Mac SE/30: The Resurrection

What did it take to get my Mac SE/30 going again? Based on the symptoms, it was something I never expected.
Watch how I recapped the motherboard in this machine: • (Trying to) Revive a M...
Resources and information sources:
Free Geek Twin Cities: www.freegeektwincities.org
68kMLA Forums: 68kmla.org/forums/index.php
SE/30 capacitor reference: www.maccaps.com/MacCaps/Capaci...
SE/30 motherboard schematics: museo.freaknet.org/gallery/ap...
Big Mess o' Wires ROM-inator: www.bigmessowires.com/mac-rom...
IBM WDS-L40 series hard drive jumper settings: computermuseum.informatik.uni-...
SCSI2SD adapter setup and premade Mac OS images: www.savagetaylor.com/2018/01/0...
Retrobright long-term re-yellowing: www.classic-computers.org.nz/...
Macintosh IIx photo: www.vectronicscollections.org/...
Macworld Magazine, April 1987: archive.org/details/MacWorld_...
Mac Plus photo: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
Macworld Magazine, March 1989: archive.org/details/MacWorld_...
Mac SE/30 pricing: InfoWorld, March 27, 1989
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Please consider supporting my work on Patreon: / thisdoesnotcompute
Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @thisdoesnotcomp
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Music: "Now or Never (You and Me)" by Dan Mason (danmason.bandcamp.com).
Additional music by Epidemic Sound (www.epidemicsound.com).
Intro music by BoxCat Games (www.box-cat.com).

[@FreddeLamotte]

I wrote my PhD on an SE/30 (2 Mb - 40 Mb) in 1990 with SuperPaint 2 and MS-Word 3. I still have one in the lab and boot it from time to time to impress the students - Success guaranteed 100%. Thanks for reviving this beautiful machine

[@wellcraft19]

I so agree with you here. See my comment above.

[@andrewbowers3676]

I used to have an original Mac 128K from 1984 (Like an idiot I sold it in the late 90s when it was worthless), I bought it when I was in 8th grade from the guy down the street from my folks. Wrote quite a few essays and book reports on it!

[@thihal123]

Love that story. SE/30 was the computer Oi used throughout my high school

[@howaboutsomesoyfood]

that's awesome. I'm in my 20s but I've always had a soft spot for 80s-90s computers, especially the early Macs.

[@user-rf8ls3no4e]

My screen turns on but it's blank.

[@StevenCasteelYT]

That near instant boot from the "SSD" was so cool to see.

[@holton345]

I recapped my SE/30 a few years ago. I picked up a ROMinator, a SCSI2SD, and some other goodies and have been happily click-clacking away on this old bird ever since. I love the thing. It has been in my life for a very long time. I will never get rid of it. I was lucky that my SIASIMAC issue ended with the re-cap work. Thanks for the video.

[@scottyhughes9179]

Back in 1989, the SE-30 was the computer in my studio, using it mainly with Adobe Illustrator. I had a Radius brand external B&W monitor hooked up to it as well, the rotatable one, so I used the 9" screen for menus, etc... what a great machine. I produced a lot of booklets, logos, page layouts, floor plans, and conceptual renderings with this baby! When I finally left that job, and branched out on my own, I bought an LC-III, pretty much a colour version of the SE-30. I still have a Plus, SE, and a Classic in y collection... I think it's time to boot them up and write a message on a hard drive for future collectors to read... thanks for the memories and the repair video!

[@itsgruz]

Really fun video with very pleasing camera work. Great job saving that poor SE/30! Shocking to see the damage endured to that second SE/30 from that battery!

[@slaquers]

Cool to see ya here, have watched a lot of your Mac game videos

[@25hztolife86]

Really good video. It demonstrates how persistent you are and continue to be. One of the best videos do far.

[@rainbowrepair5692]

I enjoyed it too

[@NijiDash]

Great video. There's just something about classic Macintoshes that makes me happy. My favorite operating system is actually System 7, its aesthetic simplicity and ease of use, combined with great applications totally make it. Also, that SE30 boots faster than my XPS 15!

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Yeah, this SE/30 boots faster than any other computer I have - it’s crazy how big of a difference the SCSI2SD makes!

[@TheyreStillOutThere]

P.S. this is your best B-roll footage I think. I can watch this with the sound off.

[@Snappers1_]

Fitz I know right? B-roll live steps isn’t easy!

[@ElNeroDiablo]

Personally; even if the board-level work on the SE/30 wasn't required to get it operational, at least you've got peace of mind that it's unlikely to just up and die on you any time soon, especially giving it that isopropyl bath to clean it up as you did.

[@bananasrfr14]

Your content is always so detailed and satisfying to watch. Your scripts are thorough but easy to follow, and your video to accompany it is a treat. Keep up the great work!

[@PotatoFi]

Wow... can't believe it was just the RAM. Awesome lead-up, I am so glad that you resurrected that machine. Amazing work.

[@stefanocrespi5424]

Perfectly edited as Usual, Colin. I particularly like those pan shots.

[@magreger]

Loved the detailed walk-through of your troubleshooting process.

[@camerontinker1948]

Great job for sticking with the restoration on this Mac! I like seeing old hardware restored to working order.

[@BradleyBrown]

Thanks for sharing your adventure with us. I have a couple of Macs that have similar issues that seemed to daunting to get into, but you make it seem a lot more approachable.

[@joshua.snyder]

That was satisfying to watch, Colin. Great refurbish and video!

[@roberthaydon6387]

Very stoked I just found this channel! SUBSCRIBED! I have an SE/30 and an SE - along with a Wifi modem I use to get online with it from time to time. Great fun!

[@wellcraft19]

This makes me curios. Please tell us more (as I have one working SE/30 as well).

[@Tallisman1000]

I had every MAC from the Lisa forward to the IIFX and threw them out in 2002 all were in working order... I was a Mac tech for many years... aligning that screen is a cakewalk

[@dustojnikhummer]

I assume you moved? Why else would you throw them out.

[@Suedeash]

One of your best videos yet, I hope this gets more views because it was a pleasure to watch this go from faulty to fixed.

[@AndrewWoodford]

That backlit shot where you pulled it from the IsoBath was beautiful...

[@dynatroniX86]

My second time watching this after your original release. Enjoyable to see u repair these beautiful machines. I too have a SE30 that I restored.

[@sonoflysystrata2]

Oh darn. This video is SO well done (really professional) and so thorough, that I now feel compelled to find the two semi-broken SE/30s I’ve got in storage and get on with my project to make them happy. 😊

[@callumclark4021]

I get stuck in such a rabbit hole with your videos! So addictive!

[@kanayanfantv]

I was looking foward to see this Mac again! Love it!

[@stickboy24]

Holy cow, Just found your channel and completely loving it. Plus to find out your in the twin cities/near loving it.

[@AS-iu3pl]

Great video, Colin. Really glad it worked out in the end - very well deserved.

[@cdos9186]

These videos are so enjoyable to watch!

[@fredio54]

OMG that demo of the audio settings!!!! It's like I was still there. Thank you so much!!!

[@hero_in_deepblu]

YES! You did it! I was hoping we’d get an update about this soon.

[@nurk_barry]

Dude I’ve learned so much about my passion for retro tech from watching you. Thank you!

[@xana3790]

You might want to talk to “8-bit guy” about retrobright. He has lots of experience

[@wishusknight3009]

If it's not needed, don't do it. It just weakens the plastic.

[@medes5597]

Most computer enthusiasts don't particularly rate the 8bit guy (he's also known for being a touch arrogant unfortunately, the dallas computer scene has several issues with him). Don't get me wrong, I love his videos but he's a controversial figure among retro computer people.

[@Watchmeloseit2012]

Ytbr. Nice.

[@microcolonel]

@1000 Subs with just Playlists can't you just put it in some hydrogen peroxide solution with a circulating heater? (Like a sous vide circulator) seems like it woulb be fine.

[@microcolonel]

@@wishusknight3009 I've not seen anything about that. It seems weird to me that hydrogen peroxide and heat would make plastic brittle.

[@AtariLegend]

Amazing video. I've been a lurking fan for a while now. Your editing is amazing. And you are a very natural speaker. I wish I had that talent. Maybe with some more practice. Thanks for this amazingly entertaining video!

[@mayor_dj]

One of the better classic macs. Thanks for the video!

[@Phoenixesper1]

As for the retro brighting issue of the yellowing returning.... this is because in nearly all of those cases people used the UV method of retrobrighting, which causes a unique property of computer plastics to go screwy. Electronics plastic discoloring comes from two sources, good old oxidation which is usually very gradual and dependent on the type of plastic creating a soft faded appearance. And then there is the fire retardant chemicals in the plastic, which causes the harsh dark yellowing were all familiar with. There are two methods for retro brighting, Heat and UV. With the Common UV method, the H2O2 will remove the plastic oxide discoloring on the surface. However the UV then reacts with the retardant caused discoloration by literally destroying it, it then leeches out of the plastic and then the H2O2 fully oxidizes it removing the color. You get a fresh look on the surface, but congrats you've also now exposed the next deeper layer of unaffected fire retardant to UV light from CFL bulbs and the sun! And unlike the top layer you just removed, you won't be able to retrobright the new yellowing as easily a second time with the same method, as the UV will again destroy it, BUT! It won't be able to leech out as effectively and the H2O2 can't penetrate down to oxidize it. This is why you need to use the heat method, use 130-150F hot water/ H2O2 bath to promote rapid surface oxidation of the plastic. The heat causes the plastic to expand on the molecular level allowing the H2O2 to penetrate deep enough to reach the damaged retardant and oxidize it... BUT the retardant remains intact and isn't completely destroyed as in the UV concentrated method, thus it does not leech out as its molecules are to large in its intact state. The result? Uniform brightening for one, AND with thr surface layer of retardant intact the deeper layers won't be exposed to UV light and so if it yellows again you can use the Heat method to effectively re retro bright it back to normal with little trouble and the effect lasts longer. However regardless no matter what, yellowing will eventually return. It will oxidize to oxygen and ANY UV light exposure over time will darken it. So in conclusion it you intend to retro bright it....don't expose it to sunlight or CFL bulbs as they will yellow them the same as they had been.

[@c90s_tech]

Congrats on getting it working. I have a couple SE's (Not SE/30's) I'm working on restoring. Another great video as always.

[@dng2000]

I just subscribed to your KZbin channel. I love your videos about Macintosh computers from the past. It sure reminds me of my wonderful childhood memories when I first fell in love with computers in school, particularly the Apple IIc, Apple IIe, Apple IIgs and when I was in 4th grade I was taught to use a Macintosh LC. It was so super exciting for me then.

[@TechnoBoomer]

My first Mac ! bought in 1989, with a student plan... I have used this machine for 9 years (System 6 through 7.5). Perhaps the best desktop computer I ever used. Thanks for the video. François (in Paris).

[@atomoworkshop3327]

Amazing work as always! Who knew it would be so simple?

[@nerdyaviator732]

I have an se/30 that I plan to upgrade, and I didn't know about the aftermarket rom chip. Also nice to see a hard drive conversion in action. You earned a sub from me👍

[@headwerkn]

My gawd, this channel is bringing back some memories. Back in the early 2000s I was big into vintage Macs, probably owning over 20 at one stage. Eventually space concerns and commonsense took over and I sold them off. One that I kept long term was an SE/30 I’d bought for a mere $25. For a few bucks more I maxed the RAM at 32Mb, popped in a (apparently rare) PDS Ethernet card and used it on and off for years. It too suffered from the display issue, but only if it didn’t get switched on at least once a month. I was under the impression is was an issue with the analog board... sometimes it’d need 10-20 mins to warm up before the sync circuitry worked properly. Thanks to the surge in old Mac collectibility after Steve’s passing I ended up selling for over $400.

[@headwerkn]

Oh, a corroded PRAM battery destroyed my IIfx too. That was a sad day...

[@djdresden242]

That's neat. I appreciate your appreciation for vintage hardware.

[@PScoopYT]

Wow! All that works just to realize that, sometimes, the solution to the problem is very simple. We're just didn't see it at first. Still, great work on this project!

[@andi]

Really enjoyed watching this! Love seeing retro apple computer videos :) Keep it up!

[@performa9523]

I may be making a pilgrimage to this "Free Geek" place. If they've got old Mac keyboards and SCSI drives, I wonder what other goodies they might have... Brilliant show sir, I'll definitely be following some of your tips when I finally get back to work on my SE/30. That hard drive isn't going to last forever, unfortunately, and that SCSI to SD thing looks awesome!

[@_____7704]

Farrrrr outttt...... solid work mate, very persistent, well done

[@robertshanks3674]

you're the man!!! you have motivated me to unpack my se30 and get it going again!!!

[@jxdsarasarajxdu5559]

Thank you for the video. It was nostalgic and entertaining. I have same Mac SE/30 with same problems and battery damage.

[@nanquan491]

Hey man! I'm new to the channel, and really enjoying your content so far. Very cool retro tech videos, and the production quality is superb.

[@stopthephilosophicalzombie9017]

Man, I don't know why but the sound of old hard drives is so incredibly soothing to me.

[@chandlerzhu9735]

the mechanism of the floppy drive looks fascinating !

[@santospoland]

It's a beautiful machine, no doubt. I have one myself and just love passing by it everyone and again.

[@somerandomeguyonyoutube]

great video Collin

[@DaveWongillies]

I had this exact same problem with my Mac SE/30 this week but I only saw this video after I'd also figured out that faulty RAM was the problem. Glad to find someone else who had an SE/30 with simasimac that was also caused by the same problem as everything I found online about the problem made no mention of faulty RAM being a potential cause.

[@LNSLateNightSaturday]

Great video, Colin. These are neat old machines. I think I'd really love to have one of those Color Classics like you showed most of all... My family had an original Mac 512k which was destroyed in storage during Katrina, but I remember the Color Classics from my dad's job at a newspaper. They were spiffy!

[@pv8685]

Best intro ever... it dont even need words!

[@britsluver]

Loving all these

[@johngullo9420]

Worked for a DJ company back in the 90’s and used this machine. Loved it! I remember the external hd was 40 mb!😀 Also had a Classic too. Boss had a Power Book 5300. Amazing what it could do. We’ve come a long way !

[@bujin5455]

I'm glad you save it!

[@BocaRetroGames]

Great video on every aspect ! Congrats

[@jcspaziano]

Good video. Great topic. Excellent presentation and flow!

[@Robo10q]

You may have taken the long way around, but you ended up with nice SE/30. Well done.

[@jkpoynter]

Glad to see you taking things in stride, while still figuring things out. If I didn’t know any better, you and 8 Bit dude are friends, but you handle yourself with much less arrogance, which I greatly respect.

[@charlessale409]

Those floppy drive whirring noises make me happy. :')

[@atomicorang]

Great job.. in 1989 I didn’t even know computers really existed.. I had other interests at the time. Thanks it was entertaining to watch you.

[@_lordcharles]

That the video I like! Great quality, entertaining, and useful as well. +Like

[@shibolinemress8913]

I love the word "troubleshooting". It reminds me of duckshooting in an arcade 😁. But seriously, thanks for a great video! Your commitment and love of these old machines is amazing!

[@mitchelvalentino1569]

My favorite Macintosh of all time.

[@peterw.gstettner7737]

Love to see another SE/30 rescued. As a owner of a working one for 32 years now, I must admit it is something special to turn on from time to time...

[@ladreamin5008]

I really enjoyed the video and the process of troubleshooting Also I always liked this design it’s very iconic

[@SuperTrainStationH]

I only ever used a Mac SE as a kid, so when you hit that switch and it made that soft little chime rather than that fierce ancient BEEEEEP, that seemed like an anachronism.

[@LucaBlightOfHighland]

Haha looks at his satisfied expression at the beginning of the video, good job!

[@onigvd77]

looking back, this would have been an awesome machine for my family to have back in 1991, but it have have just been discontinued. We got a Mac Classic 2/40MB with ImageWriter II and Microsoft Works bundle. The Classic was still a great little machine and we made good use of it, my Dad used it for his course work at Uni, my brother and I used it for our high school work and games of course. We upgraded to the LC630 around 1995. The only issue we had with the classic was the hard drive would fail a few times, but I think that was due to how we used it, we would turn it off when not actively using it, instead of leaving it on until bed time. The SE/30 is something I would love to have in my collection one day and is probably the best classic/compact Mac to have.

[@woodengamer]

The hard drive actually came out of that SE/30, it was wiped in an external SCSI enclosure which must have handled the termination and scsi id for it. Glad to see that the parts from the second SE/30 were able to help you get this one up and running. I am in the same boat when it comes to retro-brite, for the most part I am ok with the discoloration on computers in my collection, but I do want to try more experimentation with it.

[@ThisDoesNotCompute]

Yeah, I suspected this SE/30 had seen some work over the years. Only two of the RAM sticks that came with it matched and I had a feeling that the drive had been haphazardly replaced (given the bracket situation). If the external enclosure had a SCSI terminator on it, then that explains why you were able to wipe it. If you think it would be useful, I can drop off the damaged motherboard -- some of the traces need to be bodged around, but it could be salvageable. Thanks again for your help!

[@TheHobbyShopFilms]

I did a write up on what I called the Ultimate System 7 years ago back when I was in high school. The Mac SE cost a small fortune back then, and was a very nice computer. My first Macintosh was a mac classic. In school we used mac plus and even had a scanner. Mac's are so much fun! Just seeing a pixelated scanned image back then was awesome!

[@MacintoshMen]

Awesome restoration! I really need to get a keyboard and mouse for my Classic II

[@izzieb]

Great video as always.

[@TheyreStillOutThere]

I’m really glad to hear it was just the worm gear grease screwing up the floppy loading. I have about 10 Macs with supposedly bad floppy drives laying around that I got from a hoarder and am trying to restore. Time to make a trip to Autozone I think.

[@gugajedi]

I Hope you do another video on this Mac, and do a Retro-bright on it, the 8-Bit Guy use this process with a very high success, maybe you could ask him for some tips, but if you watch a few videos on his channel you will get the way on using retro-bright. I really like your videos and the way you speak and explain everything. I'm a big fan from Brazil!

[@RightWing1]

It must be at least 25 years or more since I used one of those Macs. I joined a company after having used mainly Vax/VMS Systems and using DecMate word processor to using Mac's for word processing and report writing.I was impressed by the GUI and simplicity. Ahh memories.

[@mmitchellhouston]

I worked on one of these at my second newspaper job. It also had an external monitor... that was the same as a legal sheet of paper (8.5 x 14). And the monitor swiveled between portrait and landscape! It was amazing to work with, and much more versatile than "coding" text with a Compugraphics typesetting system.

[@adiposerex5150]

I’d love one of these.

[@chriholt]

Awesome restoration. A major issue - don't use rubbing alcohol - it's 30% water. Go for isopranol - you'll save yourself a lot of problems!

[@Stewbular]

The SE/30 was the best Mac investment of the late ‘80’s. it stayed current much longer than many other Macs. I do love my Color Classic w the the mystic pizza mod

[@ErgonomicChair]

I like the yellowing tbh, has character and charm.

[@wishusknight3009]

I still have the SE/30 I bought used back in 1991. I upgraded it over time with an 040/33 128k cache Daystar and Radius Pivot color card and display. It also had its scsi bus nearly maxed out while it was my main box, with cdrom, scsi network interface, scanner, and extra drives. I even still use it to this day on occasion to do some music composition and gaming!

[@calmchess2515]

This guy is through and obviously a hardware fanatic. Highly skilled.

[@michelmostaert6071]

Great, splendid, WONDERFUL :) Thank you very much for this very very intereting video. I'm an Apple fan since I'm maybe 4 years old, I was nearby born with the Macintosh (I'm from June 1984), and my first one was an SE/30. I really want to begin restoring some old Apple computers for years but could not find the time to begin dealing with this. Now I have place at home (a great garage), I can start this and my first projets will be a Macintosh Plus and my old SE/30... Hope they will come back to life. Also, i always wanted to restore a Lisa but never saw one in real since I was maybe 3 or 4. I have discovered a new Computer museum 30 km from home, which has received old Apple ones and at least 3 Lisa's but no one knows if they are working, they must be tested prior to be powered on, and, of course, beginning with the power Supply. This is a chance, they need a fan and I need the computers to be repaired, we are speeaking about doing it together. Great project as Lisa's are really very difficult to find today, or crazilly expensive when you see people trying to sell one "Non-Working exemplar" for two thousands or more dollars... Thanks again. Michel

[@aellyx]

What a relief to see that little guy finally boot

[@pwissink1]

Good video. Cool that there are still people like you who want to fix an old computer. And yes, I do learn from your video's!

[@Otokichi786]

This reminds me my first Mac. It was an SE 4/40 that had been used by a Marine Biology TA at the University of Hawaii in the late 1980's. The last thing he'd written was a resume, which lent a poignant note to this Mac's old life. At the time (mid 1990), I was a Windows-only computer user who wondered what color the grass was on the other side of the digital divide. Thanks to a college classmate who was a veteran Apple II user from way back, it was time to search eBay for parts to upgrade this old Mac. After a year of adding this and that, the unit was an SE/30 32/540 that might surf the Internet if I could find a rare display board. I stopped the upgrade and gave it to an unfortunate Pckard Bell desktop PC user. Then I began searching eBay for a "portable Mac." This led to the lowendmac website and information about Mac laptops. After some false starts and lost bids, I bought an ex-middle-school Mac PowerBook 1400C. This led to an ex-Canadian PDQ PowerBook, and finally to a 2012 MacBook Pro. It has been "a long, strange journey" with many interesting tangents to Lenovo ThinkPads.

[@upover]

Great video my dude

[@md28stads]

Another super cool computer. I LOVE old Macs 🙂 You are amazing at this! If I had your skills I would definitely be repairing old Macs like this. Would love to have an Apple IIe to use for typing 😂

[@JuanGuillermoSanchezPerez]

Congratulations on the finish project. For me I won't have the patience to repair it.

[@preiter20]

Great video!

[@dreammfyre]

This is way more epic than it had any right to be lol. Really nice editing.

[@JohnWhittle]

Great videos!

[@kn6bst349]

I always wanted one!

[@MrGiaBoz]

Nice one Colin ☺️ glad you could make this machine to work again! I have very find memories of my first Mac, a LC-II that I'd like to have again, and I know it's a newer machine than yours ☺️ btw.. what happened to the tdnc podcast episodes? Ciao!

[@cylurian]

Working on these machines machines in the 90's I remember that ram was finicky, that it had to be the right ram chip. So I'm not surprised by what you had to go through. So fun to see that machine. There was programs like cricket and I think SPSS at the time for statistical analysis. But I remember cricket was so cool to use and super fast. I wonder if there's any copies of cricket out there.

[@adventureoflinkmk2]

A quick recap is in order Also you; replaced the capacitors in the last video I see what you did there Colin...

[@jackilynpyzocha662]

I feel like "Back To The Future" with the "capacitor" phrase!