A Tale of Three SE/30s - Restoration and Upgrade Log

ph4z

ph4z

New Tinkerer
May 20, 2025
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Today I finally picked up not one, not two, but three Macintosh SE/30 machines. My goal is to restore these to working condition. I’m planning to keep at least one SE/30 (if any make it at all) to upgrade and tinker around.

I want to use this thread as a log and document my progress. and also to ask questions and receive some feedback along the way. Hopefully this is the correct subforum for such a post and of interest to the members.

My starting point of this journey is: I have been looking for a project SE/30 for a while. I decided the on SE/30 for mostly its era, compactness and upgradability. Several sales didn’t go through until recently. These three were listed on local classifieds and were part of a practitioner’s office. These Macs never moved home until today. From the listing I gather that the right SE/30 powers on, shows a cursor and then throws error that it can find boot media. But since these machines have not seen use or service in a very long time I wont be powering them on for now.

Next, I’m going to do a full disassembly, inspection and some cleaning, just to get a better sense of the state of matters. Will I find exploded batteries? Devastated boards from capacitor leaking? Or some really cool upgrades? Till next time…


IMG_4282.jpeg
 
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ph4z

ph4z

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May 20, 2025
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Log entry #2

Each of the macs has been cracked and inspected; three initial findings below. With the help of some instructions here and elsewhere on the internet, the opening the macs was really simple and really effortless. Even for a novice and with two machines that I suspect were never opened.

My small twist was pulling the handle up slightly backward worked really well for me (obviously with the screen face down and screws removed). I figured that the original opening tools were also meant to spread/separate the case at that location.

1) The original batteries were in tact on all three boards. I measured the batteries but they were obviously all flat (less than 0.01 V).

IMG_4317.jpeg

2) There is definitely capacitor leakage on one board. It is worst around C9 were the vias (?? the little dots that go through the boards) are very crusty and not shiny. I’m really not sure how bad this is. What does anyone with more experience think?

IMG_4285.jpeg


3) One board has a bunch of repairs: a botch wire, four metal clipped RAM sockets and a metal clipped ROM socket.

IMG_4301.jpeg

Next: going to recap all logic (and analogue) boards. I have placed an order with Mouser thanks to JDW’s excellent video on picking capacitors.
 
croissantking

croissantking

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Feb 7, 2023
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ph4z said:
Log entry #2

Each of the macs has been cracked and inspected; three initial findings below. With the help of some instructions here and elsewhere on the internet, the opening the macs was really simple and really effortless. Even for a novice and with two machines that I suspect were never opened.

My small twist was pulling the handle up slightly backward worked really well for me (obviously with the screen face down and screws removed). I figured that the original opening tools were also meant to spread/separate the case at that location.

1) The original batteries were in tact on all three boards. I measured the batteries but they were obviously all flat (less than 0.01 V).

View attachment 21561

2) There is definitely capacitor leakage on one board. It is worst around C9 were the vias (?? the little dots that go through the boards) are very crusty and not shiny. I’m really not sure how bad this is. What does anyone with more experience think?

View attachment 21562


3) One board has a bunch of repairs: a botch wire, four metal clipped RAM sockets and a metal clipped ROM socket.

View attachment 21563

Next: going to recap all logic (and analogue) boards. I have placed an order with Mouser thanks to JDW’s excellent video on picking capacitors.
Click to expand...
That bodge wire is from factory.
 
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MeTheMac

MeTheMac

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ph4z said:
3) One board has a bunch of repairs: a botch wire, four metal clipped RAM sockets and a metal clipped ROM socket.
Click to expand...
Very nice finds! Congratulations!!

Bodge wire is a factory modification to fix a certain combination of chips. One of three(?) revisions of the SE/30 board had metal clips pre-installed, so that's a good find! I doubt much work was done on the board.
 
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ph4z

ph4z

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May 20, 2025
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croissantking said:
That bodge wire is from factory.
Click to expand...
MeTheMac said:
I doubt much work was done on the board.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the clarification and the correct spelling of bodge :) (I must have only heard it till now).

If the sockets and bodge wire are factory and a different revision, there are three unique revisions here. Two have a socketed CPU, the other one is soldered in. The later board also has a different sticker on the case.
IMG_4341.jpeg
 
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