Mac SE/30 with regular Mac SE front???

[Berenod]

I just found an apparently rather clean and very complete Mac SE/30 for sale.
Keyboard, mouse, carrying bag, some what look like original accompanying floppies..

However, the front of the machine looks exactly like my regular SE FDHD.
On the back it has got the SE/30 (M5119) label...

Kind of confused here.

It's quit bit of a drive to where the seller is, looking at the pics, would it even be worth the time going out?
Not much interested in a regular SE where they put the back cover from a SE/30 on!

 

[mg.man]

No way to tell without pulling the logic board or running Tattletech. About this Mac may say - depends on version.

 

[Berenod]

Hmm, I can prepare Tattletech on a floppy to take there.
I also have bluescsi DB25, so I can pre-load load Tattletech on an a HD image, because if it's a regular SE with 800K floppy drive I wouldn't even be able to load from 1.44MB floppy...

What version of Tattletch would be best for an SE or SE/30?
I think the latest was 2.84 or something, but that might be a bit bloated for a 68K Mac, I remember using it on a PPC powerbook a (very) long while ago...

 

[mg.man]

Why not just ask the seller to click the "Apple" in the upper-left and send you a phone pic? It might say "SE/30" and if not, if it has more than 4Mb of installed RAM, it's likely a SE/30.

 

[Berenod]

Why not just ask the seller to click the "Apple" in the upper-left and send you a phone pic? It might say "SE/30" and if not, if it has more than 4Mb of installed RAM, it's likely a SE/30.

Can always ask!

 

[LaPorta]

Likely an SE that was upgraded to an SE/30 at some point in it's life. Like the 128k/512k front bezel with the Plus back, there was an official upgrade I believe between the SE and SE/30.

 

[Pushpull76]

Likely an SE that was upgraded to an SE/30 at some point in it's life. Like the 128k/512k front bezel with the Plus back, there was an official upgrade I believe between the SE and SE/30.

Exactly. Photo of the serial number on the back?

 

[Berenod]

Likely an SE that was upgraded to an SE/30 at some point in it's life. Like the 128k/512k front bezel with the Plus back, there was an official upgrade I believe between the SE and SE/30.

Is what I thought, but I know for a fact that the official SE to SE/30 upgrade set actually came with a new /30 front bezel, so if it is an upgraded one, they never bothered to swap out the bezel...

A million possibilities! Case/bezel might have been messed up/dirty/cracked and simply replaced with that one of a regular SE, doesn't hurt functionality anyway...

 

[Berenod]

Exactly. Photo of the serial number on the back?

Asked the seller to send me a detail foto with the serial, and also a foto of the "About this Macintosh" window...If it has 32 or even 128 MB (a man can dream ) it obviously is a /30!

Lets hope that the bloke who spent the dough on the (expensive) upgrade also upped the memory while he was at it!

 

[mg.man]

a detail foto with the serial

Not sure how much help the Serial No. will be. If someone simply slapped a SE/30 "bucket" on due to damage of the SE one, you'll just find out about the donor. Hopefully the "About this..." will shed some light. Even 8Mb will shed light. Good luck!

 

[Pushpull76]

Not sure how much help the Serial No. will be. If someone simply slapped a SE/30 "bucket" on due to damage of the SE one, you'll just find out about the donor. Hopefully the "About this..." will shed some light. Even 8Mb will shed light. Good luck!

In the case of my case (ha!) the serial is the old SE one; they put the se/30 back sticker on the old SE sticker (one day I'll try to take it out with an hairdryer) and they changed the front.
(mg man? I'm a FIAT124Spider man! We have the same passion, just more rust on my side )

 

[mg.man]

Interesting...

they put the se/30 back sticker on the old SE sticker

don't you mean the "SE" on top? Regardless, they must've had a (hairdryer) way to pull the old one... Will be interesting to hear what @Berenod finds out!

 

[joshc]

don't you mean the "SE" on top? Regardless, they must've had a (hairdryer) way to pull the old one... Will be interesting to hear what @Berenod finds out!

I think covering or removing the large label on the back of the case and replacing with an SE/30 one was part of the logicboard upgrade. Same goes for other machines like the II and IIx -> IIfx. Part of the upgrade was replacing the large case sticker. Though, on my IIx case that was converted, they neglected to do it.

It's very likely that OP's SE is one that was converted to an SE/30, but yes, checking the logicboard or About this Mac/TattleTech is the only way to know for sure.

 

[imactheknife]

Mine was an upgraded se to se/30. I did buy a new case for it though

 

[Berenod]

Bummer, the bloke took some extra pictures, not much help...
He did write the HD is dead, so currently only booting from floppy (so sure that one works properly).
Not bothered by the dead HD, as long as there is no issue with the scsi circuitry, I use a BlueSCSI anyways..
Looks like he is booting from the system tools floppy, only thing I can make of it, is that it has 4MB, so no use determining SE or SE/30...

The serial (CK9130BCKAT) shows it being an original SE/30 assembled in Cork, Ireland, 13th week of '89, which makes the regular SE bezel all the more odd, and making me worry it's only the SE/30 bucket on an otherwise regular SE...

Guess I'll have to take the drive and find out!
I'll just prepare a system 6.08 and maybe a system 7.1 SD card to stick in my DB25 BlueSCSI (handiest thing ever for a Mac retro nerd)

 

[mg.man]

Unless someone knows better (than EveryMac)... that's definitely an SE = NOT SE/30. The SE/30 shipped with System 6.0.3, and won't run anything earlier.

Assuming that's true, IMO, he's asking too much for a "SE".

 

[Berenod]

Unless someone knows better (than EveryMac)... that's definitely an SE = NOT SE/30. The SE/30 shipped with System 6.0.3, and won't run anything earlier.

Assuming that's true, IMO, he's asking too much for a "SE".

For an SE, definitely waaay to much! Like double.
SE's are still pretty easy to find at a reasonable price, the SE/30's are much much harder to find!
On some of his pics I can see he is using a system tools floppy from a Mac plus

Bit of research and indeed finder version 5.3 came with Mac system 3.2


Hmmmm

 

[mg.man]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... but perhaps saved you a wasted drive.

 

[Berenod]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news... but perhaps saved you a wasted drive.

Yeah, would have happily paid the 290€ for a complete clean SE/30 with carrying bag and accesories... Never even mind the broken HDD

 

[mg.man]

It looks like he's had an offer of €250 already... if I were him I'd bite that person's arm off....