Huxley
Well-known member
Spotted a Craigslist ad the other day showing a Mac SE, priced at $45. The SE is a cool machine but I already have an SE/30 so I wasn't super interested... until I spotted what looked like an Ethernet socket on the back. I contacted the seller and we had a nice chat, and he confirmed that it booted fine (and apparently talked to him!), but he lacked a mouse and keyboard to do any further tests. We arranged to meet this afternoon, and my son and I took the ~40 mile drive to meet him. Unfortunately, while we were driving he called me with a very sad tone in his voice to inform me that the Mac was no longer booting, and instead only showing the dreaded blinking "?" at power-on. "I definitely can't sell it like this, but if you want it for free, come 'n get it!" Now there's an offer I couldn't refuse!
So, now I own a semi-functional, Ethernet-equipped Mac SE. I got it home and powered it up, and just as he said, it won't boot (though the HDD LED blinks a lot). Thankfully it did boot from the only low-density boot floppy I happened to have around (a Norton Disk Doctor floppy). I popped the bucket off the back and blew out a few decades worth of dust, but so far I haven't gotten it to boot from the internal HDD. As best I can tell, the HDD isn't getting enough power to spin up - does that indicate a failing analog board (or bad caps)?
Thanks for any tips you guys might have,
Huxley
So, now I own a semi-functional, Ethernet-equipped Mac SE. I got it home and powered it up, and just as he said, it won't boot (though the HDD LED blinks a lot). Thankfully it did boot from the only low-density boot floppy I happened to have around (a Norton Disk Doctor floppy). I popped the bucket off the back and blew out a few decades worth of dust, but so far I haven't gotten it to boot from the internal HDD. As best I can tell, the HDD isn't getting enough power to spin up - does that indicate a failing analog board (or bad caps)?
Thanks for any tips you guys might have,
Huxley