Simasimac after fitting ROMinator, even after reverting

[Joris W]

Hi all,

I don't mean to be the so-manieth poster with a simasimac issue, however my issue seems specific enough that some quick ideas may come up.

My SE/30 is showing the Simasimac after fitting a new PRAM battery and the ROMinator II. It was booting fine before although a recap is on the calendar to get the extremely faint sound back up again.

Upon seeing the simasimac, I removed the PRAM battery, put the original ROM back in, re-seated the RAM SIMMs just to be sure, and the simasimac still shows.

Is it possible I damaged the ROM socket while replacing the ROM?

 

[Nixontheknight]

Hi all,

I don't mean to be the so-manieth poster with a simasimac issue, however my issue seems specific enough that some quick ideas may come up.

My SE/30 is showing the Simasimac after fitting a new PRAM battery and the ROMinator II. It was booting fine before although a recap is on the calendar to get the extremely faint sound back up again.

Upon seeing the simasimac, I removed the PRAM battery, put the original ROM back in, re-seated the RAM SIMMs just to be sure, and the simasimac still shows.

Is it possible I damaged the ROM socket while replacing the ROM?

I'd suggest doing a total recap, meaning recap the logic board and analog board, maybe the voltage on the analog board is sagging too much for the logic board to handle

 

[desertrout]

Hi all,

I don't mean to be the so-manieth poster with a simasimac issue, however my issue seems specific enough that some quick ideas may come up.

Hey no worries - the more scenarios and troubleshooting catalogued in the forum, the more resources for others!

Is it possible I damaged the ROM socket while replacing the ROM?

Possibly - look carefully at the clips on either side of the socket and see if there are cracks. The ROM should be seated snugly in the socket, and if the clips are damaged and preventing this sung fit it can cause this issue. Some folks have had success the 'rubber band' trick, using a thicker rubber band around that corner of the logic board, over the ROM and under the board, to help the ROM sit in there more tightly. If you're able to boot the machine with the board outside the case (a standard ATX power cable can be used as an extension), you can verify this is actually the issue by booting the machine while holding the ROM, pressing it in to the socket.

 

[cheesestraws]

It's more likely that it's suffering from the effects of age and grot, rather than anything else. Before you do anything more drastic, just give the socket a clean and a visual inspection to see if it's bent or cracked.

 

[zigzagjoe]

A trick you can try is to applying a small amount of forward pressure (away from the rear ports) to the ROM SIMM while resetting the machine to see if anything changes. If the machine boots, that confirms a marginal connection or other issue with the socket.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

There is well and truly no point in troubleshooting at this point on a non-recapped system. The capacitors are very much at fault here, more likely than anything else. It's very well that you could have a ROM connection issue, but even if you get it booting again, it's very bad practice to run these boards on their original caps nowadays and it will only accelerate corrosion damage/failure of the original capacitors.

 

[Joris W]

Thanks everyone. I will definitely recap the machine soon.

For now, the fix was simply taking a few more attempts at fitting the the ROM SIMM right, and the Simasimac went away.

Sorry for a boring conclusion to a boring topic!

The SE/30 is now copying all my FloppyEMU SD's contents to its internal SCSI2SD board, for immediate access without dongles hanging out the back.

 

[cheesestraws]

For now, the fix was simply taking a few more attempts at fitting the the ROM SIMM right, and the Simasimac went away.

Yeah, the socket is probably just tired. You'll probably be fine if you get it in and then don't poke it

 

[Berenod]

Just don't procrastinate on recapping the logic board!
The caps are totally out of spec (none or weak sound is indeed one of the first indicators), so they can and will cause issues.
But that's the least of the problems, they leak, and while the board might look squeaky clean, right underneath the caps, virtually invisible, the acid juice of the caps is already commencing with inflicting damage!

I wouldn't worry about the analogue board though, I tend to not touch them unless they cause issues...