how much longer can the SE/30 last

[Devon]

Hi i picked up a SE/30 on ebay it runs great now.. has 8 megs ram and a 340 meg drive i think, anyways i was having boot problems weird sounds coming out of the speaker, irregular boots and crashing. so i took it apart and noticed some leaky caps, i think took a fine nylon brush and clean up the board and crusty electro lite off it and have had no problems so far, i really like this mac and want to keep it around for a long time.

 

[tomlee59]

An occasional board clean like the one you just performed will certainly help, but as JDW and others here would tell you, a long-term fix requires that you replace all of the electrolytic capacitors (e.g., with tantalum ones). If you're really interested in running that SE/30 for a long time, that's what you'll need to do.

 

[JDW]

Here are my Flickr SE/30 Logic Board Photos showing the board from multiple angles and showing my electrolytic cap job too.

Jeff Walther is selling a complete set of SE/30 caps in tantalum SMD chip versions, including the two axial electrolitics, for a great price over at Vintage Macs. I've already re-capped 2 boards, but I've never done a complete board with tants before, so I am ordered 2 sets from Jeff as we speak. Always nice to have them on hand if you need them.

 

[Mac128]

i really like this mac and want to keep it around for a long time.

I actually posed this question a while back and had some interesting responses. As JDW points out, those caps are already past due the need of replacing on all SE/30s and most other compacts ...

http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2976