sos_nz
Well-known member
I've just joined the community, and am pleased to announce a successful resuscitation of a sound-less SE/30.
Out family's first computer, when I was a kid, was a 512Ke back in the 1980s. We moved up to an SE with a 20GB HD and felt we'd hit the big time. Over the years, I used Macs on and off at school and university (LC's, Quadras, PPC's etc). I owned a IIsi for a few years and a Quadra 900a/v - but whilst these all moved on in their turn, I always had a soft spot for the classic compacts, so about 6 years ago purchased a used working SE/30. After a couple of months it ended out in the back of the closet - no room on the desk!
When I came to pull it out of storage a couple of weeks ago I fired it up and to my surprise (having not educated myself about such matters), there was no sound through the speaker, and only very quiet sound through the headphone jack. Some googling led me here amongst other helpful pages, and to the diagnosis of dead caps (specifically C6, in the case of the audio).
Long story short, I successfully recapped the board with tantalums. It was my first go at SMD work, but I have done a few recaps of through hole stuff previously. It was a good excuse to purchase a nice, new Hakko FX-888, which is MUCH nicer than the crappy 30w non-adjustable cheapie I was using previously. No major drama with the recap, with just one partially lifted pad, which I superglued back down (the trace was OK). I found the cut-the-cap-with-diags method to be easier and quicker - the lifted pad was when I tried the two pencil method. To each their own, I guess! I used a 1uF 35V cap for C6, since there was no 1uF 50V tantalum available locally (I do have the proper value coming in the post).
Anyway - in great anticipation, I fired her up for the first boot... and... got the checkerboard pattern - Oh no! That damn lifted trace! Fortunately, after reference to this page (http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~shamada/fullmac/repairEng.html#CheckerFlag), I realised that in my haste I'd forgotten to plug the ROM board back in. Power up again... ahhhh - the startup gong in glorious full volume, and a smiley Mac, followed about 4 seconds later by the 6.0.8 desktop. Sweet!!!
The next challenge was that the keyboard had died. After rebuilding the keyboard's ADB port (as per: http://www.sterpin.net/uk/adbkeyboarduk.htm), it works again - excepting a few single keys, so it's into the distilled water bath tomorrow. Any other suggestions or tips for fixing the ALPs switches? The traces all look good, and with PCB cleaner, several of the dead keys have come back to life - just a few more to get.
Good times, classic computing.
Out family's first computer, when I was a kid, was a 512Ke back in the 1980s. We moved up to an SE with a 20GB HD and felt we'd hit the big time. Over the years, I used Macs on and off at school and university (LC's, Quadras, PPC's etc). I owned a IIsi for a few years and a Quadra 900a/v - but whilst these all moved on in their turn, I always had a soft spot for the classic compacts, so about 6 years ago purchased a used working SE/30. After a couple of months it ended out in the back of the closet - no room on the desk!
When I came to pull it out of storage a couple of weeks ago I fired it up and to my surprise (having not educated myself about such matters), there was no sound through the speaker, and only very quiet sound through the headphone jack. Some googling led me here amongst other helpful pages, and to the diagnosis of dead caps (specifically C6, in the case of the audio).
Long story short, I successfully recapped the board with tantalums. It was my first go at SMD work, but I have done a few recaps of through hole stuff previously. It was a good excuse to purchase a nice, new Hakko FX-888, which is MUCH nicer than the crappy 30w non-adjustable cheapie I was using previously. No major drama with the recap, with just one partially lifted pad, which I superglued back down (the trace was OK). I found the cut-the-cap-with-diags method to be easier and quicker - the lifted pad was when I tried the two pencil method. To each their own, I guess! I used a 1uF 35V cap for C6, since there was no 1uF 50V tantalum available locally (I do have the proper value coming in the post).
Anyway - in great anticipation, I fired her up for the first boot... and... got the checkerboard pattern - Oh no! That damn lifted trace! Fortunately, after reference to this page (http://www.biwa.ne.jp/~shamada/fullmac/repairEng.html#CheckerFlag), I realised that in my haste I'd forgotten to plug the ROM board back in. Power up again... ahhhh - the startup gong in glorious full volume, and a smiley Mac, followed about 4 seconds later by the 6.0.8 desktop. Sweet!!!
The next challenge was that the keyboard had died. After rebuilding the keyboard's ADB port (as per: http://www.sterpin.net/uk/adbkeyboarduk.htm), it works again - excepting a few single keys, so it's into the distilled water bath tomorrow. Any other suggestions or tips for fixing the ALPs switches? The traces all look good, and with PCB cleaner, several of the dead keys have come back to life - just a few more to get.
Good times, classic computing.