Just getting into Macs a little bit, got 2 SE/30's

[RadRacer203]

So I'm mainly a PC guy, collecting 80's and 90's stuff but these little Macs are starting to grow on me. I've picked up a few in the past couple months starting with a Mac Plus but now I also have an SE and 2 unfortunately dead SE/30's that seem to have analog board and/or power supply failure along with really bad burn in. I have 0 experience replacing smd caps so I'm having someone with a little more experience go over the logic boards. What I'm wondering is what I can do as far as expansion. I'd really like to get a cpu accelerator if I can find one for a decent price, and also probably ethernet. What options would I have for that? I do have a Daystar Turbo 601 but I've heard there's no way to use that in an SE/30, at least not yet. Also, the SE should have the same power supply, analog board, and screen right? I'm thinking I might get a couple of those as donors because the originals in my SE/30's seem pretty screwed up.

 

[Crutch]

welcome to the hobby! Also always happy to see a fellow boxed software collector  I confess they’re pretty useless but I can’t help myself ...

those non-logic board internals are indeed interchangeable. (the SE/30 has a better floppy drive than a stock original SE, of course.)

SE/30 accelerators are unfortunately just expensive. Best way is to troll eBay or randomly find one inside a machine hiding. I think the MicroMac Diimo 50MHz 030 is the best bet personally for speed and all around compatibility. People around here also like the DayStar PowerCache I believe it benchmarks just a tad slower. 
 

 

[Bolle]

Feels like cheesy advertising but this might be relevant to your interest:

 

[RadRacer203]

Feels like cheesy advertising but this might be relevant to your interest:

Actually yeah, I'd definitely be interested in one of those! Do the Powercache ones need one of those risers to fit in an SE/30? I'm just starting to learn the very basics of these things, I grew up only ever using PC's except at my school but they only had iMac g3's and eMacs so completely different.

 

[Bolle]

Correct, you need some sort of adapter to run the PowerCache in the SE/30.

There are adapters which were made by Daystar back in the day. You come across those on eBay from time to time.

Another option would be the Artmix Twinspark - this will let you use the accelerator and another PDS card like a video or ethernet card.

And to continue with the bad advertising...  I am making adapters as well that already include an ethernet card and will let you use even another PDS card on top of that, so you can get ethernet, a video card and an accelerator all inside your SE/30.

 

[RadRacer203]

Correct, you need some sort of adapter to run the PowerCache in the SE/30.

There are adapters which were made by Daystar back in the day. You come across those on eBay from time to time.

Another option would be the Artmix Twinspark - this will let you use the accelerator and another PDS card like a video or ethernet card.

And to continue with the bad advertising...  I am making adapters as well that already include an ethernet card and will let you use even another PDS card on top of that, so you can get ethernet, a video card and an accelerator all inside your SE/30.

I actually appreciate the advertising, I'd definitely be interested in one of those adapters too! Is anyone making ethernet cards? I've heard those are hideously expensive...

 

[cheesestraws]

Is anyone making ethernet cards? I've heard those are hideously expensive...

@Bolle's adapters also have an ethernet card on board.  Or, to look at it another way, @Bolle makes ethernet cards that also happen to adapt

 

[RadRacer203]

@Bolle's adapters also have an ethernet card on board.  Or, to look at it another way, @Bolle makes ethernet cards that also happen to adapt

Well, I guess I'm gonna want one of those too!

 

[desertrout]

Welcome! And Congrats - the SE/30 is beloved!

 

[joshc]

Welcome, and those SE/30s look lovely.

The SE and SE/30 do share power supplies, analog boards and CRTs/video cards (the card that attaches to the CRT neck), so if you're in need of spare parts, you can buy an SE to fulfill that need.

The differences are the SuperDrive, logic board and the front/rear case.

You really should either learn how to replace SMD caps, or pay someone to do it for you - all Macs of this age, even if the caps look OK, should be redone if you don't know for certain that they've already been recapped.

I learnt how to replace SMD caps by watching Branchus creations videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy8pDuiwZoY8_bNISGQ_Cw

As for accelerators, they are hard to come by and expensive - depending on what you want to do with the SE/30, the stock CPU is fast enough, especially if you run System 6.

Good luck!

 

[RadRacer203]

Welcome, and those SE/30s look lovely.

The SE and SE/30 do share power supplies, analog boards and CRTs/video cards (the card that attaches to the CRT neck), so if you're in need of spare parts, you can buy an SE to fulfill that need.

The differences are the SuperDrive, logic board and the front/rear case.

You really should either learn how to replace SMD caps, or pay someone to do it for you - all Macs of this age, even if the caps look OK, should be redone if you don't know for certain that they've already been recapped.

I learnt how to replace SMD caps by watching Branchus creations videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXy8pDuiwZoY8_bNISGQ_Cw

As for accelerators, they are hard to come by and expensive - depending on what you want to do with the SE/30, the stock CPU is fast enough, especially if you run System 6.

Good luck!

Looks like I've got someone who's going to do both logic boards, and the one analog board and psu that aren't destroyed, and I'm going to be looking for an SE as a donor for the other analog board and psu. Seems like it has a bad flyback and other damage so not worth repairing. I definitely am going to get ethernet and an accelerator. I may never use the extra power but I like maxing out everything I own. I'd also like to get one of those video cards that can show grayscale so I can play Dragon's Lair on it

 

[LaPorta]

I have a few spare SE analogs. I'd have to test them but would be willing to get one to you. If there was one that no longer works because of a bad flyback, I'd harvest the other parts, like the ICs that cannot be easily duplicated.

 

[RadRacer203]

I have a few spare SE analogs. I'd have to test them but would be willing to get one to you. If there was one that no longer works because of a bad flyback, I'd harvest the other parts, like the ICs that cannot be easily duplicated.

That would be awesome, thanks! I wasn't going to throw anything away, just keep the old one around as spares. The power supply I'm pretty sure is dead too, the hard drive and fans fluctuate as if the power is dipping and coming back up constantly

 

[RadRacer203]

Ok now I'm getting excited to have this SE/30 repaired. My keyboard, mouse, and cd drive that I had on the shelf just happen to match it perfectly, along with my desk that's perfectly sized for it!

 

[techknight]

your probably gonna need a replacement CRT, that one there isnt looking too hot. 

 

[RadRacer203]

your probably gonna need a replacement CRT, that one there isnt looking too hot. 

I've got a friend with some dead Classics I'm gonna take a screen from. That's number one on my list after getting all the boards recapped!

 

[RadRacer203]

Made some progress on the SE/30, I actually got a 3rd one with a recapped logic board so I've been setting that up with a scsi2sd and Bolle's ethernet riser and cpu accelerator. Works excellent and I was able to pull files from an ftp server I made on a linux machine for drivers and everything. I'm still looking for a Micron Xceed if anyone has a spare, I really want greyscale for the programs I'm planning on using. System 7.5 is installed and I have a Rominator on the way to use more than 8mb ram but it's all set and ready to go. The plan is to use this until I get my boards back for my much cleaner one and then transfer the scsi2sd, ethernet, and accelerator into the nicer one and set this one back to stock. I also got 2 almost new CRTs, one of which is swapped into my nicer se/30 already.

 

[RadRacer203]

Just got my Rominator in the mail and I threw 20mb into my SE/30 because that's what was on the shelf. I get the Rominator startup chime, I can choose between rom boot, ram boot, or just wait until that screen disappears so it will boot from the hard drive.

But it seems like no matter which of those options I choose it refuses to boot. For the rom or ram disk options it freezes on a grey screen with the mouse cursor in the corner that I can't move. If I wait and let it try to boot from the hard drive it gets stuck on the "Welcome to Macintosh" screen. 

Any ideas? I'm not really sure where to start, maybe the ram I put in is iffy? It worked perfectly before with 8mb ram, the cpu accelerator, and ethernet riser.

Update: I removed the accelerator, ethernet riser, and swapped the old ram back in and same issue. Seems to be stemming from the Rominator itself

 

[techknight]

I just noticed. curious what TV is on the left there in your top picture. looks to have a 21" black and white CRT, like a 21YP4 or 21BP4