Second SE from eBay

[Apostrophe]

Hi,

I just got a second Macintosh SE from eBay, which just arrived. The Mac was evidently neglected and/or mistreated, as the case is yellowed, with marks on it. A panel where a card used to go is missing at the back of the computer, exposing the inside. I got it all plugged in, and turned it on. I immediately get the floppy disk question mark. Luckily, I had a set of Mac OS 6.0.8 floppies, and after a few tries, the Mac managed to boot off the floppy disk. The problem is, the internal hard drive seems completely trashed. The red display light flashes randomly. There is no HD icon on the desktop. And the noise it makes sounds bad—it sounds nothing like the HD in my other SE.

Obviously I need a working hard drive in the Mac if I want to be able to do things on it, so what I’ll do is try and hook it up with an external hard drive for now. Then I’ll take the original internal HD and see if I can do anything to repair it. Who knows, the problem may be within my abilities to solve…

So tomorrow I’ll open the Mac, get it all cleaned up, and have a look at the internal HD. But I will get that Mac working well again. I’ll have an update on its condition once I have a look at the inside, but from what I can see the only problem is with the hard drive.

Compacts are great machines—well, SE’s anyway, I haven’t had experience with any others.

I’ll have an update tomorrow.

-Apostrophe

P.S. Does anyone know where to get an external HD compatible with an SE and what brand names I'm looking for?

 

[Apostrophe]

Okay, I opened the Mac. I completely removed the hard drive, re-plugged its plugs, and put it back in. In the process I managed to lose a screw somewhere inside the computer. But I found the panel covering for the back that was missing; it was loose inside the Mac.

The logic board's the one across the bottom of the computer, right? That's where I think the screw went, and I tried to slide the logic board out, but I was stopped by a connector that seems to be soldered onto the board. How can I slide that board out?

Anyway, I put the case back on and booted it up, and it functioned exactly as it had before, with the help of my system floppy disk.

But later today I'll open it again and remove the hard drive. I'm sure the Mac will be able to function without it anyway, relying completely on my system disk. I'll begin dismantling the hard drive, and hopefully pinpoint the problem in the process.

But chances are I won't turn that Mac on again until I either fix the internal hard drive, or find it an external one. (Or maybe even another internal, but I prefer an external as a temporary replacement)

So where can I get an external SCSI hard drive? I'll look around on eBay, but are there any other good places to find one? Or maybe someone in this forum has one that they might be willing to lend me?

-Apostrophe

 

[MultiFinder]

The logic board's the one across the bottom of the computer, right? That's where I think the screw went, and I tried to slide the logic board out, but I was stopped by a connector that seems to be soldered onto the board. How can I slide that board out?

Yes, that's the logic board. There's nothing soldered to it, but it is held in by a series of gouge-your-eyes-out annoying metal bumps on the right side (if you have the SE down on its face with the bottom facing you). They're a pain to get up, but you'll eventually learn the trick to 'em and it won't be so bad.

But later today I'll open it again and remove the hard drive. I'm sure the Mac will be able to function without it anyway, relying completely on my system disk. I'll begin dismantling the hard drive, and hopefully pinpoint the problem in the process.

Yessir, your Macintosh will work just fine with just the floppy disk; 'tis how they originally worked in the dark days before hard disk drives. Also, if you're going to dismantle the HDD, be SURE to do it in an insanely clean and sterile environment. One stray bit of dust on the platters and it's prolly gonna be toast when you spit it up again. I also had the original HDD fail in my SE; the best option is to simply replace it.

So where can I get an external SCSI hard drive? I'll look around on eBay, but are there any other good places to find one? Or maybe someone in this forum has one that they might be willing to lend me?

eBay or the Trading Post are your best options. Older ones aren't all too common on eBay, but tend to go cheaply because nobody really wants a 500-meg HDD anymore You don't really need to go for an ultra-high-capacity drive, either, because most of what you can do with these machines just doesn't take up all that much space. I've found that the 40-meg HDD I put in my SE is more than adequate for all tasks I ask of it

Best of luck with your SE; they really are great little machines!

 

[Apostrophe]

Also, if you're going to dismantle the HDD, be SURE to do it in an insanely clean and sterile environment. One stray bit of dust on the platters and it's prolly gonna be toast when you spit it up again.

Well, that's why I'm dismantling it in the first place; since it's already trashed, might as well try and fix it, but if I get dust on it or whatever, then I have nothing to lose.

Well, thanks for your great advice! I'll get started on that logic board and see if I can take it out of there and find that screw.

-Apostrophe

 

[Apostrophe]

All a success!

This is very educational; I am now getting to know the interior of an SE well.

I figured out how to remove the logic board (you were right, MultiFinder, the metal tabs aren't so bad once you get the hang of them). The screw wasn't there, so I removed the floppy drive as well (which is only possible once the logic board is removed) and after shaking it around a bit, out fell the screw!

So, that having been addressed, I put everything back in, plugged it all in, (except the hard drive, of course) and put the case back on. Tomorrow I'll turn it on again to make sure that I haven't damaged anything while I had it open. I don't think I damaged anything, but you never know till you turn it on...

I had a question, though--like I said, the internal HD is completely trashed, so if I manage to destroy it with a speck of dust, then I haven't lost anything. But I did have a question--assuming I do get a speck of dust on the HD platter without my knowing it, and assuming I put it back in the Mac and turned it on, a) would it actually damage the computer, or just the hard drive itself, and B) if I blew air on the platter and removed that speck of dust, would everything function normally (assuming the dust was the problem)?

Thanks for helping me, everyone (or in this case, MultiFinder17).

And remember--the more I learn about these Macs, the less I'll need to annoy you with constant questions!

-Apostrophe

 

[Apostrophe]

Something's strange; I just now turned the SE on to be sure that it still works the same--and the malfunctioning Miniscribe is sitting on the table next to the SE--and yet the SE is still making the noise that I had attributed to the hard drive. It sounds like there's friction--what else in an SE moves physically, apart from the hard drive? Could it be a fan in need of a bit of cleaning?

-Apostrophe

 

[skeletor]

Something's strange; I just now turned the SE on to be sure that it still works the same--and the malfunctioning Miniscribe is sitting on the table next to the SE--and yet the SE is still making the noise that I had attributed to the hard drive. It sounds like there's friction--what else in an SE moves physically, apart from the hard drive? Could it be a fan in need of a bit of cleaning?
-Apostrophe

could be...sometimes, you'll come across a compact mac, with a fan that is literally choked with dust...eye ball yer fan, and see if it's the original squirrel cage fan, ( which is noisy ) or the later SE'S, WITH THE box fans.

Also, floppy drives can make noize as well..

many early hard drives, fall victim to stick'em.....one possible solution is to pull the drive, shake it up, and see if that will 'free' it up..

chances are, you'll probably replace the hd, with something a tad bigger

 

[elbaroni]

The horrible noise is probably the ratsh!t fan some SEs had. There were two models: the earlier ones had a "squirrel cage" fan, which is the crappy one (squirrelsh!t, I guess...) and the later ones have a fan as you'd see in any modern computer.

Try cleaning the fan out.