I recently got my hands on a Macintosh Color Classic that is known to not work in the hope of fixing it. I have the power plugged in, keyboard, and mouse. When I flip the switch on the back, I hear the fan come on, and then three monotone chimes about a second apart. I have searched for manuals or docs to tell me what these chimes mean, because they aren't the normal Sad or Happy Mac chimes. After those chimes, the fan remains on but the screen stays dark. Any ideas?
Macintosh Color Classic won’t turn on and has weird boot chimes
bootclassic-mac-oshardwaremac
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Best Answer
Quite possibly the "chimes of death."
If you feel comfortable doing so, pull the motherborard, and try it with different RAM configurations. Look for capacitors with swollen tops (little cylinders) and possibly even replace the PRAM battery.
The board itself could be toast but that should get you started on what to try.