Looking at two macs, need some advice.

[nextse7en]

Hi there,

I have an opportunity to pick up a sensi'd SE/30 and a pristine SE FDHD tomorrow at a local shop for 50 bucks altoghether.

The shop says that the SE/30 needs the ROM reseated. I was under the impression that sensimac was cause by more sinister causes, like leaky caps.

My questions are as follows.

1. Can the SE accept an ethernet card, and surf at all?

2. How difficult is the SE/30 to repair, worst case. Sometimes it sensi's, sometimes I get the normal startup background, but no icon, and no startup bong. I really have no soldering skills. I am very comfortable around electronics, and electronic theory, but don't know if I trust myself at the component level.

3. Can the SE supply the SE/30 with any meaningful parts?

They also have an early serial number 128k there. I'm considering it, they're asking 90 bucks for it.

Thats it for now, and thanks in advance :b&w:

 

[tmtomh]

I'd say $50 is way too much to pay for any SE/30 and SE combo (unless both are unused in original boxes, or unless the SE/30 has a Micron Xceed card in it or maxed out RAM).

So from my perspective the cause of the SE/30's condition is irrelevant in this case.

As for the early sn 128k, $90 might be worth it if you really want one and it's in really good condition. My sense is that a pristine 128k is worth some real money, but that its value very quickly drops off a cliff if there's any problem with it - even something as minor as a missing mouse, or case yellowing.

Best,

Matt

 

[coius]

I got a pretty yellowed mac128k (early model) with no keyboard or mouse, and no software. Also, the screen shrank a bit. Sold it for $250 on ebay. Some company in Japan bought it. No idea why, but the guy was really eager to get it.

even w/o extras, you will make your money back on ebay

 

[nextse7en]

Good to know, another question.

Can I surf the tubes at all with an SE fdhd with an internal ethernet card, can I get a browser on there?

 

[equill]

...1. Can the SE accept an ethernet card, and surf at all?

2. How difficult is the SE/30 to repair, worst case. Sometimes it sensi's, sometimes I get the normal startup background, but no icon, and no startup bong. I really have no soldering skills. I am very comfortable around electronics, and electronic theory, but don't know if I trust myself at the component level.

3. Can the SE supply the SE/30 with any meaningful parts?

They also have an early serial number 128k there. I'm considering it, they're asking 90 bucks for it...

What is 'worth' what is something that only you can decide. Having two SE/30s myself, I should not hesitate to pick up another in good condition if only to improve one of those that I already have.

There are dedicated Asanté NICs for each of the SE and SE/30. Look at eBay for MacCon+ ... (three port combinations) and MacCon+ 30iE... (two port combinations), respectively.

SimasiMac is one only of a variety of faults that AIO monochrome compacts may have. Look here for the story.

The SE has limited expansion. The SE/30 is both capable and a remarkable case-in-point of what Apple had developed from simple origins. The 128K is that simple origin, but hardly impressive for doing much at all. Most of the SE/30's potential add-ins are scarce and potentially pricey, but 128MB of RAM and 32-bit operation under System 7.5.x are not hard to achieve.

Even after The Fall, there are still plenty of data to be mined in these Forums about the SE/30. Surfing is barely possible for the SE/30, but only paddling in the shore waves for the SE.

de

 

[nextse7en]

Well, I broke down and bought both, I also picked up a copy of sytem 6.0.2 still in shrinkwrap.

I cracked both apart... I get the SimasiMac herringbone pattern at startup with the SE/30 with the rom, and without the rom, with the ram, and without the ram, with the nic, and without the nic, and every possible itineration in between.

So I threw the damn thing in the dishwasher, we'll see how it comes out after it dries.

I do have a 603e board that was intended for a color classic. and a color classic monitor. I may just end up building an Color SE/233. We'll see how things go.

Once opened, I found that this mac wasn't very well taken care of, the HD was mounted via one screw, on a tilt, and too far back.

All sorts on interesting tools on the SE's HD though, startup sound changer, resedit, amoung other things... The system was running 7.5. And is loaded to the gills with 128 mb ram. I'll bet this system hauled when it was running.

On a happier side note, I got my 3400c online today for the first time.

-Patrick

 

[Unknown_K]

I don't see why ever machine you have needs to be able to browse the web. I have an SE HDFD with 4MB and I don't feel the need to browse the web with it. Since it is reletively quiet it is a nice machine to learn programming on at 2AM, anything you get to run on a SE will run much nicer on any other Mac I have.

 

[nextse7en]

I need to browse the web with it.... Well, I don't.

But I want to..

I'm going to try to see if I can live with this machine as my full time rig for a month... I would really like to see the SE/30 in absolutely peak form... Constrained only by its motherboard. A daystar socket and a micron xceed would rock for sure. We'll see what can be done.

I write a blog that is all about living within your digital means. I feel that I should practice what I preach.

-Patrick

 

[nextse7en]

Well,

I got the SE/30 up and running, even visited google with it in netscape 4.4

Thanks a lot for the dishwashing trick, It worked wonders.

-Patrick

 

[~tl]

I'm going to try to see if I can live with this machine as my full time rig for a month... I would really like to see the SE/30 in absolutely peak form... Constrained only by its motherboard. A daystar socket and a micron xceed would rock for sure. We'll see what can be done.

It's a shame you missed Retrochallenge!

 

[Big Bird]

Glad to hear the SE/30 was easily fixed. It's an incredible Mac, and I really enjoy mine.

All sorts on interesting tools on the SE's HD though, startup sound changer, resedit, amoung other things... The system was running 7.5. And is loaded to the gills with 128 mb ram. I'll bet this system hauled when it was running.

What I'm most interested in, though, is how the SE had anywhere close to 128 MB of RAM. I was pretty sure 4 MB wasn't just an arbitrary RAM ceiling. Yours must have some third party accelerator card with its own RAM sockets?

 

[equill]

One has to guess, and I did, that there was a missing '/30' in the statement. Given the upgradeability of the 68000-powered SE (virtually zilch without a logic-board transplant), and its MMU, 128kB is near to pushing the envelope.

de

 

[Bunsen]

All sorts on interesting tools on the SE's HD though, startup sound changer

8-o 8-o 8-o

128 mb ram.

Nice I assume that's on the SE/30

 

[nextse7en]

Lol, yes, the se/30.

I must have been tired, the se has...

drumroll please...

1mb.

 

[MultiFinder]

Lol, yes, the se/30.

I must have been tired, the se has...

drumroll please...

1mb.

System 6 FTW

 

[MacMan]

Sounds like you got a good deal there, especially with the 128MB RAM and installed utilities on the SE/30.

 

[TylerEss]

To replace the 128MB RAM new would be about $65 US from OWC, last I checked. Not such a bad deal after all.

I think the SE/30 is a splendid machine! If you want to see it really fly, keep it running System 6 or 7.0.1. Without a CPU upgrade it'll be fine in 7.5.5, but it feels a bit sluggish to me compared to the lighter system versions.

 

[equill]

If you wish to try System 6, however, you will need not Mode 32 but an older app. Optima from Connectix to get 32-bit operation.

This page has useful info. about 24bit/32bit operation.

de

 

[Quadraman]

I think it's too big a risk to take to shell out $50 then get the SE/30 home and find out that the motherboard has been eaten up by leaky caps. Glad it worked out for you, but things could very easily have gone the other way.