So.. I sell an eMac to a local guy for $60 that I had been using for ~3 weeks with MorphOS with no problems. It is sold as a MorphOS box with no OSX (in caps). 3 days after the sale the guy says he tried to put OSX on it and it locked up on him, so he says tried to clone the drive which locked up on him and when he powered down, it would not come back up. Like the chump I am, I take it back and refund the guy.

Soo... It is back and it is dead as a doornail. Power switch shows no life at all. A little googling gives me the possibility or resetting the PMU (no go) and/or replace the battery. While still in the holder I am getting 1.4V on the battery, immediately after removing I am getting 3.1V. I am guessing the battery is toast, but will a bum battery REALLY keep this computer from booting, like a POS TeronOne?

Any thoughts? I'll buy a battery before tearing this thing down, just curious what the experiences here are so far, if any.

Two valid options I see.
1 Calder Race Course ...first timers on the turf
2. Light tackle fishing for Mai MAi (dolphin) (bring sun glasses to both)
however there is a flea mrkt coming up at MIT

I forgot "an eastern caribean cruise"

[ Edited by osco on 2010/7/6 22:15 ]

osco: Wow man - I usually just kick back and let you post your weirdness and sometimes actually shake my head and grin...but this posting really takes the cake as far as one of the most completely unhelpful posts I have ever read. :) <sigh>

Red: dead PRAM battery can actually cause many macs to just, not turn on, this was common with the old iMacs..especially making the keyboard power buttons completely useless. I think this could be a just a $5 (ebay) or a $12 fix via your local RadioShack, if they still stock them. Regardless, if its not the cause of the problem, it needs to be replaced anyhow, right?!

You probably are all over this but here is a support link with battery replacement guide for the eMac.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3005?viewlocale=en_US

It's much more likely to be the power supply or power switch. Or even a dodgy power cable.

Are you sure that when you connect the power there is absolutely no life and when you hit the power button there is no life either ? No internal fans turning, no LEDs... ?

@koan

That is correct, no led, no fan, nada. I guess I'll get a battery regardless, but it looks like a total tear down on the bench?

Well it is torn apart and the capacitors are fugly.

j6o20x.jpg

I guess this one will be a project.

Meh.. not good those cans look rough. Are you going to re-cap the board or are you just going to see about replacing the power stage all together?

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That's a really, really bad suggestion

Oh no wasn't a suggestion at all. just curious.. I figured Redrumoa has some electronics aptitude and was wondering what he has going to go about fixing it.

I personally would ace the beast and contact the Morphos team for help with a new key. :)

Regardless - good luck on the repair.

:-D redrumloa and I go way back to amiga marketplace he knows a ton on hardware and i couldnt come close to his knowledge thats why yhe offf the topic reply

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Changing capacitors is that risky?

It's not that easy. If you don't understand what caused the problem then it will simply blow up again, maybe next time there will be more damage, fire, etc.

If you don't know electrical engineering then you have no business playing with a power supply. It doesn't take many milliamperes to kill.

Did you see the photo ? All the capacitors were blown. That's serious.

Sure, good advice. But it's not the first time that replacing a single blown component breathes life into a dead circuit. Of course, modern power regulators are complex, and a row of dead components surely hides a major problem.

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This is a known problem with eMacs, the capacitors are shit.

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All of them ? At the same time ?

This is not a suitable situation for amateur repairs.

Well... someone with a little experience should be able to do the job, I see there is even a kit available with the right capacitors, there's also an image with the capacitor locations.

Of course if you've never done such a repair before you'd better find someone else to do it for you.

I can see you didn't read my previous post(s).

It's not a simple job of replacing capacitors. Mixing amateur electronics and power supplies is like mixing beer and wine. But more dangerous.

Your link is for a logic board. redrumloa's picture was very clearly a power supply. Totally different thing.

Yep, I didn't read a thing you wrote and yes, the lower right part looks totally different from reds image.

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Thanks for the concern, but if I didn't know what I was doing I wouldn't have cracked open the case. Additionally, the picture *IS* from the logic board.

2w6zype.jpg

eMac are indeed notorious from having bad caps. I will probably re-cap this logic board and make it into a headless system with an ATX power supply (if it comes back to life that is).

[ Edited by redrumloa on 2010/7/12 17:22 ]

Headless eMac - ok that sounds pretty cool. :)