SE/30 vertical stripes & death chimes

[Dog Cow]

I have a Mac SE/30 which when I received it showed this on screen (full size image):



(link above for full-size picture).

There was no sound. I replaced all capacitors on the motherboard, and now I get a slow death chimes immediately on power-up, with no other obvious change.

I washed the board with some small amount of vinegar, and still no change.

Here is my board (full size image):



(link above for full-size picture)

Any ideas on what could be the cause?

 

[LaPorta]

Do you happen to have pics of the entire board?

 

[Bolle]

Slow chimes and that screen usually means RAM issues.

Try again with a minimum amount of RAM. Use known working SIMMs if you can. If the problem persists check the address muxes. They do fail sometimes. Also traces around the buffer in the corner of the board next to the RAM sockets can go bad due to the cap that’s sitting there.

 

[Dog Cow]

Do you happen to have pics of the entire board?

I will have one tomorrow for you.

Slow chimes and that screen usually means RAM issues.

Try again with a minimum amount of RAM. Use known working SIMMs if you can.

Thanks. I have another SE/30 which is working, so I will try swapping RAM from its board.

Since posting this topic I used my soldering iron to touch up my replacement capacitors, since some of them looked like not-so-good solder jobs, but no change in behavior.

 

[Dog Cow]

Slow chimes and that screen usually means RAM issues.

Try again with a minimum amount of RAM. Use known working SIMMs if you can.

You were correct! I'd shake your hand if I could, because that was the fix. I never thought to check the RAM SIMMs.

This Mac SE/30 is now fixed!

 

[Dog Cow]

Do you happen to have pics of the entire board?

As promised: Macintosh SE/30 full motherboard, 1991

Mac SE/30 repaired

Now that the machine is all repaired, let me tell the little story of it. I purchased this SE/30 last September (2018) while on vacation in France so it was waiting for me at home when I arrived back. What makes this SE/30 interesting is that it is from summer 1991, making it one of the later SE/30 computers to be produced.

But alas it was sold with the screen condition shown, and I was confident that I could fix it. I thought merely replacing the capacitors would do the trick, but as I have now learned, it was actually the memory SIMMs that were at fault.

I am so used to hearing the simple beep of the Mac 512K and Plus that it actually came as a surprise to hear the happy chime of the SE/30, and at first I wasn't sure if that was really what I heard. But the screen doesn't lie.

When I booted up the SE/30, I saw that the last modification date on the hard drive was spring 1999. That's the same year that I got my first ever Macintosh, which happened to be an SE/30! So this is a great moment where 20 years later I have repaired a Mac which was my first one ever (thought not the exact same machine).

The case of this SE/30 is in immaculate condition. It doesn't appear to have yellowed at all, and except for some damage at the rear, it has almost no blemishes. The floppy drive and HD are OK too, so that's a plus! ;-) I plan to install A/UX on either this one or my other SE/30, as that is an operating system I have only heard about. And I would like to explore and learn more about it.

The other SE/30 will probably be used as an AppleShare server.

With this SE/30 fixed, and a Mac 512K fixed (video problem on analog board solved by resoldering a connection), the last compact Mac for me to fix is my old Mac Classic.

 

[LaPorta]

Just make sure that other SE/30 has a good copy of AfterDark!

That's great that you got it working. I really like that you saved it from France and brought it over. As for the beep, I know what you mean. I have never been a fan of the MacII/SE/LC chime myself, but it's a great sound when it didn't work before.

As an aside regarding beeps: I like the 128k-Plus beep best. What I mean by that is, I'm sure because of something circuitry based, the early Macs have a nearly instantaneous power on beep compared to the SE/Classic that take a second. The latter also have a "pop" before the sound and after the sound, with power to the speaker turning on and then cutting off. It is the smallest detail, but the prior are much cleaner and nicer.

 

[Dog Cow]

Just make sure that other SE/30 has a good copy of AfterDark!

Flying toasters!

That's great that you got it working. I really like that you saved it from France and brought it over.

Nah, this was an eBay purchase. I think it came from California.

As for the beep, I know what you mean. I have never been a fan of the MacII/SE/LC chime myself, but it's a great sound when it didn't work before.

As an aside regarding beeps: I like the 128k-Plus beep best. What I mean by that is, I'm sure because of something circuitry based, the early Macs have a nearly instantaneous power on beep compared to the SE/Classic that take a second. The latter also have a "pop" before the sound and after the sound, with power to the speaker turning on and then cutting off. It is the smallest detail, but the prior are much cleaner and nicer.

While I appreciate the simple, quick beep of the early Mac models, I actually really liked the Quadra-era chord. I used to have a Quadra 605 back in the day.

 

[LaPorta]

Absolutely. The Quadra chord was my favorite. We had a 605 and 660AV as our main machines growing up for years. 

 

[Crutch]

I am in love the with SE/30 post chime, because it takes me back to when I first powered on a Mac II in 1987 and thought the whole experience was just awesome. Touching that little power key gently, then that cheery sound and whoaaa the Picasso Mac next to “Welcome to Macintosh” is in COLOR ...
 

But yes that speaker pop-pop is unfortunate. I swear my Mac II and IIci never did that back in the day. Is it just an SE/30 thing?