I recently had a look at the Win95 section and noticed that of the four articles there, three of them in some way referred to fixing problems, Since this is the 14th article I have done for the Mac, I thought I should do at least one article on the same topic.
So this article has some common problems and the appropriate fixes for them.
Hardware problems If your Mac refuses to start up and makes an unusual sound/chime then you have a hardware fault. (This unusual sound varies from computer to computer, and can be anything from a strange chime, to a realistically sampled car crash. Even when not working the Mac computer is still interesting.) The different sound means that the Mac has failed its internal hardware poll. Common causes of this problem are SCSI difficulties (the SCSI port at the back of your computer is used to plug in extra drives, scanners even printers, the internal CD drive and usually the hard disk of the Mac are also connected to the SCSI bus) or sometimes keyboard/mouse problems.
If you get this problem make sure that your extra drives are all plugged into each other and the computer properly, that each drive on the SCSI chain has its own unique number (remember that the internal drive of the Mac is usually 0, the internal CDROM is 3, and that the computer itself uses number 8). Also make sure that the last drive in the chain is terminated, and that no other drive in the chain is terminated (check with the manuals that came with your drives). Finally make sure all your devices are on when you have your Mac switched on. The computer expects any device connected to the SCSI to be on and accessible at all times, in fact if the drive is something like a CDROM or a zip drive (or some other type of removable media) the Mac will constantly poll it to make sure that no new disk has been placed in the drive. If the drive is off the Mac can't work.
Make sure that your mouse is firmly connected to your keyboard and and your keyboard is firmly connected to the proper port in your Mac (also make sure any other devices are also connected properly). If you still get this problem, and feel confident enough, open up your Mac and check that the CDROM drive and hard disk drive, as well as the floppy drive, are all firmly connected and nothing has worked its way free. (NOTE: Check with your computers warranty before opening your computer, some warranties are voided if the computer is opened).
