iMac freezing during startup

[raffie0]

hello all, I just purchased a classic iMac (233Mhz) wich didn't react at all, untill I removed the battery, it does boot now only sometime during the boot it just freezes. Any ideas as to why it does this?

I have tried a lot of things among where: reseating RAM & RAM/processor module, resetting CUDA after every change made, testing battery (3.6V = OK), booting in safe mode (freeze up just the same), ...

Any ideas are appreciated, also as to why it would only boot when the batt is removed ?

 

[jmgalvin]

Hope you got the software install disk with it. Try booting from that - hold down c key while booting. If you get tehe boot from cd, run Disk Firstaid from the cd to see how the hard drive is. If ok, install a new system from the cd.

 

[raffie0]

Thanks for the quick response, jmgalvin
I have tried booting from the install disk, unfortunately it freezes up just as it does from the HD.

It has in fact a few times booted up completely (from HD), but at the first user interaction, like opening a window, it just freezed up again...

I've been thinking maybe it hasn't enough RAM, only 32MB, to run OS9. Would the system freeze during startup if it has inadequate RAM? There's still the weird issue with the batt then.

 

[jmgalvin]

You might try one thing. Plug the machine in and let it sit overnight or so - that's for the pram battery, or try replacing that battery.

Then you're gonna want to do a couple of more steps by trying to boot from the hard drive. Reset the PRAM by holding down the Command, Option, P and R keys till you hear the second chime. Also try starting up holding down the command and option keys to rebuild the desktop.

You seem to alraedy have tried starting up with extensions disabled (safe mode) by holding down the shift key during startup.

Now none of this should not matter much if you cannot boot from cd -as that bypasses most of the internal system - unless there were something physically wrong with the cd drive.

The thing should boot 9 ok with 32 megs. It won't be very fast or stable (if you get the thing working) with that. We actually have a number of these and the next 266s. We added 256 to each - the max at the time. If you got the restore or intall disk that came with the machine, it should be something like 8.5.

 

[raffie0]

Again thanks for the suggestions, I'll try plugging it in overnight and then try resetting the PRAM, I did try this before, the system just locked up again. Right now, when the batt is inserted, the machine doesn't even react to anything, no activity whatsoever. I'll insert the batt again and see what it does after being plugged in overnight.
Yes you are correct, the install disk is 8.5. If I can get the mac to work properly I certainly plan to buy some extra RAM, wasn't sure that it would accept 256MB, thought maybe max 128MB, but I guess 256 wouldn't be a problem then.

appreciate the input!
raffie

 

[jmgalvin]

If it doesn't work with the battery, throw the battery away and get a new one. If you have to order it go to

http://www.owcomputing.com.

All rechargeable batteries have a way of going bad if the computer is not left plugged in for a long time. The battery is necessary to preserve the pram setting while the machine is off.

Your machine accepts up to 255 mb sodimms. I've put a bunch in to the same machine. It's a shem you can't get the thing to boot since you could order the battery and the ram since OWC has good prices on ram. But I wouldn't spend that unless I knew the machine was ok.

 

[whit3rd]

More RAM is a good idea (should still start off the 8.x CD
with the original 32MB, but I thought 64M was the minimum for OS9).

It can take two 256MB SODIMM modules if you get low profile types.
PC100 is preferred (PC133 will work but some allowed PC133 organizations are incompatible, you can pay for a 256M module and only see 128M).

If the freeze persists, it could be a corrupted hard disk drive. Even if
it's booting from the CD, it tries to read the directory and mount the
hard disk drive's filesystem. I've had systems where I had to remove the
drive to reformat it or recover data, that worked fine when the same
disk was reinstalled.

 

[bithead9]

If you have another memory chip, I'd test that. If you cannot boot on DC or HDD then memory or mainboard failure is likely. If you have a PC you can put the memory into to test, you can run memtest86 (download from google search). It will tell you if the memory is bad.