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The SE/30 which I acquired the other day had next-to-nonexistent volume.
I removed the logic board from the machine and took a closer look. There was liquid pooled in some of the vias near the "fuel tank" caps and a few chips near them had some slight corrosion on their legs.
Not good!
I swabbed off the accumulated liquid as well as the slightly corroded chip pins with q-tips soaked in IPA and tried the board again. It booted to SimasiMac and would only resume the boot sequence if left for around 10 minutes.
I had made it out of the frying pan, but into the freezer! OH NOES!!1one
I rummaged for the wire snippers and set about removing the old "ticking bomb" caps from my beloved machine's board.
I carefully gripped each cap with the jaws of the snipper and rocked it side to side till the cap's solder joints gave way and it broke free. I'm not those solder-pad ripping clowns who twist their old caps off the board!
Behold the horrors that lurk underneath!
After recovering from the minor shock, I cleaned off the fetid rusty liquid with the IPA-soaked q-tips and re-tinned the solder pads till they were flat and shiny again; it took about an hour.
The next day, I secured the necessary capacitors to breathe new life into my ancient machine, and set to work. It only took about a minute to solder each replacement cap into its new home.
Notice the exposed copper on the bottom right of the board, next to the ROM SIMM slot; I was swabbing leaked electrolyte off from around the area when a chunk of varnish (but thankfully NOT the trace) crumbled. I went "FFFUUUU there goes my trace -- wait... ah THANK GOODNESS!" (and had a minor heart attack!)
Logic board, in its recapped glory!
After the re-cap, I tested the machine and was greeted with the speaker issuing a triumphant dinggggg, followed by the mouse cursor and the flashing question mark immediately afterward. So long, SimasiMac!
Taking advantage of the machine in its disassembled state, the internal hard drive was swapped with a 540MB Conner CFA540S and the PRAM battery was replaced. I don't like my Macs thinking that it's either 1904 or 1956.
Following that, I re-assembled the machine, and cleared an area of my desk to house it. A burn-in test consisting of formatting the internal hard drive with a patched version of HDSC Setup followed by installing System 7.1 from floppies completed successfully.
Memory was getting tight after System 7.1 had been enhanced with a few third-party control panels and utilities.
4MB of memory was promptly "borrowed" from a pending-recap Mac II I had lying around.
Two popular productivity apps are now running concurrently with comfortable room to spare!
Unlike "collectors" whose vintage macs end up either being displayed on fancy shelves and gathering dust, or as glorified desk clocks/fish tank simulators, those which I own are put to good productive use!
This memory viewer gives a visual representation of the current state of system memory as well as a few related geek stats; fancy graphs to keep me amused as I launch apps and go about pounding my free memory into the dust! ;D
And there you have it! One classic mac properly liberated and joining the ranks of useful productive machines once more!
I removed the logic board from the machine and took a closer look. There was liquid pooled in some of the vias near the "fuel tank" caps and a few chips near them had some slight corrosion on their legs.
Not good!
I swabbed off the accumulated liquid as well as the slightly corroded chip pins with q-tips soaked in IPA and tried the board again. It booted to SimasiMac and would only resume the boot sequence if left for around 10 minutes.
I had made it out of the frying pan, but into the freezer! OH NOES!!1one
I rummaged for the wire snippers and set about removing the old "ticking bomb" caps from my beloved machine's board.
I carefully gripped each cap with the jaws of the snipper and rocked it side to side till the cap's solder joints gave way and it broke free. I'm not those solder-pad ripping clowns who twist their old caps off the board!
Behold the horrors that lurk underneath!
After recovering from the minor shock, I cleaned off the fetid rusty liquid with the IPA-soaked q-tips and re-tinned the solder pads till they were flat and shiny again; it took about an hour.
The next day, I secured the necessary capacitors to breathe new life into my ancient machine, and set to work. It only took about a minute to solder each replacement cap into its new home.
Notice the exposed copper on the bottom right of the board, next to the ROM SIMM slot; I was swabbing leaked electrolyte off from around the area when a chunk of varnish (but thankfully NOT the trace) crumbled. I went "FFFUUUU there goes my trace -- wait... ah THANK GOODNESS!" (and had a minor heart attack!)
Logic board, in its recapped glory!
After the re-cap, I tested the machine and was greeted with the speaker issuing a triumphant dinggggg, followed by the mouse cursor and the flashing question mark immediately afterward. So long, SimasiMac!
Taking advantage of the machine in its disassembled state, the internal hard drive was swapped with a 540MB Conner CFA540S and the PRAM battery was replaced. I don't like my Macs thinking that it's either 1904 or 1956.
Following that, I re-assembled the machine, and cleared an area of my desk to house it. A burn-in test consisting of formatting the internal hard drive with a patched version of HDSC Setup followed by installing System 7.1 from floppies completed successfully.
Memory was getting tight after System 7.1 had been enhanced with a few third-party control panels and utilities.
4MB of memory was promptly "borrowed" from a pending-recap Mac II I had lying around.
Two popular productivity apps are now running concurrently with comfortable room to spare!
Unlike "collectors" whose vintage macs end up either being displayed on fancy shelves and gathering dust, or as glorified desk clocks/fish tank simulators, those which I own are put to good productive use!
This memory viewer gives a visual representation of the current state of system memory as well as a few related geek stats; fancy graphs to keep me amused as I launch apps and go about pounding my free memory into the dust! ;D
And there you have it! One classic mac properly liberated and joining the ranks of useful productive machines once more!
