Mac SE/30 with large amounts of RAM = long startup time (or not?)

[Bendix]

I hope this question has not been asked a million times before. I know that SE/30s with larger amounts of RAM have a long startup time because of the mem check. You stare on the happy Mac and wonder, if the machine just freezed. And I know, that custom ROMs like from bigmessowires can have this disabled. My question is: Is there any other way to skip the rom check?

I am asking, because I have two SE/30 with large memory, one booting slow, the other fast, both seem to have the original ROM. I have tested both with 68 to 80 MB. One has plastic ram socket clips, the other has steel clips, so they seem to be different revisions of the logic board. The one with the plastic clips is the slow booter, the other one with steel clips is always fast, no matter how much ram is installed.

I have included two pics of the logic boards, the 2nd being the fast booter (nevermind the installed ram sizes, that was before I got the 16 MB modules and btw they are now both recapped). So has the previous owner of the fast booter tampered with the ROM or are there other tools, that can tweak the startup time?

 

[cheesestraws]

There's a hidden option in the Memory control panel to disable/enable the self test, IIRC.  I'm not sure where this setting is stored, but perhaps it might account for it?  Try holding down cmd or opt or both (I can't remember which) while opening the Memory control panel to get at the setting.

 

[Bendix]

Thanks for the hint. I google and found this: https://happymacs.wordpress.com/2015/01/30/speed-up-mac-os-boot-time-turn-off-ram-tests/

Tried it under (my German) Mac OS 7.5.3 but unfortunately no luck. Could it be, that this hidden option is present only in later Mac OS Versions?

 

[cheesestraws]

Well, I think this is likely a red herring.  Sorry!  The option is not there on my under-desk Quadra under 7 or 8 but is there on my PB3400 under 8.6.  So perhaps it's an OpenFirmware thing?  Either way, sounds like it is unlikely to be responsible here...

 

[Crutch]

The RAM test happens BEFORE the happy Mac is displayed.  One of the things the happy Mac is happy about is that the RAM is good. If your SE/30 is stuck while displaying the happy Mac for a while, something else is slowing it down. 

But for experimental completeness, what happens if you swap the ROMs?  That would seem to be able to tell you if the ROMs are different.

 

[cheesestraws]

The RAM test happens BEFORE the happy Mac is displayed.

... I completely failed to spot that in the OP.  Sorry for dragging this down an irrelevant rabbit-hole then.  Yeah, not the memory test.

 

[elbaroni]

Something AppleTalk/network related? Extensions off? Different boot disks? RAM doubled or RAM disk? Mem check is before even flashing question mark floppy icon (assuming no boot disk), no?

 

[Bendix]

OK, swapping the ROM would really be interesting, but that has plastic clips, too, and I hate to fiddle around with this 30+ y old stuff.

Elbaroni's suggestion hit the nail. Just bootet with the shift key and - bam, there it was. Feel a bit stupid now. I thought, that the extensions would come after the happy mac, when they are displayed on the low margin. I have indeed found tons of extensions. I removed all CD ROM and Printer Extensions and now it is fast as it should be with an SCSI2SD Drive. Probably the CD ROM extensions were searching for a drive on the SCSI bus. BTW, what about the 1,1 MB Quicktime extension, do I need that.

Thank you all guys and sorry for this beginner's mistake!

 

[beachycove]

Disabling the RAM test via the Memory Control Panel is only possible is later versions of System software. I think it was from 8.6 on, which means it is for PPCs only.

 

[jessenator]

Thank you all guys and sorry for this beginner's mistake! 

Not at all! Everyone makes them from time to time.

This happened to me just recently, perpetually stuck happy Mac because of some INIT looking for hardware I forgot I had removed from the computer.

 

[Bendix]

You are too kind! []