Help me salvage this SE/30..
Martijn van Buul
Spring is in the air, and so are garage sales. I got lucky today - at least,
I thought -, and picked up a good-looking SE/30 for a dime. Unfortunately,
this is where my luck ended - it's dead.
When turned on, it shows a distorted image[1], and plays a minor chord,
followed by a 4-tone major chord. If I press the reset- or NMI button, it
plays this sequence again. After that, it's dead. I've taken a look
inside, and everything appears to be clean - no leaky caps as far as I could
tell. I re-seated the RAM- and ROM- SIMMs, but to no avail. I checked the
battery, and AFAIK it's ok (Can't find my DVM right now, but it surely
"tastes" like 3V or more..).
Any hints would be more than welcome. I'll go ahead and replace the caps after
the weekend - everything is closed here today:(
Kind regards, Martijn.
[1] I tried making a picture, but #&$&# Windows seems to be limiting me to
160x120 on my webcam. Anyway, a close-up of the screen can be admired on
http://www.stack.nl/~martijnb/se30.jpg
The real screen consists of 3 bands, more or less evenly spaced
horizontally. The pattern seems to be stable
--
Martijn van Buul - pi...@dohd.org - http://www.stack.nl/~martijnb/
Geek code: G-- - Visit OuterSpace: mud.stack.nl 3333
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new
discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' (I found it!) but 'That's funny ...' Isaac Asimov
Don Bruder
Martijn van Buul <pi...@dohd.org> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> Spring is in the air, and so are garage sales. I got lucky today - at least,
> I thought -, and picked up a good-looking SE/30 for a dime. Unfortunately,
> this is where my luck ended - it's dead.
>
> When turned on, it shows a distorted image[1], and plays a minor chord,
> followed by a 4-tone major chord. If I press the reset- or NMI button, it
> plays this sequence again. After that, it's dead. I've taken a look
> inside, and everything appears to be clean - no leaky caps as far as I could
> tell. I re-seated the RAM- and ROM- SIMMs, but to no avail. I checked the
> battery, and AFAIK it's ok (Can't find my DVM right now, but it surely
> "tastes" like 3V or more..).
>
> Any hints would be more than welcome. I'll go ahead and replace the caps after
> the weekend - everything is closed here today:(
>
> Kind regards, Martijn.
>
> [1] I tried making a picture, but #&$&# Windows seems to be limiting me to
> 160x120 on my webcam. Anyway, a close-up of the screen can be admired on
> http://www.stack.nl/~martijnb/se30.jpg
> The real screen consists of 3 bands, more or less evenly spaced
> horizontally. The pattern seems to be stable
In order: Battery (Might "taste" like 3 volts, but that doesn't mean
that it's supplying enough juice to get things rolling - It's probably
on its last legs)
RAM: Check seating/crud on pins/in sockets.
After that... <shrug> Take a wild guess.
The oddball display screams RAM problem to me, as do the chimes-of-death
that you report. If you had any display, you'd be looking at a "sad mac"
with the problem code, and my bet is that the displayed code would
involve memory. Is there even any on the board?
--
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Short form: I'm trashing EVERY E-mail that doesn't contain a password in the
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Martijn van Buul
> In order: Battery (Might "taste" like 3 volts, but that doesn't mean
> that it's supplying enough juice to get things rolling - It's probably
> on its last legs)
I'll check that.
> RAM: Check seating/crud on pins/in sockets.
I re-seated it, and it didn't look *too* dirty.
> After that... <shrug> Take a wild guess.
>
> The oddball display screams RAM problem to me, as do the chimes-of-death
> that you report. If you had any display, you'd be looking at a "sad mac"
> with the problem code, and my bet is that the displayed code would
> involve memory. Is there even any on the board?
Yes, all 8 sockets are in use. I don't know the status of it, though; I'll
try rotating it. It would seem to me that I'd at least see a different
pattern. I have some 30-pins memory around, but I'm not quite sure about their
status either. If nothing, I could borrow some out of my Classic - at least
temporarily..
Martijn van Buul
> It occurred to me that Don Bruder wrote in comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc:
>> In order: Battery (Might "taste" like 3 volts, but that doesn't mean
>> that it's supplying enough juice to get things rolling - It's probably
>> on its last legs)
>
> I'll check that.
3.6 V. My tastebuds are still working ;)
>> RAM: Check seating/crud on pins/in sockets.
>
> I re-seated it, and it didn't look *too* dirty.
Right. I lobotomized my NeXTStation, and stole 4 SIMMs worth 16 MB from it.
Now it works like a charm. Now I merely need to find some more memory - 4MB
is a bit scarce for this thing, and the NeXTStation really wants the other
half of its memory back..
Thanks a lot!
Geoffrey
> When turned on, it shows a distorted image[1], and plays a minor chord,
> followed by a 4-tone major chord. If I press the reset- or NMI button, it
> plays this sequence again. After that, it's dead.
The battery isn't important, in the '30 it just keeps the PRAM and clock
alive.
That pic says to me it is a RAM issue more likely than not.
First, though, go over the board carefully, and find *anything* that is
socketed and re-seat it -- prise up the edge of the chip with an
appropriate tool, don't mind the crunchiness as this is just the
oxodisation on the chip's pins breaking loose. Prise up the other side
as well, the push it back into the socket *firmly*. Yes, more crunching
is expected.
Strip all the RAM out, and *carefully* clean the contacts on both sides
of each SIMM with a soft pencil eraser, then swab it down with cleaning
or isopropyl alcohol. Install a minimum amount of RAM, and see if it
fires up cleanly. If not, swap some of the SIMMs around and repeat. If
you manage to easter-egg all your SIMMs and still no joy, then possibly
the board's memory controller chip is shot.
Geoffrey
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Michael Black
Martijn van Buul (pi...@dohd.org) writes:
> It occurred to me that Martijn van Buul wrote in comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc:
>> It occurred to me that Don Bruder wrote in comp.sys.mac.hardware.misc:
>>> In order: Battery (Might "taste" like 3 volts, but that doesn't mean
>>> that it's supplying enough juice to get things rolling - It's probably
>>> on its last legs)
>>
>> I'll check that.
>
> 3.6 V. My tastebuds are still working ;)
>
>>> RAM: Check seating/crud on pins/in sockets.
>>
>> I re-seated it, and it didn't look *too* dirty.
>
> Right. I lobotomized my NeXTStation, and stole 4 SIMMs worth 16 MB from it.
> Now it works like a charm. Now I merely need to find some more memory - 4MB
> is a bit scarce for this thing, and the NeXTStation really wants the other
> half of its memory back..
>
it was saved when it was becoming obsolete.
It's past the time where that level of memory (I seem to recall that
it was 32pin SIMMs in the 30) was in common use, so that era of
computer has mostly been tossed out by now. You'll instead memory
more useful in more recent things.
Michael
David C.
>
> Spring is in the air, and so are garage sales. I got lucky today - at
> least, I thought -, and picked up a good-looking SE/30 for a
> dime. Unfortunately, this is where my luck ended - it's dead.
>
> When turned on, it shows a distorted image[1], and plays a minor
> chord, followed by a 4-tone major chord. If I press the reset- or NMI
> button, it plays this sequence again. After that, it's dead. I've
> taken a look inside, and everything appears to be clean - no leaky
> caps as far as I could tell. I re-seated the RAM- and ROM- SIMMs, but
> to no avail. I checked the battery, and AFAIK it's ok (Can't find my
> DVM right now, but it surely "tastes" like 3V or more..).
>
> Any hints would be more than welcome. I'll go ahead and replace the
> caps after the weekend - everything is closed here today:(
>
> Kind regards, Martijn.
>
> [1] I tried making a picture, but #&$&# Windows seems to be limiting me to
> 160x120 on my webcam. Anyway, a close-up of the screen can be admired on
> http://www.stack.nl/~martijnb/se30.jpg
> The real screen consists of 3 bands, more or less evenly spaced
> horizontally. The pattern seems to be stable
I just checked with my copy of "The Dead Mac Scrolls" (an incredibly
useful book if you have to maintain any old Macs.)
They don't describe this symptom directly, but they do describe
something close:
Symptom: A Mac SE/30 has no startup bong. the display is filled
with a black-and-white checkerboard pattern.
Probable diagnosis: The problem on the SE/30 logic board.
Solution: Check/reseat the ROM SIMM.
The ROM SIMM is at the front (user-facing) edge of the motherboard, to
the right of the for RAM-SIMM sockets.
The only problem with this theory is that you're getting a sad-mac
chime out the speaker. You shouldn't hear anything if the ROM is
unavailable.
But you might be seeing a combination of problems. Or the ROM SIMM
might've been damaged somehow, so the self-test code is able to run and
detect the failure, but is not able to clear the screen and display the
sad-mac code.
-- David
Nearly Normal Jimmy
<pi...@dohd.org> wrote:
> Hello.
>
> Spring is in the air, and so are garage sales. I got lucky today - at least,
> I thought -, and picked up a good-looking SE/30 for a dime. Unfortunately,
> this is where my luck ended - it's dead.
>
> When turned on, it shows a distorted image[1], and plays a minor chord,
> followed by a 4-tone major chord. If I press the reset- or NMI button, it
> plays this sequence again. After that, it's dead. I've taken a look
> inside, and everything appears to be clean - no leaky caps as far as I could
> tell. I re-seated the RAM- and ROM- SIMMs, but to no avail. I checked the
> battery, and AFAIK it's ok (Can't find my DVM right now, but it surely
> "tastes" like 3V or more..).
>
> Any hints would be more than welcome. I'll go ahead and replace the caps after
> the weekend - everything is closed here today:(
>
> Kind regards, Martijn.
>
> [1] I tried making a picture, but #&$&# Windows seems to be limiting me to
> 160x120 on my webcam. Anyway, a close-up of the screen can be admired on
> http://www.stack.nl/~martijnb/se30.jpg
> The real screen consists of 3 bands, more or less evenly spaced
> horizontally. The pattern seems to be stable
i have an SE/30 (actually a SE FDHD with an SE/30 mainboard) and i
found a book at my local library about repairs and maintenance for the
SE, SE/30, Classic, and Classic II by Larry Pina. It is long out of
print so I took it and photocopied it. it is quite a thorough and
detailed repair manual for these old Macs. If you can find a copy or,
as i did, copy one it would be quite invaluable. i have several "parts"
Macs and assorted stuff dedicated to keeping my SE/30 alive as long as
possible.