Makoto Fujiwara writes:

> Louis>   start=0x100000
> Louis> _
> Louis> base !130 + ' -ee blpatch45e get-token drop execute ;
>
> Assumption: low battery. power line is disconnected for more
> than  minutes.
>

Definitely. The machine was off for several days. Waiting for a 
replacement power supply board. I had also frantically tried to reset 
the power manager after the machine died. And needless to say, once the 
machine came alive again the default settings were probably loaded into 
the PRAM. I did try to boot before updating the firmware with System 
Disk.

> My StarMax 3000/240 3000/200, 3000/180 had problems either
> (1) can not powerup (at all), no chime at all.
> (2) Power is up but no OpenFirmware comes out.
> (3) PRAM reset won't work
> (4) MacOS unable to find boot-disk and screen stays black.
>
> Almost all the time, disconnect powerline, remove battery,
> wait for days, will get everything back to work.
> (I was not rellay waiting but just let them sit there :-)
>
> Those machines will work fine even when battery is disconnected
> in normal situation.
>
> My suspect for my machines and Louis 2400 are:
>  There is some condition to write malicious data on nvram.
>  It may be recovered discharging electricity from the circuit.
>
> For the Louis case, can you set use-nvramrc false ?
>

Yes! That worked. But it isn't reliable. If I reboot, it doesn't 
necessary repeat the situation. Here's one weird scenario:

setenv use-nvramrc? false
reboot .... doesn't work ... reboot
setenv use-nvramrc? true ... It works!

cold boot...
doesn't work...
setenv use-nvramrc?false ... NO REBOOT  ....success!


If anyone can make sense of all this it might de-mystify some of the 
nvram issues we're seeing.


Thanks to all. If anyone wants more details or wants me to try anything, 
email me: lguillaume@berklee.edu

Louis