That annoying freeze at the "Welcome Screen"!!!!

[retrobecanes]

My SE/30 keeps acting up by intermittently freezing at the welcome screen.  The computer passes the built-in self test, show the happy Mac icon, displays the welcome screen and then one out of five times (sometimes more frequently, sometimes less frequently), it freezes at the welcome screen.

Here is what I have tried so far:

1. I replaced the hard drive with a SCSI2SD but the problem persisted.  I was also able to reproduce the problem with only an external HD attached so I know that the HD is not the cause of the problem.
2. The problem will also occur with extensions off.
3. I was able to reproduce the problem with v7.1, v7.5.3 and v7.5.5 so I know that the OS in itself is not the cause.
4. I was able to reproduce the problem with both mode32 on and off, so that's not it either
5. I ran full diagnostics with Snooper, MacTest, and Conflict Catcher and they didn't detect any issues at all.
6. The motherboard has been entirely recapped

The most promising lead at this point may be RAM although the diagnostics didn't show anything.  Indeed, the problem seem to occur less often if I only install one bank of SIMMs (16MB).  With four of my SIMMs, I restarted the SE/30 15 times and it never froze at the welcome screen.  With the other set of four SIMMs, the problem only occurred one time out of 15 restarts.  This being, with all 8 SIMMs installed, sometimes I can also restart 10 times without seeing the problem.

The only clue is that the freeze at the welcome screen always happens exactly at the same spot of the boot process: the welcome screen appears, there is HD activity, a pause, and then a quick flash of HD activity before it freezes.  With a normal boot, the welcome screen appears, there is HD activity, a pause, and then more HD activity as the boot process continues.  The system never freezes before or after that.

I am not quite sure what to try next.  Has anyone ever experienced a problem like this one?

 

[IlikeTech]

Try booting from floppy. What do you get?

 

[retrobecanes]

So far I have not been able to reproduce the problem when booting from the floppy.  Could it be the SCSI controller?  If so, is there a way to test for that specifically?  What is strange is that the failure only occurs at a specific moment of the boot process, never before or after.

 

[retrobecanes]

So far I have not been able to reproduce the problem when booting from the floppy.  Could it be the SCSI controller?  If so, is there a way to test for that specifically?  What is strange is that the failure only occurs at a specific moment of the boot process, never before or after.Co

Correction - I have now been able to replicate the problem while booting from the floppy as well.

 

[Cory5412]

Just kind of a totally off the wall thought... have you connected to a file server of some sort with that OS install? Like, with any number of the OS installs you've done?

Especially thinking about that floppy -- was it like a network access disk?

 

[retrobecanes]

No I have not connected to any network, this is a clean OS install on a HD that was just reformatted. I have since installed Macsbugs 6.6.3 and I pressed the interrupt when the freeze occurred. Macsbugs reported the following error message: "the ROM symbol file could not be read due an OS or memory error". Given that I was able to replicate this with both 7.1, 7.5.3 and 7.5.5, is it fair to assume that the OS is no responsible and that it may instead be a memory issue? Or is the ROM guilty?

 

[Johnnya101]

Yeah that means the drive and OS are fine. Probably is the rom, but I'll let others chime in

A rominator would probably be a good investment.

 

[Brett B.]

I'll be interested to see what you find.  My SE/30 does something similar and it seems to be related to SCSI devices - I have an external CD-ROM drive connected, if it is not powered on, the Mac will hang at the happy Mac screen for quite a while, then reboot, and will start up normally.  If the external drive is powered on, it goes through the same routine, only with a very short delay.  I haven't ever seen this on any other computer before and didn't think much of it since it works perfectly once it gets past that point.

 

[retrobecanes]

Update: my troubleshooting is now over and the root cause has been identified.  It wasn't the board, it wasn't the SCSI controller, it wasn't the RAM, it wasn't an extension conflict....it was the ROM!

The ROM was replaced and the problem completely went away.  Thanks for everyone's help in support.