eBay find: upgraded SE

[acerocknroll]

Hey guys, been out of the classic Mac game for a long time now but used to be really into this stuff in my younger days... owned many Performas, Quadras, etc etc and still have my G3 Wallstreet PowerBook and G4 tower but no longer have my very first Mac, an SE/30. Got an urge to pick up another, load it with games and let my kid play it with me so started looking on eBay. Short version, SE/30's seem to be a bit pricey these days but I made an offer on this SE and got it for $95 shipped. 





Case is in good shape with some yellowing but nothing broken. I'd like to get the original keyboard at some point but this extended is nice. Computer boots and runs great, and the first thing I noticed is the HD capacity is listed on the finder window as 500mb? Seems like someone replaced the top floppy disk drive with a 500mb HDD, confirmed when I opened the case up.



Another interesting thing is in the About This Mac screen, it lists the computer type as an SE/30? And it appears to have 8MB of built in memory? Haven't had time to get any deeper into the internals to see what else may have been modified/replaced in there. 



You'll probably also notice the picture is looking pretty screwy, the first time I booted up the picture was 100% perfect, shut down normally and when I booted up again I began to see some minor artifacting. This has proceeded to get worse on each subsequent startup to the point where it's really pretty bad. I'm hoping it's just a bad solder joint or something, any tips on where to look first? I've forgotten most of what I used to know about these things but I'm hoping I can pick it up again quickly! Other than the screen issue it seems to be a great little computer and I'm looking forward to fixing it up. Any insight or advice appreciated, thanks!

 

[maceffects]

Great system at a fair price.  Very strange video issue. I’m not really sure the cause of that. I’ve seen many issues, but none like this.  Hope others will chime in. 

 

[PotatoFi]

What kind of shape is the logic board in? Typically, the SE doesn't suffer from leaky caps, but still, caps are caps. I would check the logic board first to see if the battery is leaking, or if the capacitors are leaking which will cause shorts. A quick fix is to remove the PRAM battery and gently scrub the board down with Isopropyl alcohol, let it dry for a few hours, and reinstall.

 

[Compgeke]

I bet there's an SE/30 board in there. The video corruption + 8 megs ram + SE/30 identification + 500 meg hard drive would have me placing my money on it. The only other way to get an SE to 8 megs is with an '030 accelerator and Compact Virtual but that's not a very common thing to find. 

 

[acerocknroll]

Compgeke, you appear to be correct! 



I did a cursory cleaning and blow-out with compressed air and the video issue is about 95% resolved. 

Also, the inside of the case had this signature in sharpie, anyone recognize?

 

[CC_333]

That's a neat find!

You really do need to consider getting it recapped, though. That will probably help with the extra 5% of video issues (I suspect the sound is weak as well; have you checked?), and it will prevent other things from breaking.

At the very least, give it a good scrub with some rubbing alcohol and a toothbrush, and then let it dry for a day or two before reinstalling it.

c

 

[Crutch]

Hey cool!  Wanted an SE/30 ... noted they’re overpriced ... bought an SE for a good price ... found an SE/30 hidden inside.  Nice story.   

 

[acerocknroll]

Haha, yeah pretty lucky find! I'll definitely do a recap as soon as possible (and yes, the sound is very weak). My soldering skills are... ok at best, but I have a friend who's really good. I'll let her take a crack at it once I order the replacement parts. Speaking of which, the top two T15 screws were completely missing... any source for replacements or specs on the size and thread pitch? Thanks again!