SE/30 Crashes Randomly....

jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
Hello everyone I have an SE/30 that has had some work done, it appears previously recapped and looks to have trace repair done as well. Well at first everything went well until about 20 minutes after each use give or take, the computer would go black on the screen and then when you go to power it back on there's a flash of what was previously on the screen followed by a normal boot and then the picture collapses and goes black. I have tried to diagnose the issue and realized both the analog board and power supply had not been recapped so I swapped in known good ones from my other SE and same issues and yes voltages on each power supply and analog board were the same. The 12v and 5V rails are perfect. I can hear a sort of squeal at time but that's about it. Other than that it works just fine. I have also tested with a known good ROM and cleaned the ROM Simm and all RAM Simms and verified each works fine. As a last ditch effort I waited until it crashed and went to test with my TechStep and it lost SCSI/Serial Communication, basically it was unable to talk to the computer. However if I unplug it or leave it plugged in and let it sit it boots and works just fine for say another 20 minutes give or take. I've included photos and a video as well after it blacked out and I tried to reboot. There's also no chime after each black out/crash.
 

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AndyDiags

Tinkerer
Dec 18, 2021
92
163
33
I see you're using 2-chip rom sticks. Remove those 4 2-chip sticks and try using the 8-chip sticks only.

I know the Mac Plus has issues with the 2-chip sticks, I believe this compatibility issue extends to SE/30 as well. On the Mac Plus, you'll boot up fine, but after you try to start using the system it will eventually freeze.
 

jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
I'll try that right now
Ok so removed the two chip Simms, they were in bank A of course so moved the ones in B to A and well nothing now just goes straight to black still. Well added a PRAM and was working and then just went black so I'm at a loss.
 
Last edited:

AndyDiags

Tinkerer
Dec 18, 2021
92
163
33
Just watch the video, didn't see the 1st time. It looks like your CRT just suddenly loses power.
So you tried this logic board in a different SE/30 and you get the same issue? This definitely looks more like an issue on the analog board or power supply side.

While it's in "crashed" state, can you check the 5v and 12v on the SCSI or Floppy?

Screen Shot 2022-05-19 at 8.00.18 PM.png
 

jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
CC
Just watch the video, didn't see the 1st time. It looks like your CRT just suddenly loses power.
So you tried this logic board in a different SE/30 and you get the same issue? This definitely looks more like an issue on the analog board or power supply side.

While it's in "crashed" state, can you check the 5v and 12v on the SCSI or Floppy?

View attachment 5087
I will later today but yes this is a working power supply and analog board that works fine in my other SE, could it be the end board that connects to the back of the CRT?
 

Volvo242GT

Tinkerer
Feb 7, 2022
307
167
43
Currently Duvall, WA
Another thing, if you move the AB to LB harness at all, does it restart? The harness in my SE has some wires that look to be damaged. If I move it into a certain position, sometimes it'll just stop, either freezing, displaying a checkerboard, or nothing at all. Normally that would be a sign of solder joint problems either at the AB or the logic board where the connectors are, but I've been able to isolate it to the actual harness, since, if I flip the harness around, the problem moves to the other end. So, maybe try the harness from your other machine in it and see if the computer continues to work for more than 15-20 minutes.
 

jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
I’m thin
Another thing, if you move the AB to LB harness at all, does it restart? The harness in my SE has some wires that look to be damaged. If I move it into a certain position, sometimes it'll just stop, either freezing, displaying a checkerboard, or nothing at all. Normally that would be a sign of solder joint problems either at the AB or the logic board where the connectors are, but I've been able to isolate it to the actual harness, since, if I flip the harness around, the problem moves to the other end. So, maybe try the harness from your other machine in it and see if the computer continues to work for more than 15-20 minutes.
I’m thinking it’s either that rear board behind the CRT or the deflection yoke.
 

jajan547

Active Tinkerer
Mar 25, 2022
732
295
63
North Carolina, USA
Ok figured it out. It was not one but two issues, the first being the neck board had two cracked solder joints, the second being that the BlueSCSI I was using, well it's SD card with System 7.5 was a bit corrupted fixed both problems and no issues since. I've been playing games and what not so now that these issues are sorted it's time for a Rominator and 128MB of RAM. System 8.1 here I come.