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Macintosh Portable Sad Mac 00000003 000000FF

Sideburn

Well-known member
Hey all,

Working on another Macintosh Portable board I got on the cheap but...

Someone freakin destroyed it trying to do a cap kit. It also has/had several broken traces from leaky cap corrosion.

I've fixed replaced all the melted and or broken components / lifted pads, and all the broken traces I could find.

On first boot attempt I got immediate sad mac pointing me to the power manager (error 00000010 0020CD34). I found two more broken traces bertween the VIA and the PWR manager chip and now it happy chimes and then sad chimes with:

00000003
000000FF

unfortunately the sad mac webpage here: http://myoldmac.net/FAQ/SADerror-portable.htm
does not show what an $03 major error code is.

Anyone know what it might be complaining about?
Thinking it might be ram but the what chip would be FF if that is the case?

View attachment IMG_6144.MOV

Thanks in advance for your help,

-Tavis
 

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Sideburn

Well-known member
Another question, Anyone know wether this is more likely a bad RAM chip or more likely a broken trace? I am combing through the board looking for bad traces or via's but so far no luck. Would be nice to know if it is getting to the self test then that means that all the connections to the RAM section are good and I can assume it is a bad chip or not.
 

SuperSVGA

Well-known member
I believe according to the ROM, 0x3 is the major error returned by the RAM test. A minor code of 0x00FF likely means that 16 bits did not compare properly when running the modulo 3 test, and because of how that test works I don't think it can pinpoint a specific chip. My best guess with 0x00FF would be possibly a chip select line lost to a pair of RAM chips (upper and lower byte), or to the MISC GLU.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
Ok thanks. I’m sure it’s a broken trace somewhere. I have found and fixed several already. Just hard to find now.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
Ok thanks. I’m sure it’s a broken trace somewhere. I have found and fixed several already. Just hard to fin. The first error I got was a power manager handshake error so I replaced the hybrid with one of yours and then got the same error! So I
Probably ruined a perfectly good hybrid. Turned out it was a bad bad trace at a via. Hard to see.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
Hi, i have the same problem on one of my macintosh portable machines. Any idea ?
Nothing new form me yet. Something to do with the RAM... either a broken trace or a bad RAM chip itself but I am leaning towards a broken trace because at this point I have repaired about 4 or 5 boards and its always been traces, caps, and hybrid boards.
 

tronlives2

New member
Nothing new form me yet. Something to do with the RAM... either a broken trace or a bad RAM chip itself but I am leaning towards a broken trace because at this point I have repaired about 4 or 5 boards and its always been traces, caps, and hybrid boards.
Sure, There is a special circuit pen existing - you can use it to temporarily solve broken traces so you can check your theory.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
Sure, There is a special circuit pen existing - you can use it to temporarily solve broken traces so you can check your theory.
Interesting i haven't heard of that.. im just going through the board with a magnifier, scraping off corrosion, continuity checking and solder patching with micro thin wire I have had to drill out a few vias with a .3mm drill bit about the same size but not sure if these are multilayer boards or just two layer boards so been concerned about that but when i shine a light through the board i dont see any other traces between the top and bottom layers where ive had to drill them out.
 

tronlives2

New member
It so time consuming to analyze and you do not even find all those micro bricks in the traces.

There are many silver ink / conductive pens out there.There are big quality differences.

I paid more and had the chemtronics one -

You made get one affordable at ebay.

Just go over all traces you have selected with that. This new traces could last even - i considered it more
as a temporarily solution.

When your PCB board works again, please show me some pictures. I am curious. Macintosh portable are beasts.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
ill send some photos. Yeah I have fixed several now... the worst ones for me so far are IICX boards so far..
this particular portable boars was is BAD shape.. the previous person who tried to re-cap it had no idea what they were doing and lifted a bunch of pads and traces as well as burned up a several connectors with the soldering iron. I have had to replace both of of the keyboard / trackball connected, voltage regulators and caps, an d then reconstruct new pads, repair the axial cap through holes that were destroyed, and then drill out a few bias as i mentioned before.
 

bigmessowires

Well-known member
Just curious - what does the hybrid module do? I found some info about replacing it, but nothing explaining what it is.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
It’s the power management system for the battery. It is right next to a bunch of caps and gets corroded and dies. Both SuperSVGA and Androda have made and sell replacements.

Here’s a pic of SuperSVGA’s :IMG_5298.jpeg
 

LaPorta

Well-known member
Just curious - what does the hybrid module do? I found some info about replacing it, but nothing explaining what it is.
It is rather persnickety. @techknight also has a replacement...I think his actually was the first real one that he made in conjunction with someone else. He really is the resident Portable expert in these parts. He was instrumental to getting my Portable back to life. I am fortunate that my hybrid still works just fine.
 

Sideburn

Well-known member
I didn't know he had one also. I only know of Androda and SuperSVGA’s...
The last board repair I did was giving me power manager errors so i pulled the hybrid out and replaced with SuperSVGA’s and still had the same problem and it turned out to be a bad trace by the power manager chip so I think i ruined a completely good Hybrid board 😥. It had no signs of corrosion damage.
I have replaced about 4 or 5 of them now but finally landed on a near mint board that only needed a re-capping and its hybrid is good so thats in my portable now. It took 3 portables to make one perfect one :)
 
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