Macintosh IIfx's battery?

ginopiazza49 · January 23, 2003 10:28AM

This question is for you long time Mac users out there. My brother has a Macintosh IIfx that he says died last week. I, On the other hand, think it is the battery. Therefore, my question is, where is the battery on the Macintosh IIfx and how can he replace it?

splinemodel · January 23, 2003 11:37AM

[quote]Originally posted by ginopiazza49:

<strong>This question is for you long time Mac users out there. My brother has a Macintosh IIfx that he says died last week. I, On the other hand, think it is the battery. Therefore, my question is, where is the battery on the Macintosh IIfx and how can he replace it?</strong><hr></blockquote>

If the battery died, the machine will still boot, I think. It's just that the time always resets and the PRAM cannot be maintained.

So make sure it works first.

luca · January 23, 2003 11:57AM

Splinemodel is right. Having a dead battery won't cause a computer to completely die.

If you want lots of good support for ancient Macs, I'd suggest visiting <a href="http://www.lowendmac.com"; target="_blank">www.lowendmac.com</a> . You can find lots of good information there.

My diagnosis? I really don't know because there's not really enough information, but you have to realize these things are getting really old, and it's likely that the power supply died or something like that. If it's completely dead, that might be the case. If it turns on but nothing happens after that (i.e. no chime, no video), it might be the processor or motherboard. If there's no video but it seems fine (chimes at startup), then either your monitor or your video card is dead or not connected properly. If it just has the icon of a disk with a flashing ? on it, then you just need to install an operating system. 7.5 can run fine on a IIfx... but I've always wanted to see how fast System 6 is on one of those old dinosaurs.

ringo · January 23, 2003 1:14PM

IIfx, man... that was a hell of a machine. Anyway, I'd pop open the case and make sure all of the cards are seated properly. Also, try clearing out some of the dust and crud inside. If that doesn;t work, try a different power cable.

splinemodel · January 23, 2003 2:41PM

One more thing.

The first things that usually die are Hard Disks. Otherwise, DRAM has been known to burn out, though the solid state capacitors are pretty rugged, and I think they should hold up indefinitely.

IIfx RAM is hard to find, but you could see if it boots up by removing various pieces. If it works when one piece of RAM is out, then that's obviously the problem.

Solid state electronics don't usually die like that, especially after they were in working order for 10+ years. Look for components with moving parts (hard disks) or power supplies (plastic dielectric capacitors and metal-film resistors often deteriorate).

serrano · January 23, 2003 2:52PM

Mine wouldn't boot after the battery died. It's on the mobo, it's a simple replace.

luca · January 23, 2003 3:06PM

The only thing is that a bad hard disk won't cause a machine to die completely. Even bad RAM will still allow the machine to get far enough to give you a "sad Mac" startup screen. If the hard disk is bad, then it probably won't have any system software that it can use, and therefore it'll give you the picture of the disk with a flashing question mark on it.

IIfx RAM can be a pain to find... 1 MB SIMMs are much more readily available than larger SIMMs, but it only has 8 RAM slots so that limits you to just 8 MB. Of course, if you can manage to find 8 16MB SIMMs for it, you can bring it all the way up to 128 MB.

Also, the IIfx power supply is not interchangeable with the II or the IIx, because it uses a variable speed fan.

Also, the IIfx requires a special black SCSI terminator. Finding one of those could be a bitch.

To top it all off, there's a ROM slot that accomodates the IIfx ROM SIMM. If you don't have the ROM in place, it won't work. That could also be a bitch to find if it's missing.

I would suggest checking all these potential problems.

EDIT: Serrano, thanks for the empirical evidence. I found a IIfx service manual so I read that and yes, it says to check the battery as one of the first steps if it won't boot. It's still possible that something else caused it, but that's probably 99% sure. A failed logic board or power supply doesn't just happen overnight... well, it could, but it's not common.

[ 01-23-2003: Message edited by: Luca Rescigno ]</p>

spiffster · January 25, 2003 10:46AM

Actually, the same thing happend to my Performa 6300. After the PRAM battery dies, you won't get any startup, no chime, nothing. Radioshack wanted to charge me $24 for it. All I did was hook 4 AAs together in series and used the same connector wire.

stagflation steve · January 25, 2003 4:42PM

the battary used in the IIfx is still available from Apple as a service part.

Just ask your mac dealer for a "backup battary that looks like a squished double-a"

They will know what your talking about.

Macintosh IIfx's battery?

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