I've got a recapped Macintosh SE/30 board that I have been fighting with here and there over the years. It will boot into System 6 but will either freeze or system bomb on the ram test. Trying system 7 it will either bomb on boot or freeze on boot. I have tried many combos are verified ram Simms with the same result. Even replaced some chips too. I tried the new Reconnaissance application and it passes all the basic tests. I am at the point where I would preferably ship it out to someone to get it repaired unless someone sees something obvious to check. I am located in Canada, but willing to ship to the US if necessary if it comes to that point. Probably one pesky trace broken somewhere...
Macintosh SE/30 weird issues.
- Thread starter Duke09
- Start date
Can you provide some high-res pics of your logic board, top and bottom? Curious if there are any signs of corrosion. If you move the RAM from bank 0 to bank 1, is it the same issue still with failing to pass tests, or boot?
- There was not a whole lot of corrosion. The bodge seen was from me ripping a pad. Swapping from bank 0 and 1 or vice versa results in the same issues.
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I can't tell from the photos, if it is light reflection or jpeg artifacts, but the lower half of the board seems to be covered in a lot of flux. Some flux is conductive and corrosive. From the CPU down to the external connectors looks pretty covered to me. Get some IPA and a toothbrush or cotton swabs and clean that up and see if that fixes your issues. Ultrasonic cleaner may be better, if you have one.
I'm confused by the bare wire laying on the SCSI chip? Maybe that has something to do with it? Will it boot a System 7 boot Floppy disk? If yes, I'd suspect something specific to SCSI.
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I got some beauties of my own lol… Yeah I would try a floppy boot OS 7 disk if you haven't yet and see if you have the same problem. If it works with the boot floppy, then the problem could logically be isolated to something in the SCSI....I think?
I get the same issue with a floppy boot of OS 7 unfortunately. So something signal must be missing.
gotcha well that tells you something. Have you checked all the address and data lines?
I have not yet, but have thought of it. Where would it be best to check them all from? I was thinking the PDS slot possibly?
I would check all points of each address and data line for continuity and also see what they're doing or not on an oscilloscope if possible.
Also, definitely be sure to go through this guide systematically. Even though you're not getting a Simasimac, there's alot of good info here for troubleshooting:
And with all respect, that bodge looks pretty sketchy. Is it just supposed to connect two points? If so, there's a whole lot of extra stuff going on there.
If you're not yet using good magnification, I love this thing for the price:
Clean all that extra flux off.
Check all chip pins for continuity to destinations.
Good luck!
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