SE/30 new ROM and other things

[tommijazz91]

Hello everyone!

I have a Mac SE/30 with 8 mb if RAM and a standard ROM and I would like to make it 32-bit clean, but I can’t seem to find any! Rominator has been discontinued this february, gglabs ROM is sold out, and IIsi/IIfx ROM are very hard to find. Is there anyone there willing to send or sell me a ROM and some RAM, from 32 megs and up? Unfortunately I can’t pay a lot .

I have installed 7.5.5 for now, and I would like to connect it to the internet (I am following the topic on the custom Ethernet card on that regard): is there anything else I can add to the Mac at a relatively low price to make it nicer and more funny to use?

By the way, does anyone have a SE/30 with Mac OS 8.1? Is it worth it to have it?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I am writing from Italy.

Thanks a lot!

 

[ArmorAlley]

I have Mac OS 8.1 on my IIfx and it runs well with 32MB RAM. I use it for access to a large HFS+ drive.

Normally I run my IIfx on System 6.

I suppose that an SE/30 would run Mac OS 8.1 on the slow side (assuming you had at least 20MB RAM) but would be usable.

If you have no luck, I can sell you a spare IIfx ROM SIMM that I have. PM me if you are interested.

I'm also not that far away from you (about 3 hours by train).

 

[jessenator]

gglabs ROM is sold out

I am writing from Italy.

Ciao!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/401442364985
Looks like they still have some. They also have the 512KB ROM version as well it seems. I thought I got the last one a few weeks back (said last one when I bought), but maybe they just have inventory issues? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Their economy international shipping option doesn't seem too much.

 

[tommijazz91]

Ciao!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/401442364985
Looks like they still have some. They also have the 512KB ROM version as well it seems. I thought I got the last one a few weeks back (said last one when I bought), but maybe they just have inventory issues? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Their economy international shipping option doesn't seem too much.

Thanks, I'm looking into it!

In the meantime, I'm also looking for some RAM, but all I could find is 50€+ and seems a bit expensive! Maybe something will come up sooner or later 

 

[nickpunt]

can GGlabs ROMs be programmed with the ROMinator SIMM programmer? 

 

[jessenator]

can GGlabs ROMs be programmed with the ROMinator SIMM programmer? 

From their listing:

"Flash chips can be re-programmed individually with a standard flash programmer with a PLCC-32 adapter.
The SIMM is also compatible with Doug's SIMM programmer."

Not sure about the one you mentioned.

 

[nickpunt]

Oh cool, I didn't notice that. Doug's is here and BMOW version (that I was wondering about) that's based on Doug's is here. 

 

[SE30_Neal]

The rominator can be tricky to setup on the se/30 as you can’t just install it on 7.5.5.  I didn’t get mine working mainly because I wasn’t prepared to wipe my drive and install different os’s in sequence just to get it to work so i do have one not used at the moment. But will attempt it again in the future.

7.5.5 is the best all round os for a none accelerated se/30 so i’d stick with that and install mode32 to add the extra ram. Others are right you don’t need 128mb on an se/30 buts its fun to have anyway and cheap enough, only downside is boot up time increases due to memory check.  As for internet you wont find much difference in what can load on a later browser wrote for 8.1 then in 7.5.5 as none will run html5.   Don’t get me wrong with accelerators pushing 8.1 would be worth a try but without mine runs lovely on 7.5.5 with 128mb ram, gets online ok and networks to my newer computers to share software.

 

[SE30_Neal]

Owc memory was cheap enough for me: 128mb was less thsn £50

 

[tommijazz91]

The rominator can be tricky to setup on the se/30 as you can’t just install it on 7.5.5.  I didn’t get mine working mainly because I wasn’t prepared to wipe my drive and install different os’s in sequence just to get it to work so i do have one not used at the moment. But will attempt it again in the future.

7.5.5 is the best all round os for a none accelerated se/30 so i’d stick with that and install mode32 to add the extra ram. Others are right you don’t need 128mb on an se/30 buts its fun to have anyway and cheap enough, only downside is boot up time increases due to memory check.  As for internet you wont find much difference in what can load on a later browser wrote for 8.1 then in 7.5.5 as none will run html5.   Don’t get me wrong with accelerators pushing 8.1 would be worth a try but without mine runs lovely on 7.5.5 with 128mb ram, gets online ok and networks to my newer computers to share software.

Thanks, this helped me a lot! 32 or 64 megs would be fine for me I suppose.

What about the IIfx ROM? Can I just replace the old one without doing anything?

 

[tommijazz91]

Owc memory was cheap enough for me: 128mb was less thsn £50

Couldn't find any on the net, although I admit I did a very quick search  :lol: . I found 4 X 8 mb simms for around 45€ on eBay, but I'm still waiting to buy some, in case something new comes up.

 

[jessenator]

What about the IIfx ROM? 

If you can find one, hats off to you!

 

[SE30_Neal]

Yes IIfx rom is rare just use mode 32 extension patch to make your standard rom 32bit clean. Macsales owc ram was only $11 per 16mb sim i think it cost me more in shipping to uk.

 

[SE30_Neal]

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/30PS16MB?fullDetails

 

[jessenator]

That's not bad at all. Better than what I paid for mine, though I got a different configuration of SIMMs

 

[SE30_Neal]

It worked in my SE/30 and comes with warranty and with 60ns speed quicker than the original too. I had tried some memory from ebay first but it turned out to be fake.  It was a bit more from owc but still not expensive and made tge se/30 a lot more usable than before the memory upgrade.

 

[tommijazz91]

Thanks everyone! SE/30 RAM has to be installed in groups of four, correct?

 

[jessenator]

Each bank must have equal size SIMMs in them, unless bank B is empty. But that's not optimal.

I'd refer you to the official memory guide attached. However this was made before larger SIMMs were in the Mac user's wheelhouse. Hence the 32MB cap. The real cap is indeed 128MB with the prerequisites met.

I'm going to try the 17MB config just for kicks at some point.

 

[SE30_Neal]

I have the 128mb in mine so 8 x 16. So it was easy. Yes there does need to be added in equal pairs.