SE/30 Nice and clean now...but still loud :(

[ken27238]

so I got my SE/30 all cleaned up take a look!!




but it is still loud!!!! i haven't opened it up yet (I don't have the tools) but I two theories:

1) Fan: is the fan in the SE/30 a squirrel cage fan? if so i have heard that they can be loud.

2) HD: basically just a loud hard drive.

 

[J English Smith]

Nice looking unit! Now, you need to add one of the boxier mice...

 

[Bunsen]

I'm impressed with how clean you got that, especially without taking it apart. Did you Retr0brite it?

 

[ken27238]

actually its a bit darker than in the picture because i had the camera flash on and there was light coming in the window, but it does look a a lot better that when I got it

no retr0bright....most of it was stuck-on surface gunk

 

[Scott Baret]

It's amazing how much dirt gets on a computer over time. It's not like we play with these things like we did our Tonka trucks! (My poor Tonka backhoe was subjected to mud, sand, the works...still have it in my attic but definitely not in mint collector's condition...)

Anyhow, that's one great looking machine. As far as noise--to answer your theories:

1. The SE/30 never came with the squirrel cage fan. Apple stopped using them sometime in early 1988 (based on manufacture dates; it may have been late 1987) so unless someone swapped out your analog board/fan for an older one, it wouldn't have one. All SE/30s were made between 1989-1991, well after the noisy fans were gone.

2. The hard drive is a definite possibility, especially if it's the stock Quantum drive (original ProDrive, pre-LPS/ELS). I've replaced plenty of these with an LPS (usually pulled from some type of LC) for performance, reliability, and noise reasons. If it's an 80MB original ProDrive, good luck--these things fail with the best of them! (Actually, I've had bad luck with all Quantum 80MBs regardless of type--maybe just coincidental?)

A good test would be to pull the hard drive power cable and see if the noise improves. If not, you're looking at a fan problem (and probably not the presence of the squirrel cage). However, this seems very unlikely and I'd say there's a 95% chance you have an old, noisy hard drive. Check the make and model of the drive while you're in there. (Silverlining can do this too if you aren't keen on opening your Mac and have a copy of the program). Out of curiosity, what is the manufacture date on your SE/30?

 

[JDW]

We have talked about this before...

viewtopic.php?p=18685#p18685

viewtopic.php?p=88877#p88877

http://www.silenx.com/ixtremaprofans.asp?sku=ixp-34-16

Every SE/30 owner its it to themselves to swap out the stock Elina fans with this Silenx or better. And if you find something better (although I cannot imagine how), then obviously please post the details for us. It's a crime to leave that noisy, 1980's technology, stock fan in an otherwise glorious compact Mac. And for those of you pondering new year's resolutions, resolve to swap out your fan. Don't just think about it. Do it.

 

[Scott Baret]

Speaking of fans, there's one noisier than the Elina...the DC Pico Ace 25. I've seen it used on plenty of SEs.

If you're new to old Macs, any stock fan is going to seem noisy.

 

[JDW]

Actually, as someone who owned an original 128k Mac in 1984, I am here to say that fanned Macs that came afterward were indeed noisy to me in their day. The original Mac was perfectly silent, except for the occasional spinning of the 400k disk drive. It was and still is, glorious.

But that doesn't mean SE/30 owners cannot enjoy "near" silence. What I said in my previous post stands.

 

[zuiko21]

While my SE/30 is taken apart for recapping, I purchased (locally) a new fan for it:

not up to Silenx specs, but it seems much quieter than the stock Elina.

My only concern is current draw: a whopping 160-180 mA (checked with DMM) compared to the 55mA Elina, or even less of the Silenx. However, the Sony PSU's 12v line is rated at 2.1 A (if memory serves) and the Quantum Fireball 500MB I've got for it draws 380 mA @ 12V, so the combined consumption seems well within limits. Any thoughts?

Thanks to all in advance!

 

[JDW]

According to the BOMARC schematic I have of the "SE" edition analog board, showing the FAN board and CRT board, there is a fan driver chip mentioned that is p/n LB1660. The datasheet for the LB1660 is here:

http://pdf1.alldatasheet.com/datasheet-pdf/view/40506/SANYO/LB1660/+30WQJUOYLXObM.ACwt+/datasheet.pdf

Says the chip can output 1.5A. But again, this schematic I have is of the SE, not the SE/30. So you'll need to verify this on your SE/30's analog board. They should be about the same though.

Also, if you want the BOMARC schematic I have, PM me with your email address and I will fire it off to you.

 

[zuiko21]

Hi again,

Just recapped! Still have some issues to correct, though

Anyway, in order to stay on-topic... I replaced the fan with the aforementioned one. I found the SE/30 schematics and found the fan is powered thru a 1/2 Watt, 4.7 ohm resistor -- that would dissipate less than 0.15 Watt, way below the resistor's rating.

However, I'm not sure if I mounted it correctly. Is the fan expected to "push" the air outside the SE/30, or "suck" it inside? I don't remember the Elina's behaviour...

Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[sirwiggum]

My Classic 2 is no louder than say an XBox 360. I can remember though powering up the Mac Plus years ago, and being amazed at how silent it was. Other than the CRT buzz I could hear (BBC Micro monitors used to be bad for this).

My desktop homebuilt AMD system had a noisy fan pulled off a Compaq. I bought a "silent" fan from Maplin and it was just as noisy. Until I noticed the extra attachment for the power supply cable. Thought it was just an extension, plugged it in and it brought the noise down.

That extension cable - It just had an inline resistor!

 

[JDW]

I found the SE/30 schematics and found the fan is powered thru a 1/2 Watt, 4.7 ohm resistor -- that would dissipate less than 0.15 Watt, way below the resistor's rating.

What schematics? Apple, BOMARC or something else? I have searched and searched for SE/30 schematics through the years and the best I could find were a set of somewhat incomplete Apple schematics and relatively more complete set of BOMARC schematics. But as I mentioned before, my BOMARC schematic of the analog section is for the SE, not the SE/30. However, I must assume there are many similarities. And on the BOMARC SE schematic, it shows the chip I posted about before, the LB1660. And in that section it shows a 47-ohm resistance, but no 4.7-ohm. Furthermore, the Elina fan is show to be connected to the LB1660 via a diode on pin 5 and through another diode on pin 3 (diode cathode facing toward the LB1660).

Therefore, it would appear that you have some schematic I do not, in which case I would like to see what you have. Toward that end I will send you a PM with my email address so you can forward your schematic to me.

As to you question about the blower direction, the hot air on my SE/30 with the stock Elina blew OUT of the machine.

 

[JDW]

zuiko21 wrote me a PM to say that the schematic he used to see the 4.7-ohm resistance is found in two separate files here (names "Analog Board" 1 & 2):

http://www.ccadams.org/se/pinouts.html

But being one who absolutely hates hard-to-read schematics, I took it upon myself to combine, clean and straighten those awfully scanned documents. The resulting PDF is formatting for printing on B4 paper at 244dpi:

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B3mQLg8d1xThMDU0MWQwZWQtNjc5NS00NjJmLTllOTEtN2ZjN2VmNDU5ODI2&hl=en

True, some text is still blotchy and hard to read, but that is the fault of the original scanner. But I must say this single PDF is much more useful than the original two GIF scans.

Even so, I have not yet confirmed the content of this schematic. The user should therefore take its content with a word of caution, carefully checking your actual analog boards with this schematic to see if it matches. And more to topic, SE/30 owners should check if there is indeed an R31 sized 4.7k-ohm sitting between the positive line of your Elina fan and +12v power. I am unable to do that right now, but I intend to check it when I find the time (which may be some days from now).