Went last night. The machine in question was a Centris 660AV running OS 7.1. The woman who uses it is 92 years old and has very bad vision. Her husband (90) has a working Performa that he uses on a regular basis as well as a G4 that he uses solely for internet access. They have 10 other Mac's not in use around the house. I saw a Quadra 700, a IIFx and an LCIII on the shelf next to their Centris. When I asked about them the lady told me they were all working but she liked her Centris because it was her first Mac. All the others were her husbands. The only reason the other computers are not hooked up is that they don't have enough monitors. Speaking of which, the Monitor hooked up to the Centris was an original Apple 12" colour monitor that still looked good. The computer booted up to a grey screen only. I was able to boot from the Norton 3.5 CD but couldn't see the HD. I doubled checked by booting with an OS 7.5 install CD I had and found the same thing. No HD. I opened up the pizza box, unplugged the HD then plugged it back in. Computer rebooted like new. Ran Norton and no problems were found. I asked if they had any way to back up important files. The gentleman opened up a drawer and produced a Dynatek Syquest drive and an 88mb RMD cartridge. That whole house was nostalgia central. They were both very happy when I left that they once again had a working Centris and that their important files were safe. Funny side story... When I arrived at their house, they had a detailed report written out of what they were doing when the computer failed. The woman kept mentioning that she asked Connie to try things but that Connie couldn't get the computer to work either. I didn't ask but I presumed that Connie was their daughter or a friend. I asked if Connie had tried booting with extensions off or if she had tried booting from an CD or a few other things. I was told that no, Connie hadn't tried any of those things. Once I got the computer started up I was greeted with a voice saying "Starting" and then a few seconds later "Ready". Upon hearing this the woman said "Hello Connie". Turns out Connie is her voice recognition software. Mark Des Cotes Systems Manager/Graphic Designer Astro Printing Service (Cornwall) Ltd. 3308 Second Street East Cornwall Ontario Canada K6H 6J8 T (613) 932-9281 Ext 106, F (613) 932-1052 www.astroprinting.com On 13-Sep-06, at 10:34 PM, Spoolman Nancy wrote: >>>> Here's a question for the old timers on the list. I've been >>>> asked to >>>> go have a look at someone's old Mac that will not boot up. I've >>>> been >>>> told that it's a, get this, a Centris (not sure which model) and >>>> that >>>> it's running OS 7.??. >> >> Why in the world is anyone running a Centris now days? Here in >> Silicon Valley you can regularly get used CRT iMacs starting at >> $30. And Beige/B&W G3's and early G4's are similarly priced. >> Haven't they heard of eBay? > > > > Sheesh... I'm still running my Classic II. :) It turns on my > lights every night. And I run my MacTV now and then, 8500, etc. > It's probably a collector's item. It's fun to boot them all up and > play an old game on the Apple IIe, too! > > Nanc > _______________________________________________ > X4U mailing list > X4U at listserver.themacintoshguy.com > http://listserver.themacintoshguy.com/mailman/listinfo/x4u > > Listmom is trying to clean out his closets! Vintage Mac and random > stuff: > http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZmacguy1984