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Macintosh Quadra 700 Battery Leakage
Posted by: Bolle on 2019-04-25 13:34:43
U92 is the RTC/PRAM.

Without it you will get exactly what you are seeing now... booting from floppy works but SCSI doesn’t + periodic blinking on connected devices.

Had that before on a SE/30 with broken PRAM chip.

One of the VIAs is communicating with the PRAM on bootup. If that communication fails the machine won’t boot correctly.

Posted by: olePigeon on 2019-04-25 13:36:45
Sweet, thanks Bolle.  Looks like you have your answer. 🙂

Posted by: AlexTheCat123 on 2019-04-25 13:45:03
Darn. I guess I won't be able to get the Quadra working after all because replacement RTC/PRAM chips seem to be pretty much impossible to find.. Thanks for all of the help!

Posted by: Bolle on 2019-04-25 13:45:42
Someone really should look into how the communication between VIA and the PRAM part of the RTC/PRAM chip works.

It looks a lot like I2C or something similar...

Do we have the schematics for the Q700? You could wire in any RTC/PRAM from the SE through SE/30 and all other Mac II machines - they all work the same way.

You also need a crystal at Y6 or Y7 if you want the time to actually advance.

Posted by: AlexTheCat123 on 2019-04-25 13:48:16
Really? If that is that case, then it would be really cool if someone could program a microcontroller to emulate the PRAM chip.

Posted by: olePigeon on 2019-04-25 13:48:34
@AlexTheCat123  Is there enough metal left on the chip that you can solder wires and just run some jumpers?

Posted by: AlexTheCat123 on 2019-04-25 13:50:30
Unfortunately, there is not. Five or six of the pins are broken off entirely and several of the pads on the motherboard have been completely eaten away by the corrosion.

Posted by: Trash80toHP_Mini on 2019-04-25 13:52:33
Someone really should look into how the communication between VIA and the PRAM part of the RTC/PRAM chip works.

It looks a lot like I2C or something similar..
From what I recall back in the day it is indeed I2C.

Posted by: firebottle on 2019-05-13 07:16:11
I recently bought a Macintosh Quadra 700 off of eBay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-Quadra-700-M5920-Desktop-Computer-w-Harddrive-Mac-iMac/273781054522?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2649) ...
Strangely, this doesn't show up when you search for sold/completed auctions. Pretty sure eBay goes back at least 90 days... I searched for it today ...May 13, yours ended April 3. I've always wondered if eBay edits out auctions that don't go for big $$$ in sold/completed search results...

Posted by: AlexTheCat123 on 2019-05-13 09:41:54
That is very strange. The link still works fine for me.

Posted by: dramirez on 2024-02-21 20:04:08
Someone really should look into how the communication between VIA and the PRAM part of the RTC/PRAM chip works.

It looks a lot like I2C or something similar...

Do we have the schematics for the Q700? You could wire in any RTC/PRAM from the SE through SE/30 and all other Mac II machines - they all work the same way.

You also need a crystal at Y6 or Y7 if you want the time to actually advance.
Hi @Bolle, by any chance do you have the Quadra 700 schematics?

Does a bad RTC will make the clock not to advance and MacTest to fail with: "One second Intrrupt Test failed"?

Thank you!
Posted by: theletter0xff on 2025-11-25 07:40:21
oh a second resurrection ..
I also have a battery bombed Q700, the crystal oscillator at Y6 lost a leg to rust; I do not know if I will be successful grinding away the housing to solder on a jumper. It took a while to find its specs so:

Y6 & Y5 Crystal Oscillator, clock xtal, 32.768Khz, smd part labeled 197S0001, 4x10x3.2 mm. I cant identify the manufacturer from the logo, but it's a similar package to the Meritek MXT7.

Apple Quadra 700 Schematic; page 26, "Sound Input Circuitry & Real Time Clock";
and https://www.macdat.net/repair/apple_schematics.html

@AlexTheCat123 did you get your Quadra 700 working again?
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