SE/30 w/ethernet and Multiple Scan 15AV

[TheIanMan85]

Picked these two items up from a friend today. Got the monitor for use wiith my 9600 with 250 MHz G3 upgrade, I want a beige Apple labeled monitor capable of more than 640x480 for it. Haven't tried it quite yet. It's a bit yellowed and has some velcro on it.

The SE/30 is what I'm playing with first. It keeps hanging when loading extensions. I'm going to use my Apple 850 MB external SCSI hard drive to try re-installing an OS. (Not sure which yet since I'm not sure how much RAM there it. Hoping for 7.5.5, but I'll go 7.1 or lower if it's RAM handicapped.) It also has some velcro on it, looks like it had document holders on each side! No significant fading, but the paint on the front Apple is a little chipped. Once I (hopefully) get it completely booted I'll post the specs.

I also pulled a 512k out of my own basement that I thought didn't work. Since I couldn't specifically remember ever testing it, I plugged in a mouse and put in a boot disk. She lives! I had this one just sitting in my bedroom as a teen because I liked the look of the 128k/512k. Don't remember where I got it, but I'm fairly sure it was a freebie years ago. I can't imagine paying for a machine and never trying it. (Or maybe I did and just put it up for display due to lack of space for the keyboard and mouse? Embarrassing, but I'm admitting what I know!)

Photos will be posted soon!

The cost of the 15AV and SE/30? Free. Just had to drive a couple of miles out of my way from traveling I was already doing today.

I also am calling the person who's apartment I have to pass through to get to my big stash of old stuff. So for those of you who I've been talking to about getting stuff from there, that should be soon. And BGoins12 if you're reading this, I'm testing AppleCD 300s tonight or tomorrow morning. I'll send you a PM once I've got at least one tested good unit.

 

[TheIanMan85]

Pictures, as promised.

The Multiple Scan 15AV works fine.

SE/30, 512k, Apple External 850 MB HD, Apple 600e CD-ROM

I ran out of time to play with the SE/30 tonight. I'm going to load a System Folder and system installer on the external hard drive pictured (had that thing since it was new, always comes in handy playing with old Macs) via the 9600 when I get more time. Probably tomorrow. I got it to load past the extensions but it bombs before getting to the Finder. Ditto with extensions disabled. Floppy drive seems to be not working, but I'm sure I've got a machine I can steal one from if I don't already have a spare. I do have another SE/30 in storage that I remember not booting, but can't remember specifics on.

That's all I've got for tonight, since night is quickly running into morning!

 

[Mk.558]

Do yourself a favor and get that (or those) motherboards recapped before bad goes into worse. Do you have weak audio?

Nice 'quest. Try booting with the space bar held down to see if 7.5 is installed with Extensions Manager. If not, try rebooting with Shift. If it still hangs, you may have a corrupted System Folder, bad hard drive or bad caps on your motherboard.

 

[TheIanMan85]

It looked pre 7.5ish when booting (if my fuzzy memory serves correctly) but I'll try that. I got the same bomb system error screen (with no text in dialog box) when holding down shift. I'll try the space bar trick shortly, just got home so I need a little couch time! Luckily I do have that external HD and plenty of external CD drives to help things. The startup chime seemed like it may have been a little weak. Been a while so not sure if it's perception or fact.

Recapping is a skill I need to work on. I'm willing nothing has ever been changed out on it. I'm willing to bet I'll find some Macs that need recapping when I start testing my big stash. As you said, even if they haven't failed it's still smart. Better to get them before they blow for sure.

 

[Mk.558]

7.5 shows a "Mac OS" with a smiley face when loading the control panels, 7.1 and 7.0.1 do not.

System 6...well, if it boots really really fast, then yes it's System 6 actually I think 6.0.8 on mine with stock loading of control panels and ethernet INITs probably could beat a UltraBook these days for boot time. Strip out the control panels, DAs, fonts et cetera and it could probably put a sub-10 second boot time. (I wonder how fast a Diimo 50MHz boots, preferably with 8MB RAM to keep the RAM check time down. The IIfx was the last desktop to support System 6.)

If you need further help on getting some OS booted on it, networking it or otherwise, post here and we'll help.

 

[TheIanMan85]

Burnt the 7.5.3 installer to a CD and formatted and installed it to the SE/30. 7.1 was previously on it. Everything's fine now, so luckily it seems it was a software issue. The sound does seem faint. I also cleaned it up a little, but I only bothered to peel the velcro off it and clean dirty spots on top with a damp paper towel.

Turns out the specs are 4/80.

I'll probably end up installing 7.1 since 7.5.3 is dominating most of the RAM and about half the hard drive. Tomorrow I'll test the network card play with it some more... Got plenty of old games that'd be perfect for it.

:b&w:

 

[Mk.558]

If you trim out the fluff and pomp out of 7.5.5 you can get it under 10MB -- Apple Guide takes a generous 5MB and it's not something we really need either (although Windows did have a better help in 98, IMHO, it also did not have the red circled hints of Mac OS). To be honest I only use 7.5.5 when I need something 7.0.1 doesn't -- like OpenTransport, some feature here or there, or this minor thing that works best in 7.5. 7.0.1/7.1 is faster and is pretty capable.

If the sound is faint, that means the party has passed and the tribal warriors are on their way. Time to get those tank farms cleaned up.

If you only have 4MB then you will want 7.0.1 or 7.1, max. System 6 would be better, though, as far as memory goes.

If you need any help with the network ethernet, post here and I can help you with information you will need to connect to pretty much any computer. (>1985, that is...or around there. There's a sticky in the Compact Mac section by me, but it'll be soon out of date and revision.)

 

[TheIanMan85]

Thank you for your input and offers for help, I may hit a roadblock at some point. I've been a MacAddict since I was 10 in 1995 so I've got experience, it's just a matter of remembering some things since I haven't played with any retro Macs in a while. I was the one always hanging out in the computer lab, and the only 4th grader with admin access on the school network. Of course that's probably pretty common on here. Someone else will probably end up replying they did too...in Kindergarten.

I'll probably try to trim the fat on 7.5. I started out trying to do a lean custom install, but ended up getting a little click-happy...

I could use a good link on recapping it though, and a list of what capacitors I need and where to get them. While I've played with old hardware plenty, I've never soldered. This is a skill I want to work on. I've read here some prefer to rock the old caps and not twist, and to be careful not to take the pad with it. But that's about it, probably just enough knowledge to be dangerous. Maybe I should practice pulling caps and soldering on a dead and worthless PC motherboard first?

Of course there's the SE/30 I've had for years that didn't boot years ago when I got it and tested it. Since I got it from a huge school surplus load, I just put it aside and moved on to another machine. Both SE/30s actually came from the same school surplus. The one I just got was the Primary School library catalog machine. My original one did the same duty in the Middle School. Maybe I should start playing inside that one before I mess with the one that boots. I'm pretty sure I have other compacts in storage that don't boot too that I can also play with and see if I can bring them back to life as well.