Re: Help with bad ][gs's

[supertimer@aol.com (Supertimer)]

"�TechnoDragon�" <tdragonn@blarg.net> wrote:

>> >         When I try to boot these up, they just send out about two
>> > or three "bong" like sounds. (none work) Are these totally toast,
>> > or is this a common and fixable problem? They all have ram cards
>> > with 256k to 1mb on each, and no other cards.
>> 
>>      The IIgs's may all be toast; but, this seems unlikely. Getting
>> a "bong" is a sign that quite a bit of stuff is working.
>
>	Well, I forgot to mention, I get no picture on the monitor (composite
>display, no rgb display availiable) and I have a 3.5" floppy hooked up
>with a boot disk in it. I have tested the batteries on the MBs and they
>appear to still be good. All three have the same problem, but one gives
>a lower pitched bong with a slightly longer duration between the bongs.
>If they're dead, anyone want the power supplies or something from them?

Um, they are not dead.  The pitch of the bong is controlled by the control
panel setting.  So is text, background, and border colors.

It looks like someone has fooled around and made a big practical joke
on these poor IIGSes.  If someone turned the background, border,
and text colors to all black, then switched the startup slot to Ramdisk,
you would see exactly the symptoms you described.

You need to reset the control panel.  Not sure how to do this without
seeing the text!  You might try disconnecting the battery to start.
That'll wipe the BRAM (IIGS version of CMOS RAM) and reset
everything to default.

If you got the IIGSes from schools, they probably thought the IIGSes
were broken but they were actually pranked on by students.  There
was also one IIGS virus that did this automatically (the infamous
BlackOut virus).