Replacement ASC Chip (UE10) for SE30?

[Adam_NZ]

I think I have dead, or at least problematic UE10 chip344S0063-1 on my SE30.
It created quite a big bulge on board under the chip, I assume from overheating. When I removed it, bulge was gone.
Problems I have are strange one, picture is patchy and there is no sound on start up.
I would like to replace it first, before I go any further, but I just can not find replacement chip.
Does anyone knows place where I can buy one?

 

[joshc]

The ASC is a custom Apple chip - it's not replaceable unless you use one from another SE/30 board.

What do you mean by a 'big bulge on the board' ? Can you take some photos of this?

Picture is patchy / no sound is unlikely to be a faulty ASC - it's more likely to be because of bad capacitors, or a broken trace.

 

[Adam_NZ]

Thank you Josh.

I don't have photo, I am sorry. I removed IC and bulge disappear after chip was removed.
Bulge was bump like on the back of board where chip is. It is like chip "contracted" pulling the board and creating bump on opposite side. When I removed chip board "ironed" back to flat.
That is how I bought it and apart of noticeable bump, board was looking quite good. Problem was there from Day 1 and I did re cap it.
Recapping did not make any difference.
Board has new caps, so they are not an issue. Existing broken trace could be possibility, though I could not spot any. It still does not mean there is no one somewhere.
Before I go any further, I would like to replace UE10 as it was creating some problems due to bump it created. My assumption is that it was overheating and expanding and contracting due to it.
It is just that I did not anticipate it will be so hard to find replacement.
I am attaching some photos to see picture quality. There is no rule, sometimes it would be perfect, sometimes so-so, and sometimes garbage.
If it is good quality when I turn it on it would deteriorate over time to garbage as computer is warming up.

 

[joshc]

I see the ASC has been socketed - assume you did that? Did you verify all the pins on the socket have good continuity? I fear socketing it may have introduced more problems.

This could be an issue with the ROM socket. They can be weak and mean the ROM isn't making good contact. It would explain the garbled screen and lack of chime sometimes. Try reseating the ROM and also add some rubber bands to keep the ROM SIMM tight in the socket.

It's hard to tell if there's any broken traces there from that photo, but this covers the sound circuit for the most part:



Above diagram courtesy of https://recapamac.com.au/macintosh-se-30/

 

[joshc]

Another key area to check on these boards is the vram address muxes:


These can be bad because of cap goo, and sometimes there's bad traces around this area as well.

These chips are replaceable with modern parts.

 

[joshc]

If the ASC has been inserted the wrong way at all, that would explain the overheating and bulging I suppose - it's the only other thing I can think of. As I said, the only place to get one of those is a donor from another SE/30 board.

 

[Adam_NZ]

Hi Josh,

Yes, I soldered socket after I removed ASC as it will be easier to put new one in the socket instead of soldering it direct to the board.
I should have done good job with soldering socket. I checked it many times visually with eye loupe as well as with continuity with multimeter.
Of course, I am not an expert so chance is it I may not do it right, but Mac was behaving exactly the same when it was soldered direct to the board and after I put socket there.
I did check all traces with continuity for sounds and video signals using schematics and all are beeping.
I also bought new set of vram and vrom chips if they need replacement as they are readily available and they are cheap.
Please note- bump was there when ASC was factory soldered to the board. After I removed it and put in socket, I was testing how hot it is by keeping finger on it and it was not heating at all as computer was working. It was not even getting warm, so I am not sure if there was any activity in it.
I was playing with ROM module little bit, but I did not try to hold it down with rubber bands.
I always circle back to ASC as it caused that bulge somehow and some issue must be there.
I guess oscilloscope would be ideal to test it, but I don't know how to use it even if I had one.

 

[superjer2000]

Another key area to check on these boards is the vram address muxes:
View attachment 63656

These can be bad because of cap goo, and sometimes there's bad traces around this area as well.

These chips are replaceable with modern parts.

This! I just fixed an SE30 this weekend by replacing UE8 and UF8 and bodging a bad connection on pin 1 of UE8 (which I think was the actual issue).

My SE30 had a clean looking motherboard which I recapped and while it worked I would get random crashes and address errors. After a while it stopped booting and went simismac and then wouldn’t even do that, instead sending an out of sync video signal causing less than appealing sounds from the analog circuitry.

I buzzed out all the address lines (the new schematics have a matrix that make this way more efficient) with no issues and did the same for the PAL chips and much of the GLU chip. While the row of chips above looked good, there was some corrosion on the legs of UE8 and a bit on UF8 so I decided to try replacing those and in doing so noticed the partially corroded trace at pin 1 of UE8.

And now? The machine works perfectly.

 

[bigmessowires]

This could be an issue with the ROM socket. They can be weak and mean the ROM isn't making good contact. It would explain the garbled screen and lack of chime sometimes. Try reseating the ROM and also add some rubber bands to keep the ROM SIMM tight in the socket.

Any idea what causes this, and if there's a permanent fix? I know there can sometimes be fit problems with replacement ROM SIMMs, but I had my first experience yesterday of an SE/30 that would not boot with its own original ROM SIMM - only with a ROM-inator II, and only when the SIMM was braced with 3D-printed retaining clips. It's like the ROM socket itself has degraded or warped somehow.

 

[Adam_NZ]

This! I just fixed an SE30 this weekend by replacing UE8 and UF8 and bodging a bad connection on pin 1 of UE8 (which I think was the actual issue).

My SE30 had a clean looking motherboard which I recapped and while it worked I would get random crashes and address errors. After a while it stopped booting and went simismac and then wouldn’t even do that, instead sending an out of sync video signal causing less than appealing sounds from the analog circuitry.

I buzzed out all the address lines (the new schematics have a matrix that make this way more efficient) with no issues and did the same for the PAL chips and much of the GLU chip. While the row of chips above looked good, there was some corrosion on the legs of UE8 and a bit on UF8 so I decided to try replacing those and in doing so noticed the partially corroded trace at pin 1 of UE8.

And now? The machine works perfectly.

They are certainly on my list and I did buy 14 new ICs so I can replace all 7 and have 7 more as back up
On my one, first four are F253 series and according to my research they are new generation and if true, it means someone was replacing them before me.
But again, I go back to ASC as it has no sound and it caused that bulge on back of the board so some problem was there, at least in some stage in the past. It is no point going any further till I eliminate it as potential problem.
When I was study schematic I did notice that one video signal trace does go through ASC so if it is faulty it could potentially cause problem with picture I have.

 

[Adam_NZ]

After further search I found this store-

Search 344S0063-A, 344S0063-A distributor|,buy 344S0063-A, in stock,Darlington, Capacitor, find chips, electronic component, diode, Transistors, Sensors, IGBT, IC chip at utsource.

Description: PLCC VLSI Features: High speed operation Low power consumption High reliability Low cost Easy to use Application: The 344S0063-A PLCC VLSI is a versatile integrat

www.utsource.net

Utsource original Store price is US$17.75 for one and they have 2000 in stock apperantly.
Did anyone deal with Utsource in the past? Are they reliable or they would be knock offs?
Those 2000 in stock are bit suspicions for me providing it is old Apple custom chip.

 

[bigmessowires]

They're probably pulls from old boards, if they actually have the chips at all. The stock quantity is pure fiction.

 

[trag]

After further search I found this store-

Search 344S0063-A, 344S0063-A distributor|,buy 344S0063-A, in stock,Darlington, Capacitor, find chips, electronic component, diode, Transistors, Sensors, IGBT, IC chip at utsource.

Description: PLCC VLSI Features: High speed operation Low power consumption High reliability Low cost Easy to use Application: The 344S0063-A PLCC VLSI is a versatile integrat

www.utsource.net

Utsource original Store price is US$17.75 for one and they have 2000 in stock apperantly.
Did anyone deal with Utsource in the past? Are they reliable or they would be knock offs?
Those 2000 in stock are bit suspicions for me providing it is old Apple custom chip.

Get a personalized quote before ordering anything from UTsource. Both their on-line quantity, and often, their on-line pricing is imaginary.

I placed a large (>$1000) order a couple of years ago, only to get emails from them, "these parts aren't available", me: "so you don't have 37,391 of them in sotck like your web page says?", them:" This part is $20 not $2.75 as our web page offered", Me: "Sounds a lot like bait and switch to me, cancel the entire order."

They tried to use Covid as an excuse and that might explain the stock discrepancies, but not the pricing B.S. On the other hand, for some parts, they may be the only source, sigh.