The 20 bucks SE/30 horror show?

[Big Ben]

And here is a day like any others, you find yourself stuck in traffic jam just to do few kilometers to get a SE/30 for 20€.

What could go wrong?

Oh you know exactly what could go wrong.
Burned screen, dead hard drive, missing floppy drive, external damage…

And two things you know will happen, even if you hope to be very very lucky… capacitor leaks and bombed mac.

Got the computer, looks clean and seems to have a psd graphic card. Good, even the computer is ruined you might get a good graphic card for cheap.

You get back in the card, put the mac on the passenger seat and…

Suddenly you notice a white snow on yourself, it itch a bit on your skin.
Then you know, it too late, what you feared most already happened.


You knew it from the beginning but you still had hope some of them escaped this ill fate of the bomb.

Back to your shop, you start the inspection.
What sinister finds will you uncover?



At first it looked in fine shape despite some yellowing.



Some scratches but nothing bad, and an external monitor port…
But the side confirms your deepest fear.



That’s where the white snow came from, you know what behind, you know just behind the case at this exact spot is a exploded battery.



Opening the case you saw the damaged shield…



And you instantly notice disconnected cable. It’s bad sign. You fear the worst.



You removed the graphic card, hopefully it’s still inside the computer and wasn’t scrapped. And you got to the motherboard, facing carnage with only pain for company.



Damage is important, no trace of the battery, as it wasn’t damaged enough capacitor did their mischief, corroding everything.

Could it be fixed? Or should it have the “Bolle treatment”?

You don’t know.

At least you get 8 sticks of 1 meg and a neat Nutmeg 30/2. Not incredible but not a complete loss.

You’re tired, time to get some sleep for now.

 

[LaPorta]

Even the case all by itself is worth more than $20 (or euro). You made a huge score no matter how damaged it is.

 

[imactheknife]

Sucks dude.. i have had four se/30 in last year, so far zero bombs.. cap goo, but no real damage.. hate to see this happen. Hope you can repair it

 

[rplacd]

Free soldering practice board! Especially one of that age.

 

[Byrd]

Perfect parts machine - even finding an SE board in the interim for it would do until you find that elusive SE/30 board or make your own.

I also swapped some parts with a friend to receive a mystery SE/30 this year, had heavy screen burn in, "chew marks" all around the bezel from past ?upgrades, and it booted (no sound) ... just, before the HD gave off horrible head crashing sounds and after a few minutes you can see arcing from the flyback. So far so good though, it was clean enough inside no battery, recapped just before it was about to disintegrate (new cap pads gone). Not sure what I'll do about the flyback but thankful it works OK.

 

[joshc]

Great story telling there. You didn’t lose out, it’s worth more than you paid as parts.

There are too many damaged vias on that board - but it looks like a good candidate to swap the components onto the recreation board.

 

[Cam]

Ok, so not working BUT a great deal for the $$$! My parts board is in way worse shape.

 

[Big Ben]

Yeah I was a bit dramatical, it's not a bad deal at all. Even the 8 1MB memory sticks are worth it.
I decided to move was can be salvage to a new PCB, because, despite the board not heavily damaged, it will took more time to fix with risk of internal layers been corroded...
Plus Bolle's work is amazing.

 

[olePigeon]

@Big Ben Yeah, one of the new SE/30 boards would look nice in that case. Salvage most of the chips off the battery bombed board.

I highly recommend a desoldering gun and a hot air gun with a couple nozzles, and some gel solder flux in a tube. Should make for quick work on desoldering.

 

[ArmorAlley]

I know how you feel. I picked up a IIcx much like this earlier on in the year.
Be positive, it is in the hands of the community and not at a recycler's.

Clean the board up and see what real damage was done.
Have any of the inter-layer traces been damaged, for example?
If not, then the board may be very repairable and if you don't want to do it yourself, there will surely be someone on the site who would happily take it off your hands for the $20 you paid for it so that they can either practice themselves or simply do it.
We will all need to learn how to fix our boards, even if we don't want to... :-(.

 

[Big Ben]

Some inter-layer traces are heavly corroded nead the battery, PDS slot is rusty on the bottom of the board, I don't think it is "absolutly" beyond repair, but it's not worth it, for exemple half of the battery goo just won't go. And also may IC are contamined by heavy corrosion. Not a surprise.

I'm gonna practice on this board anyway it won't be a total waste

 

[bibilit]

probably the former owner was aware of the mess, as cable and battery were already removed.

price was cheap anyway, he could have sell each part separetely for more probably.