Power Macintosh 9600 General Maintenance

Power Macintosh 9600 logic board 820-0865-A (service part 661-1221). Photo: Gona.eu, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

These procedures cover the Power Macintosh 9600 and Power Macintosh 8600, which share a case, a power supply and Apple's Power Macintosh 8600/9600 & WS 9650 Service Source. The tower has a removable side panel and a hinged top chassis carrying the drives and power supply, which swings out to expose the logic board. Where the models differ, the step names the model.

The supply carries mains voltage whenever the computer is plugged in. Unplug it before opening the case.

Opening the case

1. Lay the computer on its side, press the release button and lift the side access panel a few inches, then slide it to the right and lift it off (SS p. 100).
2. For the memory, processor card, logic board and power supply, unlock the top chassis by moving the two green locking levers upward and outward, then swing it to the right by its green handle until it rests on the work surface (pp. 156, 166, 181).

The PCI slots, the space for added drives at the bottom of the case and the DAV connector are reached with only the side panel off (dev note p. 13).

Fan, baffle and air deflector

The fan is mounted on the inside of the side access panel. Remove its four mounting screws, release the two wires from the plastic cable holder with a jeweller's screwdriver and lift it off; route the cable round the guides and match the red wire in the speaker housing to the red wire in the panel when refitting (SS pp. 111–116).

Some early 8600 and 9600 machines shipped without the plastic baffle (922-3058) on the side panel, and some early 8600s without the air deflector (922-3070) under the logic board. Apple's instructions are to fit both before replacing the fan. Without a baffle the fan is fitted with its label facing out; with the baffle it faces in, towards the panel (pp. 111–118). The air deflector is used in the 8600 only and is stuck flush against the inside of the chassis beneath the logic board, over three metal tabs (pp. 109–110).

Memory

Both models take 5 V, 168-pin, 70 ns DIMMs, EDO or fast-page; the memory controller runs EDO DIMMs in fast-page mode. The 8600 has eight slots (512 MB) and the 9600 twelve (768 MB). Interleaving needs matching pairs of the same type and size in paired slots, and DIMMs from different makers may not interleave (SS pp. 16–21, 50). There is no main memory on the logic board, so at least one DIMM must be fitted (p. 18).

To change a DIMM, swing out the top chassis, open the slot's ejector by pushing it outward and down, and pull the DIMM straight up, holding it by the edges. DIMMs are keyed; line up the notches with the ribs in the slot and press down evenly until it snaps in (pp. 166–168). The 8600/200 also has VRAM DIMM slots (2 MB fitted, 4 MB maximum) and a cache DIMM slot; the 8600/250 and 8600/300 board has no cache slot (pp. 40–41, 51, 170–179).

Processor card

Swing out the top chassis, grip the card by its corners with both hands and pull it straight up; the heat sink may be hot. To refit it, position it in the plastic guides and press down without forcing it, then check that none of the gold fingers on the connector are visible (SS pp. 181–182). Inline-cache cards from the 300 and 350 MHz models do not work in earlier boards.

PCI cards

With the side panel off and the computer on its side, remove the screw that holds the card to the rear panel and pull the card straight out with both hands. To refit it, line it up and press it in firmly; if it resists, take it out and try again, then refit the screw (SS pp. 101–103). Residue on a card's gold edge connector can cause faults; inspect it with a magnifier and clean it with a pencil eraser (p. 65). The 9600 needs its video card for a picture (p. 54).

Clock battery and resets

Apple's specification pages give the battery as 3.6 V lithium. The logic board diagrams show it beside the Cuda reset button on the 8600 board and near the external SCSI connector on the 9600 board (SS pp. 40–42). The Service Source gives no voltage below which to replace it. Neutralise residue from a leaking lithium cell with bicarbonate of soda solution and rinse with isopropyl alcohol; see Battery Explosion, Capacitor or Corrosion Damage and Battery Refurbishment.

Press the Cuda reset button on the logic board to reset the chip that controls power, resets, PRAM, ADB and the clock (SS p. 25). Apple's logic board reset, the first step for a computer that will not power up (pp. 26–27):

1. Unplug the computer and remove the battery from the logic board.
2. Disconnect the power supply cable from the logic board and press the Power On button.
3. Wait at least 10 minutes, refit the battery the right way round, reassemble and test. Set the date and time again afterwards.

Power supply

Remove the side access panel and the rear hard drive first (SS pp. 155–158).

1. Lay the computer on its side, unlock the top chassis with the two green levers and swing it to the right.
2. Disconnect the 24-pin and 10-pin power cables from the logic board and release the 10-pin cable from its guide.
3. Remove the four mounting screws, thread the cables through the opening in the top chassis and lift the supply out.

The supply is automatically configured for 100–240 V, rated at 390 W DC (p. 60), and its service part is 661-1242 (p. 234). The rear hard drive comes out by removing its two screws and disconnecting its power and SCSI cables, then sliding the carrier out (pp. 151–154).

Logic board

Remove the side access panel, the PCI cards and the speaker housing first (SS p. 184).

1. Swing out the top chassis and disconnect all cables from the logic board.
2. Remove the logic board mounting screw and slide the light/power actuator forward as far as it will go.
3. Release the two plastic latches at the front of the board, slide it forward until the ports clear the I/O panel and lift it out.

Make sure the latches re-engage when refitting. Remove the processor card and the DRAM DIMMs (and on the 8600/200 the VRAM and cache DIMMs) before sending a board away, but leave the ROM SIMM (pp. 185–188). On the 8600/200 the AV module connects to the board and the I/O panel (pp. 190–193).

Drives

In the 8600 and 9600 the rear hard drive is the last device on the internal Fast SCSI-2 cable and is the only terminated device on that bus (SS p. 28). See Hard Drive Maintenance and Repair and Floppy Drive Repair.

Related pages

• Power Macintosh 9600
• Power Macintosh 8600
• Power Macintosh 9600 Troubleshooting
• Power Macintosh 9600 Capacitor Replacement Guide
• Recommended Tools