Continuing saga trying to aquire working SE/30

[Berenod]

As described in this thread, I seem to be coming across plenty SE/30's which the sellers all assume to be working, just because the CRT turns on...

I already got myself a battery bombed one, of which I make no illusions as to ever see it working. Did get get me a bunch of working spares though, for little money (analog board, PSU, HDD, CRT, ...)

Now I just found another one, boots to the neat horizontal lines zebra simasic screen. Bought it anyway (cheap, 40€), again, including keyboard, mouse, ....,
Mainly as it was definitely not battery bombed, came with no battery in de holder, which was pretty darn clean.

It's an early version board with the socketed CPU.

Standard problem are the caps which have leaked, and left the slightly green sticky and fuzzy mess. Even looks like it's got hair growing on it (likely dust being blown in the sticky mess by the fan over long times of use).
Corrosion wise it looks rather OK I think.

Ordered a new supply of 99% IPA, will remove the caps shortly, do a good cleanup/wash, recap, and shoot a bunch of prayers (no idea to who though as I am an atheist )....
I know that fuzzy cap mess is conductive and easily stops the board from working, so lets hope...

It als seem to have a reapired trace, although on close examination of the soldering, it almost looks like factory done?

 

[Berenod]

With my last few drops of IPA I cleaned (verly lightly) the area around C3/C4/C5/C6 where most of the electrolyte fuzz has seemed to originated from, and to me that does not look perfect, but definitely not too bad at all!

Before:


After the little clean-up:

 

[François]

It als seem to have a reapired trace, although on close examination of the soldering, it almost looks like factory done?

I have the same board, with the ceramic socketed CPU, and it has the same green wire at the same place!

 

[mg.man]

and it has the same green wire at the same place!

I've also had a few early 'boards with the same factory "mod"... Don't think you have anything to worry about there. Good luck getting it going!

 

[chiptripper]

That looks very promising! Maybe a little bit of trace repair at worst, but I'd wager it just needs a good scrub and some fresh caps.

 

[ymk]

Those blank-top caps leak badly. Get rid of them.

 

[Berenod]

And I have a winner!!! Finally!!!
After the big cleanup, everything looked so much to be in good shape, I decided to give the board a go before the recap.

 

[Berenod]

So absolutely everything seems to be working.
40MB Quantum Drive, check.
The Floppy works just fine, will need a clean-up and lubrication, it ejects properly but you can hear the little motor straining a bit against the dried up grease.
External SCSI port works correct, my BlueSCSI shows up just fine.
Bit of adjusting the AB and I know have a filled CRT tube The CRT does have a bit of burn-in though, but hey, I got spares

Only thing not working at the moment seems to be the speaker, when adjusting the volume through the control panel, I can ever so slightly hear the sounds.

So for now, the plug goes out, and will commence ASAP with the recap, so this classic will continue to purr along for years to come!

Total cost so far, 50€ for the first broken battery bombed SE/30, and now 40 for this one. 90€ all in, and I have a lot of spares to keep one in tip-top shape.

 

[Berenod]

A anybody knows where to get a rom-inator II in Europe?
Or bite the bullet and order with BMOW, and end up paying 100US$ for the 40 bucks card?

 

[Torbar]

A anybody knows where to get a rom-inator II in Europe?
Or bite the bullet and order with BMOW, and end up paying 100US$ for the 40 bucks card?

Take a look at this

1pcs PurpleROM new 2MB 64pin flash ROM SIMM for Apple Macintosh computers | eBay

Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1pcs PurpleROM new 2MB 64pin flash ROM SIMM for Apple Macintosh computers at the best online prices at eBay! Free shipping for many products!

www.ebay.com

He's in France,
similar features to the ROMinator II, bootable ROM Disk, mode32 support,

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1558953020192423938

 

[cheesestraws]

He's in France,
similar features to the ROMinator II, bootable ROM Disk, mode32 support,

@Siliconinsider 's stuff is great, thoroughly recommend anything he builds.

That said, unless you (as in OP) specifically want boot-from-ROM, compatibility may be better served by just sticking MODE32 on it—you don't need a ROM change to do 32-bit addressing. None of mine do . It's a fun upgrade but far from a necessary one, IME.

 

[Berenod]

Take a look at this

Thanks for the tip, looks good!

 

[François]

Only thing not working at the moment seems to be the speaker, when adjusting the volume through the control panel, I can ever so slightly hear the sounds.

It’s a symptom of leaky capacitors. Recapping the board will restore the sound in all its glory!

 

[Torbar]

@Siliconinsider 's stuff is great, thoroughly recommend anything he builds.

That said, unless you (as in OP) specifically want boot-from-ROM, compatibility may be better served by just sticking MODE32 on it—you don't need a ROM change to do 32-bit addressing. None of mine do . It's a fun upgrade but far from a necessary one, IME.

True!
The other advantage of the aftermarket ROMs is (at least some of them) disable the full RAM check upon first boot. So if you max out the SE/30 with RAM, could definitely decrease boot time(but yeah, that's also a bit of a niche usecase)

 

[cheesestraws]

That's also true