Weird Mac SE configuration?

[aquaseawing]

Hello long time lurker 1st time poster .I been long time wanting a 68k for a while and when this pop up on local Facebook for insane steal of $100 I could not say no.So I had picked up this as my 1st proper vintage Mac from 68k era.


moment I got it I checked serial number and it showed as a fdhd I was hyped hyped since I dint need social 800k floppies and could just make myself a install floppies.... F91557RM5011 showed as late 1989 Mac SE so I assumed it was a FDHD



But when I tore it down to clean had a no fdhd roms and 800k floppy disk drive ? The board part number was also in line with fdhd models so I am wondering if anyone else seen this late production of non fdhd Mac SEs? I guess I have get a BlueSCSI instead of being able to burn a 1.44mb MacOS 7 floppy.I guess have anyone else seen this late of production of no FDHD Mac se?

 

[bibilit]

Well, to be honest, if you just look at the label and serial number, you should have a FDHD unit.

But the serial is just a sticker in the rear case, so, probably the rear bucket was swapped at some point.

All new models (M5011) were sold under the FDHD or Superdrive name, both having it clearly visible in the front.

As you floppy drive and logic board are the 800 k variant, and the front badge is not any of those two ones, most likely your SE is the more usual M5010 unit.

 

[ESM-NL]

Seeing the numbers of the ROM HI, ROM LO and IWM chip, this is an 800K-SE and not an FDHD-SE. When it is an FDHD-SE, the ROMs sould be numbered:
ROM LO 342-0702
ROM HI 342-0701
IWM 344-0062-01

 

[bibilit]

I have seen another SE for sale, the main rear label says 800k drive, 1 Mb and 20sc hard drive, while the small sticker has a M5011 serial number.

Front is just the usual SE label.
Don’t know what to think about it, maybe at some point all were 5011, with or without the new drive and Roms ?

 

[Scott Baret]

The SE went over to FDHD/SuperDrive in August 1989. Your SE is from the 15th week of 1989, so you're about 15 weeks too early (possibly less depending on when the SE FDHD began rolling off the assembly line).

Earlier SE FDHD models were badged as FDHD underneath the Macintosh SE badge (of course, some later ones were upgraded too and don't have this). Later models had Macintosh SE in a smaller font with SuperDrive underneath; those were made in 1990 into 1991 (despite what Apple says, there were plenty of SE SuperDrives made well into the first few weeks of 1991).

 

[Forrest]

Just speculating, but I think Apple had stocked a certain number of spare 800K drives for AppleCare warranty replacements. When 2+ years out of 3 years elapsed and Apple still had most of the new 800K drives sitting in the warehouse, they worked a deal with Education sales to offer low cost MacSE’s to schools.

 

[bibilit]

I have not found any evidence anywhere, but i can think about serial numbers as the following :

first generation M5010 were twin 800k drives or single drive without any hard drives or supplied with the external 20SC hard drives.

then the M5011 with internal hard drive and 800k drive, the new ROMS and drive (1.4Mb) keeping same identification until the end.

Only the front badge (FDHD or Superdrive) making the difference.