Macintosh SE Shimmering Video

I have a Macintosh SE that I restored a few months ago, except for one part: I didn't recap anything on the analog board or in the Sony power supply. The machine works flawlessly, except for a slight vertical "shimmer" on the screen. You have to look very closely to see it, in fact, I'll bet that someone who wasn't used to looking at black-and-white compact Macs wouldn't notice.

What is the typical cause of this? Is there a specific cap I can replace on the analog board and in the power supply, or do I need to recap the whole thing? Normally I wouldn't be averse to the idea, but I am flying to another city next week, which will be the perfect opportunity to deliver the machine to a friend. I'd like to have it squared away for him.

I have the same issue on a Mac SE/30, and in a similar situation to you (logic board recapped and AOK, but yet to fully tackle the analogue board and PSU). I have reflowed a few suspect dry joints, but this didn't improve the picture. Interestingly, if I leave the Mac on for a few hours (after which it has heated up...) the problem goes away. My current hypothesis is that its a dodgy solder joint which improves with thermal expansion of joints - but I'm going to fully recap the AB anyway...

Anyone else have any ideas for a "quick fix"? 

Analog board is likely the issue. I have my main workhorse Mac Plus that I’ve used for years without issue...and then a year ago it started having a very, very slight video bounce now and again and the slightest fuzziness. Pulled the AB and did a full re-cap. Works perfectly again.

A lot of times you get that sort of thing due to the caps no longer being able to smooth out the signals.

My tester SE/30 did this just last night except its death throes were much faster.  Everything was going along peachy keen but then on a reboot the screen started to "shiver" and five seconds later it went out.  Swapped the motherboard into a parts SE I had laying around and it's just fine.  Not a big loss though, the tester's case was in really bad shape (hence, why it was used as a test machine) and I've got spares.  Just annoying that it had to happen right as I was testing what turned out to be a IIfx ROM SIMM I didn't know I had.

+1 for the AB recap

I had a shimmer/shiver with my SE/30 screen which went away after an analog board recap.

Before that, it would last for roughly 5 minutes after a cold boot, then go away (kind of...). After prolonged use it would come back intermittently.

Alright, so it sounds like an AB recap is in order, but does that include the PSU, or can I just do the AB itself? Time is of the essence... I need to place a Mouser or DigiKey order today to have any hope of things arrive in time. Worst case scenario, I can just mail him a kit to do it, I suppose.

Thanks folks. Righto, on that basis my next priority is going to be a few AB recaps. I'll wait on the PSU for my SE/30 as voltage under HD load is testing out OK (for now!) but will get to this eventually too. Good to know its not just a dry joint but likely died out and less functional capacitors...

PotatoFi said:

but does that include the PSU, or can I just do the AB itself?

Click to expand...

You can, but the PSU will still need it eventually. Anecdotally, the Sony is more reliable than the Astec PSU, so you might have "more" time on that. My Astec was working out of the box and so was the AB, so your mileage may vary. I did my PSU the same time and it wasn't too bad, really. In fact the AB took longer, I felt, because you need to be extra careful with the hot glue, especially around the coil(s) on the AB. You might have already, but watch JDW's analog board recap tutorial video: 




Also, I'd offer similar advice for the PSU recap as well: don't just go ripping up globs of hot glue willy nilly, as you might damage a small ceramic cap hiding in the pile. Ask me how I know  :/  

Good luck!

Why not just do both? Save yourself a later hassle.

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since we can't embed images in-line :lol:  

Super open to the idea, if someone has a list of capacitors (including circumference, lead spacing, capacitance, and voltage) for the Sony power supply ready-to-go. Wish I had time to tear into that support and get all of the values, but for this specific project... I just don't.

P.S. Are image uploads broken? I've been trying for a couple of days, no luck.

PotatoFi said:

if someone has a list of capacitors (including circumference, lead spacing, capacitance, and voltage) for the Sony power supply ready-to-go.

Click to expand...

If you watch JDW's video, he goes through the parts list (use the link in his video if it's not here), and there are a couple of caps that do not exactly conform to the original, but still fit, and one film, non-polar cap which will need a bit of lead-finagaling to seat properly, but will be fine once you re-apply hot glue.

PotatoFi said:

P.S. Are image uploads broken? I've been trying for a couple of days, no luck.

Click to expand...

It's in the bug tracker. Best is to host them elsewhere, e.g. Imgur, and just use BBCode or LinkedBBCode so members can click-through to the images.