My Mac forgets it's on a network.
My Mac and mouse are very sluggish.
My Mac comes up in black & white.
My Mac thinks its 1956 (or 1904).
Unless you just zapped the PRAM (parameter RAM), your Mac
probably has a dead battery. The Mac stores some important
information in PRAM. These settings tell the computer which drive
to boot from, what time zone you're in, if you're connected to a
network, if AppleTalk is active, mouse speed, memory settings, etc.
The battery also keeps the clock running when the computer is
turned off.
Most older desktop Macs use a small battery about 1/3 the length
of a AA. The one I have in front of me is marked LS 14250 and made
by SAFT. Other brands are Maxell Super ER3S, Tadiran TL 5101, and
Radio Shack 23-026 My computer store stocks these for $15, though
I've heard Radio Shack sells them for about $10. (The Mac 128k-Plus
use a 4.5V alkaline battery, PowerBooks a lithium battery, and some
newer Macs use the Rayovac 840 4.5V alkaline battery, which is
square.)
For more information on batteries, visit <http://www.academ.com/info/macintosh/>.
Once you've replaced the battery, you will need to reset several
parameters. If you're on a network, you'll want to open the Chooser
and enable AppleTalk. Note that not all Macs support all these
control panels. These are the control panels you'll need to
use:
- Startup Disk. Unless you always boot from the
internal hard drive (SCSI ID 0), you want to change this. Unless
you boot from a second hard drive, I suggest you deselect the main
hard drive by clicking in the space around the drive icon. This
tells your Mac to check the SCSI chain from the highest ID to the
lowest in search of a boot drive. This makes it easier to boot from
a CD or removable media drive. (Note: some Macs have two separate
SCSI busses. This trick only works for the internal SCSI bus.)
- Date & Time. First, choose your time zone, then set
the date and time.
- Memory
- Cache will be at minimum setting; unless you have
minimal RAM, it should be 32 KB per 1 MB of RAM. If you use
Speed Doubler, it should be 64 KB per 1 MB of RAM. Mac OS 8.5
and later will usually set this automatically.
- Virtual memory may be toggled on or off, depending on
your computer. Remember, virtual memory (VM) set to 1 MB above
physical memory may speed up a Power Mac. Virtual memory on other
Macs will slow them down. If you use RAM Doubler, you should
make sure VM is off.
- 32-bit addressing may be switched off on older Macs. If
you have more than 8 MB of physical RAM, you must
enable 32-bit addressing or you will be unable to use all your
RAM.
- RAM Disk. I haven't used this enough to know if the RAM
Disk setting gets wiped, but I presume it does.
- Network or AppleTalk. If you're on a network that
isn't LocalTalk, you will need to reset your network connection on
any Mac with a LocalTalk port.
- Mouse and Keyboard. You'll need to reset the
mouse tracking and double-click speeds, as well as setting the
keyboard delay and repeat.
- Energy Saver or Auto On/Off. Energy saving
settings, power-up time, etc. are stored in PRAM and need to be
reset.
- Monitors and Sound or Monitors &
Sound. You need to reset speaker volume and monitor bit-depth
- and possibly resolution.
