Nooby looking for wisdom Mac SE Dual Drive - Where do I start?

[HandsomeRob]

My first Mac was a 128K jewel! I've had this beauty since 1990. It was in storage for years. I started it up a couple of months ago.

Smoked out. The screen came on, it booted just fine, the add-on internal HD started to whirr, it froze, then putrid smoke. I immediately turned it off and unplugged it. I've never taken it or any computer apart. It has an international power supply. I'm thinking the smoking came from it. Are refurb power supplies available? If that is indeed the problem.

I've read something about "recapping". No idea what that means much less how to do it.

However, I'm pretty proud. I managed not to electrocute myself successfully discharging the CRT. Thoughts about renovation. I would like to start using it again.

I love this machine. I have a 44MB SyQuest drive (operational), a Zip drive also operational. I looked through the forums which are awesome. I welcome suggestions about renovating it. Thank you!

 

[GreenBar0n]

I would start by clipping the Varta lithium battery off of your logic board, so it can't leak/explode and damage things beyond repair.

Where did the smoke come from, does the Power Supply in your last pic, smell burnt?

PSU recap:

Analog board recap:

I rebuilt an SE M5010 about a year ago, very easy to do with the right tools.

Thread 'Macintosh SE M5010 - Restoration'

Sep 18, 2024

Glad to have found this site, I've already learned a lot from the previous posts here. I'm currently wondering about recapping this SE, and which boards are mandatory.

I was given this SE about 15 years ago, it was known to power up, but to only produce the Floppy Disk picture with the question mark on screen.



When I opened this SE, I found someone had added an HDD.



I had to open the HDD to get the motor to spin the platters, it was stuck and wouldn't rotate. I can get the motor to turn, and the heads will seek, and the head will wave back and forth, yet still...

• GreenBar0n
• Replies: 130
• Forum: Compact Mac

 

[HandsomeRob]

Thank you so much for this speedy reply. Yes the power supply smells burnt. When pulled the "guts" out and flipped it over, it shows some melting. Do I just cut the battery out?

 

[GreenBar0n]

Yes, clip that battery out by the two leads, you don't need it to operate or test things.

Can you remove the PSU board from the metal cage and take pics of the burnt component/area?

You'll need to pull the ferrite ring wrapped in heat shrink and white-rubber-glued to the transformer to get the board out. Either cut the white rubber, or carefully pull on it until the white rubber lets go.

 

[volvo242gt]

Luckily, the Varta battery isn't very likely to explode. It's a LiMN battery, like a CR2032. So, if it still has 3 volts, not to worry about it. When it does die, clip it, then either run batteryless, or replace it with something else that isn't Li-SOCl2 (the 3.6 volt batteries that *WILL* explode and leak when they go dead).

-J

 

[bibilit]

I agree concerning the battery, most of them are still ok, and won't explode making a mess.

You have a very nice SE, being the double 800k one (which is pretty rare today, most are the single 800k and HD one) is fine;.

PSU are not the Achilles' heel of the model, most are still fine today, but the good news is that there are plenty around, being common with the SE and SE/30 range.