New to Me Mac SE/30

[asphaise]

Hello. I recently purchased my first classic Macintosh, an SE/30. I'm more of a mechanical guy and am well aware of my limitations when it comes to electrical repair so I've shipped the logic and analog boards to Thomas at Amiga of Rochester to recap and resolder. Prior to disassembly, I turned the computer on to see if it worked. It powered up and booted to the desktop but I didn't hear a chime. That was all the investigation I did software-wise. I didn't take the time to see what software was installed.

It had the original battery, which fortunately had not exploded. I removed it immediately. I'm completely new to capacitor inspection, but I've watched several videos by the founders of this board and I would guess the condition of the board is average. The capacitors hadn't exploded and the green corrosion on chip pins was present in a few spots but not excessive. It was extremely dusty. I have no idea how good or bad the analog board is. For the brief time it was running the screen looked okay. It seemed to me that the display was adjusted larger than originally intended. I'm not sure what the correct size the screen should be adjusted to once it's all back together.

Sometime in its history someone has been inside the computer. It has 20 mb of RAM split between 8 RAM modules, a 250 mb Apple hard drive from 1993 and what I think is a Farallon PN594-TP network card of some sort. I'm having trouble finding information on that. The mouse and keyboard worked, at least for the 30 seconds it was powered on. I didn't test the floppy drive.

While Thomas does his work I've ordered some upgrades for the computer. I ordered the CR2032 MacBatt battery mount from Siliconinsider. I also ordered an internal BlueSCSI to replace the hard drive and a replacement ROM from Garrett's Workshop. I originally wasn't going to do it right away, but after reading everyone's concern about the fragile clips on the RAM sockets, I thought it best to buy RAM and only install the modules once if possible.

I want to thank many of the members of this board for taking the time to post information and videos on evaluating and restoring these machines, setting up the various software, offering suggestions on things to try, and going through the history of how the computers changed over the years. I've watched countless YouTube videos and the biggest thing I've learned is that I would have been completely lost without your help. I've added several new subscriptions and will be stepping through all of your extensive back catalogs to try to get up to speed. Wish me luck.


Mike

 

[JDW]

Congratulations on your SE/30 acquisition! It's an excellent machine to get started with in this hobby, and it sounds like you're off to a very good start. And with a BlueSCSI replacing a spinning platter drive, there will be less strain on your power supply.

With that said, you mentioned only sending the logic board and Analog Board to Amiga of Rochester, not the power supply.

If your PSU is a SONY, you should contemplate this Recapping Video.

When and if you start to add some power hungry PDS card upgrades in the future, there are a couple options for you to swap out the stock PSU for something more modern:

• SEASONIC PSU
• BABY FACE PSU

 

[asphaise]

Congratulations on your SE/30 acquisition! It's an excellent machine to get started with in this hobby, and it sounds like you're off to a very good start. And with a BlueSCSI replacing a spinning platter drive, there will be less strain on your power supply.

With that said, you mentioned only sending the logic board and Analog Board to Amiga of Rochester, not the power supply.

If your PSU is a SONY, you should contemplate this Recapping Video.

When and if you start to add some power hungry PDS card upgrades in the future, there are a couple options for you to swap out the stock PSU for something more modern:

• SEASONIC PSU
• BABY FACE PSU

Thanks JDW. I’ve watched your power supply videos, and many others you’ve done. I don't think I’ll be able to recap so I was planning on doing the Baby Face PSU swap. Maybe I could try recapping the power supply and if I jack it up at least there is a modern replacement available.

I’ll also likely do the fan swap at some point. Like I said, I only ran the computer for a few seconds so I don’t know how noisy the current fan is. I’ve also got the floppy service on my list.

 

[JDW]

I take it there was never a hard drive in your SE/30?

When you have a hard drive like that, then switch to a BlueSCSI, your ears notice the stock fan noise a lot more. But even without experiencing the sheer loudness of a spinner drive, the BlueSCSI is 100% silent, so the only noise you will hear is the fan. And after some months of using your Mac like that, you can then better decide if the noise is acceptable or not. If not, you just get the 60mm Noctua to swap it out, and the noise will be reduced quite a bit. Not silent by any means. Just more quiet. However, if you use the Mac in a loud room, then the noise of even the stock fan might not be as noticeable.

 

[asphaise]

I take it there was never a hard drive in your SE/30?

When you have a hard drive like that, then switch to a BlueSCSI, your ears notice the stock fan noise a lot more. But even without experiencing the sheer loudness of a spinner drive, the BlueSCSI is 100% silent, so the only noise you will hear is the fan. And after some months of using your Mac like that, you can then better decide if the noise is acceptable or not. If not, you just get the 60mm Noctua to swap it out, and the noise will be reduced quite a bit. Not silent by any means. Just more quiet. However, if you use the Mac in a loud room, then the noise of even the stock fan might not be as noticeable.

Thanks JDW. I was just watching your CRT adjustment video.

The computer does have a hard drive but I didn’t notice the noise in the short time I ran it. I’m primarily switching to the BlueSCSI because I know that spinning platter based drives will fail and replacements will be hard to come by. Loading speed is also a nice bonus though I don’t expect to use this machine with any urgency.

 

[asphaise]

Hello again. I've received the repaired boards back from Thomas at Amiga of Rochester, and with the help of videos from JDW, Branchus, and a few others, I was able to reassemble the machine and set it up in the test configuration with the longer cables as illustrated by JDW. That video is also the one that led me to this forum.

Everything is working perfectly. The machine has 20 MB of RAM, a 256 MB hard drive, and is running System 7.5.3. After Thomas' repair the speaker works. The screen looks great, though it has definitely been adjusted to be oversized. I didn't have any trouble with the keyboard or mouse. The fan is loud. Reminds me of my youth.

The computer has some software installed, like Norton Utilities, Microsoft Word, Filemaker, Quark Express, Claris Email, and something called Automap that looks to be a road atlas. I couldn't find that one on Macintosh Garden, and unfortunately, I couldn't get it to run. The computer previously belonged to a marketing firm from the Milwaukee area and seems to have been last used around 1998. The machine was definitely configured to run over network because Filemaker seems to be looking for some network drives, though the email is locally cached. Norton Utilities rates this computer a 28.5, slotting between a Mac IIcx and a PowerBook Duo 210.

Now I need to start the upgrade process. I suppose I'll start with the replacement ROM, and once that's working, install the RAM. Then I can work on getting the BlueSCSI working, retire the existing drive, and then service the floppy drive. I have the battery replacement board but I need to get the button battery to put in it. Then I'll move to rebuilding the power supply and replacing the fan. I'm saving those for last since they require soldering and that's something I need to work up to.

Thanks again to several members of this forum for you postings and videos over the last few years. You've provided a great deal of help so far, and will continue to do so while I get the machine updated.

@JDW @Mac84 @Branchus @Ron's Computer Videos @This Does Not Compute @Garrett I'm sure I've forgotten some. I really appreciate all of your assistance.

 

[JDW]

The fan is loud. Reminds me of my youth.

Although I wouldn't want to ruin that memory from your youth, there's a video that can help soothe your ears when the time comes to change out that little noisemaker:

 

[asphaise]

Although I wouldn't want to ruin that memory from your youth, there's a video that can help soothe your ears when the time comes to change out that little noisemaker:

You're a good guy for your immediate replies. That's the video I'll be following when the time comes to do the fan swap. I have the FLX version of the fan and I am confused by the text blurb that displays at 29:10: FLX version includes a 4-pin HDD pass thru cable, so you would not need to solder 2-wires.

I'm not at that point yet, but I had planned on asking for help understanding when the time comes.

 

[JDW]

You're a good guy for your immediate replies.

I appreciate your kind word.

Email notifications of replies to threads like this one help me do that. And if the notification comes at the right time, I can fire off a response pretty quickly. I like to do that because I know if I put it off until a later time, I might be so busy I won't reply then, and if I delay too much, I might forget altogether.　

“Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today" is something I always strive to live by, especially when I am waiting patiently for a reply from somebody else and I see they don't have that same motto.

Best wishes to you in the upgrade adventure!

 

[Mk.558]

There's going to be a special place in the future for those who keep their SE/30s pretty much, well, stock. Stock ROM, original battery configuration, spinning disk, electrolytic capacitors, original fan, ...

When was the last time you saw a original, well preserved unmodified Golf MK1 GTI?

Have fun of course, don't let me be a downer. But originality is a thing, i think.

 

[YMK]

There's going to be a special place in the future for those who keep their SE/30s pretty much, well, stock. Stock ROM, original battery configuration, spinning disk, electrolytic capacitors, original fan, ...

When was the last time you saw a original, well preserved unmodified Golf MK1 GTI?

Keeping original capacitors is like having a 40 year old timing belt in your Golf.

 

[Mk.558]

Well what I mean is take care of it, and 40 year old capacitors need to be changed. But tantalums can go BOOM (like here) and electrolyctics work just fine. If you buy quality ones they'll also last a long time.

IIfx ROM and Mac OS 8.1 I don't quite understand though, the SE/30 is already sluggish enough with 7.5.3 even with an accelerator and Mac OS 8.1 doesn't really bring much interesting to the table. Even 8.1 on my IIci is a drag. If I had a Daystar PowerCache it'd probably be different, but I don't.

 

[JDW]

SE/30 is already sluggish enough with 7.5.3 even with an accelerator ….

I personally use a beefed up S7.1 install most of the time, with a fallback to System 6.0.x (via System Picker app) when I have the need for speed.

@eric shows how to add 7.5.5 Functionality to 7.1:
https://erichelgeson.github.io/blog/2021/03/23/ultimate-system-7.1/

Eric doesn’t talk about WindowShade though, which I feel strongly should be a part of any beefed up System 7.1 install, and which is talked about here:
https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/tweaks-for-system-7-1.3676/

For people who dislike separate installers, @Ron's Computer Videos has prepared most of the add-on files Eric recommends in the text description of his video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Y-IDm3z7Q


Separately from that…

You can alternatively slim down 7.5.5 to be like 7.1:
https://vintageapple.org/gamba2/753min.txt

 

[asphaise]

There's going to be a special place in the future for those who keep their SE/30s pretty much, well, stock. Stock ROM, original battery configuration, spinning disk, electrolytic capacitors, original fan, ...

When was the last time you saw a original, well preserved unmodified Golf MK1 GTI?

Have fun of course, don't let me be a downer. But originality is a thing, i think.

I'll leave that to museum curators and people such as yourself who are passionate about originality. I'm just a dude who's interested in an obsolete piece of consumer electronics that is well past its usable life. Thanks the efforts and knowledge of the people on this board I'm able to get the computer to a stage where it maintains the spirit of its functionality but the dangers of age are resolved, and quality of life improvements are implemented. That means this particular computer will be used on occasion and thought of fondly, instead of festering in a storage since 1998, as it was previously.

 

[asphaise]

I've finished my amateur restoration of my computer by riding on the shoulders of everyone here. I've upgraded the RAM, serviced the floppy drive, replaced the innards of the power supply, replaced the fan, replaced the hard drive with BlueSCSI, and installed the CR2032 batter module to avoid future battery problems. The only assembly catastrophe I caused was I hamfistedly popped off a microscopic board component from Garrett's replacement ROM when I was trying to slide on the reinforcing brackets. So I reverted to the original ROM for now.

Like @JDW mentions above, I used @Ron's Computer Videos excellent Ultimate 7.1 disk image for my BlueSCSI but I did include WindowShade and removed the Appearance stuff. I like the super old school 2-D black and white interface for this computer.

After soldering in the fan and PSU, following JDW's videos, I can't begin to express how grateful I am that people like Thomas are available to resolder and inspect the logic and analog boards. I was sweating bullets on the simple solders I did and they are, shall we say, non-photogenic.

And everything works. The computer is quiet and fast. The speaker beeps and plays other sounds. The floppy drive reads the few floppies I have hanging around from my college days. I can transfer data with the fantastic BlueSCSI toolbox, and with that I can make it do anything I could ever expect from a 35 year old computer.

The only things I contributed to the build are a small clip to hold the BlueSCSI LED by the front cover's drive light indicator and a BlueSCSI mounting tray that attaches in the expansion slot opening. The filament color isn't a great match but it will have to do for now until I can find something closer. The clips works well, snapping into a slot left by the removal of the hard drive tray, and the LED lights up just like the original. The mount screws through the expansion opening bracket and stays with the computer when the rear cover is removed. I added a horizontal slot to mimic the lines on the front of the machine.

Now I'm crawling through Macintosh Garden, looking for interesting programs to try out. Please feel free to offer any suggestions on software that will be useful or interesting.

Thanks again everybody. I can honestly say I could never have done it without your work over the last several years. Thanks for making it available.

 

[JDW]

Now I'm crawling through Macintosh Garden, looking for interesting programs to try out. Please feel free to offer any suggestions on software that will be useful or interesting.

A good start would be classic games like Dark Castle and Prince of Persia and Spectrum Holobyte Tetris, not to mention Lode Runner. Then move on to Utility apps like Norton Utilities 3.5, SCSI Director Pro 4.0, and Speedometer 3.23. There are so many utilities though. I probably have more than games!

 

[asphaise]

A good start would be classic games like Dark Castle and Prince of Persia and Spectrum Holobyte Tetris, not to mention Lode Runner. Then move on to Utility apps like Norton Utilities 3.5, SCSI Director Pro 4.0, and Speedometer 3.23. There are so many utilities though. I probably have more than games!

Thanks. I’ve seen you doing your system and drive performance tests and wondered what programs you were using. I’ll grab the ones you mention. I’ll also grab the games though I don’t think I’ll do much gaming on this computer.