try anything to bring it back to life. In addition, all of my bad dreams end with, you guessed it, the 'Chime of Death'. Woe is me.

In all seriousness, I truly appreciate all of the support and suggestions that everyone made trying to bring this puppy back to life.

I do want to have another similar machine that I can load up all of my old games and C++ programs from my existing floppies.

So, I'm all ears for suggestions. Life is still good.

Regards,

Phillip

did u try a new battery? if ur truly done, ill take it!!!

Assuming that you've followed all of the suggestions offered by the others here, there are still things to try/verify:

1) Pull out all ram sticks, disconnect the hard drive, and also disconnect the floppy drive. Verify that it still gives you the chimes of doom. Keep all those things disconnected, and then:

2) Using a voltmeter, verify that the +5V lines feeding the chips are really at 5V, give or take 5%. You can make this measurement conveniently at a number of points, including across the notorious bypass capacitors that leak. If the supply voltage is out of spec, that's probably your culprit.

3) If the supply voltage looks good, the next thing to try is to remove the ROM chips, and then reseat. Of course, this assumes that the ROMs are socketed -- I don't know for certain that they are. If so, reseat them carefully. This simple act may break through some oxide crud that may have formed over time.

4) If still no joy, gently do the same operation with the processor. Be *very* careful; work gently and slowly. It's probably sufficient not to pop it all the way out. Just get it out enough to reseat it firmly. That should be enough to clean any oxide.

Give these a shot before tossing the board in the bin.

Hello Tom,

I'll do just as you suggest.

I really don't want to give up on this wonderful computer, so I will follow each of your instructions to the letter. I have quite a bit of PCB experience as I was occupied as a EE tech working my way through college. This will come in handy.

I will do this tomorrow and report back ASAP.

I appreciate your help.

Phillip

Here are the results from todays efforts to revive my Q610.

I checked the power supply voltage by taking readings on several capacitors and connectors from the PS. Most checks revealed voltages at or slightly over +5 VDC.

I am not aware of which capacitors you refer to as the notorious leakers. However, the cap at C47 shows some corrosion on one of its solder joints. C14, which is just behind the reset buttons at left-rear of the computer, showed a great deal of white residue on the PCB. I am not familiar with that type of cap. It is very small and squarish.

The ROM on my MB is soldered down, not socketed. I believe that 'AH8602 A3' is the Apple ROM chip. I did, however, lift up and reseat the 68040.

Bottom line: I am still getting the bloody chime. Also, I have lost all video to the monitor. In truth, I have not had the monitor connected in a few days. Today I plugged everything up and realized that it was not getting any signal whatsoever. I have read that a bad PRAM battery will cause this, but my battery reads 3.6 VDC, so I don't think that's the problem. And, to be clear, the battery is put in correctly.

Any other suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Remove the logic board and stick it in the dishwasher. Run the cycle, with no soap or other dishes, obviously. Let it dry thoroughly, then reassemble.

Seriously. Sounds to me like you have a leaking capacitor. The dishwasher trick is known to provide a temporary fix in some cases. The permanent fix is to replace the faulty capacitor, or to find another logic board.

Remove the logic board and stick it in the dishwasher. Run the cycle, with no soap or other dishes, obviously. Let it dry thoroughly, then reassemble.
Seriously. Sounds to me like you have a leaking capacitor. The dishwasher trick is known to provide a temporary fix in some cases. The permanent fix is to replace the faulty capacitor, or to find another logic board.

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Hey Beachy,

I used to be NASA Certified with regard to soldering, so I could probably replace these caps without lifting the pads, but I can't really say with any degree of certainy, if they are bad, or just look bad. Part B is finding decent replacements.

Denatured alcohol would clean them up, but perhaps your last suggestion is really the most logical. Pun intended.

This whole episode began as a good will gesture. I was just going to give it to these folks after I removed all of the games from the HD. The grandfather said he didn't want his granddaughter playing games all day. That didn't sit well with me, but I had already committed myself. Then I get the 'chime'. Guess that's what I get for playing 'Centipede', which I thought would be, for the last time. Man, was I right!

Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

If you really woudl like to keep the machine, I have a Centris 610 logic board you could have, for the shipping. I can test it before hand . THe centris is a Quadra 610 without a full '040 proc.

//wthww

The "notorious" caps are basically every electrolytic on the board, unfortunately. The white residue you mentioned is a telltale sign that leakage has afflicted your board. I bet that a careful visual inspection under good lighting will reveal smudges and gook in the vicinity of many electrolytics. This residue is conductive, so you can well imagine the havoc it can wreak.

All of these smudges must be cleaned off thoroughly, and the offending capacitors replaced, to do a correct, by-the-book fix. As beachycove noted, a dishwasher will do an excellent, quick job of cleaning. Often, this is sufficient to restore functionality. If so, it verifies that leakage was the problem. The permanent fix is to replace the caps.

It seems to me that replacing all the capacitors is going to be a long and difficult process. I don't know how much the replacements caps would be, but the labor alone doesn't seem worth it. You'd probably be better getting a replacement board or a complete machine. Even if you only valued your time at $25 an hour, and it only took an hour, you could buy an early G3 iMac or Powermac for that.

If you really woudl like to keep the machine, I have a Centris 610 logic board you could have, for the shipping. I can test it before hand . THe centris is a Quadra 610 without a full '040 proc.

//wthww

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I appreciate the very generous offer you have made. However, I would feel much better if I could pay you for the board and your time to check it out.

If you can agree to this, then I would also like to know if you have an additional floppie drive for this machine. I have replaced mine 2-3 times and for some reason, more often than not, after inserting a good working disk, it will respond as though the disk were blank.

I appreciate you offer. BTW, I live in Chicago, pretty much in the center of the US.

BTW moving the CPU over from the bad board to the Centris will make it a Quadra

BTW moving the CPU over from the bad board to the Centris will make it a Quadra

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So long as it works, I don't care what it's called. [] ]'>

Yes?

It seems to me that replacing all the capacitors is going to be a long and difficult process. I don't know how much the replacements caps would be, but the labor alone doesn't seem worth it. You'd probably be better getting a replacement board or a complete machine. Even if you only valued your time at $25 an hour, and it only took an hour, you could buy an early G3 iMac or Powermac for that.

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Well, "worth" often involves more than a purely monetary calculation. One could argue that most hobbies are not worth the time, especially if one factors in opportunity cost. But they're FUN. So, the value of a hobby is very much a personal affair.

For me, I rarely do a full capacitor replacement. If the dishwasher trick brings it back to life, I leave it as is because I'm lazy, and replacing all the caps is not as fun for me (I feel no guilt; I've done enough soldering for several lifetimes). However, others with more dedication to the craft feel differently and diligently replace all caps, properly taking pride in a job well done.

It seems to me that replacing all the capacitors is going to be a long and difficult process. I don't know how much the replacements caps would be, but the labor alone doesn't seem worth it. You'd probably be better getting a replacement board or a complete machine. Even if you only valued your time at $25 an hour, and it only took an hour, you could buy an early G3 iMac or Powermac for that.

Click to expand...

Well, "worth" often involves more than a purely monetary calculation. One could argue that most hobbies are not worth the time, especially if one factors in opportunity cost. But they're FUN. So, the value of a hobby is very much a personal affair.

For me, I rarely do a full capacitor replacement. If the dishwasher trick brings it back to life, I leave it as is because I'm lazy, and replacing all the caps is not as fun for me (I feel no guilt; I've done enough soldering for several lifetimes). However, others with more dedication to the craft feel differently and diligently replace all caps, properly taking pride in a job well done.

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You have to consider that the object of this exercise is to provide a computer to someone who doesn't have one, so I think it would be better if he is going to go to the time and expense of repairing an old computer, that the family that will be receiving it would get better use out of a newer machine.