(last updated: 10-Feb-2017)
The current configuration is no longer in original 'as acquired' condition.
This system was acquired without keyboard or mouse, which were added later.
I have added an Asante MacCon3 Ethernet card, purchased in a separate Ebay auction.
Memory has been increased from 5MB to 32MB.
Internal SCSI host adapter is #7
Internal SCSI HDD is #0
| Macintosh SE/30: 68030 CPU w/ 68882 FPU, 32MB Memory | |
|---|---|
| PDS | Asante MacCom3 Ethernet Card |
17-Sep-2007
Today the the package arrived via USPS Priority Mail in excellent condition. The seller had done a very good job of packaging the unit in discarded styrofoam and crinkled paper. Included were the M5119 main unit itself, a M0116 keyboard, and a A9M0331 one-button mouse, and cables for the mouse, keyboard, and AC. Also included installed is an ethernet adapter already installed. I'll need to research exactly which.
20-Sep-2007
The system was covered with the ordinary grime and years of finger prints, but the real concern was the smell of tobacco smoke the permeated the unit. I know that would have to get into as many nooks and crannies as I possibly could to clean the smoky smell. With this in mind, I started to dis-assemble the system one layer at a time, cleaning each component first with the vacuum, then wiping it down with windex.
I started with the external case and cleaned all the surfaces. It cleaned up very nicely, with the only blemishes being a couple of scrapes and small dents on the front. This unit is a couple of years older than the first SE/30 that I got, and the inside of the case is covered in a coarser Anti-EMI coating. It proved to be a bit more difficult to clean that the other unit with it's smooth metallic coating. But with a few extra wipes with Windex, I think I got most of the smoke particles from it.
I removed the hard drive, floppy drive, and motherboard. The motherboard was covered in a carpet of dust and fuzz. I took several photos to show this. Also, the has been some exposure to moisture with the DB25 and DB19 rear-panel connectors being the worst corroded. The two mounting 'ears' on each side of the motherboard bracket are also showing significant rusting. None of this though appears to be bad enough to require replacement.
I vacuumed the motherboard, 'scrubbing' lightly with the hose brush attachment. I was not able to remove all of the surface contaminants, though. I then wetted a paper towel with windex and using a narrow flat-blade screwdriver I was able to clean more or less the entire surface of the PCB. I came clean very well, exposing just a very small amount of corrosion around the two SMD transistors in the 'lower-right' corner of the board.
* The RTC battery showed some very serious rusting/corrosion, and I was worried that it might have split and leaked over the board. Fortunately, it hadn't, but clearly the battery was a goner. (photos) The battery is a Maxell ER3S Lithium 3.6V 1/2AA cell. I'll need to replace it.
The hard disk also showed a thick layer of fuzz covering all of the electronics. I vacuumed it, again scrubbing gently with the hose brush. It came clean easier than the main board, and I didn't use windex on it. The floppy drive was mostly clean, externally, but had a good deal of fuzz inside. I vacuumed as much as I could reach, and used a small pick to loosen some of the dust balls. I wiped all the surfaces of each drive (exept the PCBs) and their mounting brackets.
I loosened the power supply from the analog PCB and with a sort of lift and twist motion, I was able to turn it without disturbing the CRT. This gave me enough room to reach in and disconnect the cable between the power supply and the PCB. I removed the power supply and then loosened the screws holding the analog PCB to the case. The high-voltage flyback transformer wire is cannot be disconnected from the PCB side, and I'm not comfortable popping from the CRT so I just lifted and rotated teh analog board, laying flat. With that done, I could loosen the screws holding the CRT to the case front. Lastly I removed the small PCB from the CRT neck. Now everthing was fully exposed and I vacuumed and Windexed every surface. I did not open the power supply but cleaned its exterior thoroughly. I'm sure that I will have some tobacco smoke smell left inside, but I don't want to disturb the long dried out thermal grease between the PS case top and the heat sink inside.
With everything cleaned as much as possible, I reassembled the system.
20-Sep-2007
Before fully reinstalling the harddisk I wanted to image it. Using the same method as I used with the SE/30 #1, I set the drive's ID from 0 to 4 and connected it to my VAXstation 3100's external SCSI port. I booted the VS3100 and is saw the drive with >>> SHOW DEV. I then imaged it to aero-6:
# mount 192.168.1.32:/mnt/windows/DropZone
# cd /mnt/windows/DropZone
# dd if=/dev/rsd1c of=mac2.dsk obs=512
sd1: no disk label
Aug 3 17:00:00 Vs3100 /netbsd: sd1: no disk label
sd1(si0:4:0): Check Condition on CDB: 0x08 01 40 6d 01 00
SENSE KEY: Illegal Request
ASC/ASCQ: Logical Block Address Out of Range
dd: /dev/rsd1c: Aug 3 17:24:43 Vs3100 /netbsd: sd1(si0:4:0): Check Condition on CDB: 0x08 01 40 6d 01 00
Invalid Argument
82029+0 records in
82029+0 records out
Aug 3 17:24:43 Vs3100 /netbsd: SENSE KEY: Illegal Request
41998848 bytes transferred in 823 secs (51031 bytes/sec)
Aug 3 17:24:43 Vs3100 /netbsd: ASC/ASCQ: Logical Block Address Out of Range
Aug 3 17:24:43 Vs3100 /netbsd:
#
These errors are similar to those seen when I imaged the SE/30 #1's drive. I don't think they mean anything significant. It is probably just that the drive is reporting a slightly incorrect geometry, or maybe because there is not 'normal' partition table dd gets slightly confused at the end of the drive. I'm sure I can restore this image and have it work.
I then changed the drive's SCSI ID back to 0 and replaced the drive into the mac. Ready for power-up!
20-Sep-2007
It works! No problems, except that the floppy drive is stiff and won't accept or eject on its own without help. But I'm hoping that it is just needing a little lubrication. That I can handle!
I let the machine just run for a while.
The system has been running now for over an hour, and it's doing just fine! So, I have one good machine after all.
21-Sep-2007
I removed the floppy drive from the system, and using the manual release tab I could see that it was very stiff and didn't want to correctly seat an inserted floppy. Looking the drive's mechanism over showed several areas that are really no more than two plates sliding against each other. Just a little gummed up, I think.
Using the Dupont liquid teflon lubricant, I moistened all of the sliding and rotating parts. I let it dry for a few minutes and then manually inserted a floppy. It snapped in just like it should! Pressing the manual release tab saw the floppy come out without any trouble. I think this is the solution.
I reinstalled the floppy (and piggy-backed harddisk) and rebooted. Sure enough, inserting a floppy works fine, the system recognizes it. Ejecting is working great too!
21-Sep-2007
Now that the system seems to be functional, I want to install the Asante MacCon3 ethernet card that I bought from ebay seller 'frotz661' (David Griffith on the classiccmp.org list). It was complete with software, manuals and hardware. I mounted the connector board to the Apple-supplied bracket and then inserted the main board into the PDS socket. I connected them with the ribbon cable making sure that the white dot matched the white dot on the connector board.
I powered up and, following the manual's directions, I made a copy of the software diskette. Then I installed the driver using the 'Quick' method. I don't have a TCP stack, and I don't have any other AppleTalk gear setup, so I can't really test the ethernet, but I did run the Asante diagnostic and could see that packets were being received, so at least the cabling and transceiver are working.
Now I need to get some TCP software.
24-Sep-2007
During the past couple of days I have been trying to 'enable' AppleTalk services on a Linux system.
I discovered while searching the web that, with the 'netatalk' package, Linux has the capability to provide native AppleTalk services, and act as an AppleTalk 'router' which sets up network numbers and zones. This is good news, if I could get it to work, since I've been struggling with finding a way to get software from the Internet to the macintosh without it already having TCP/IP capabilities.
A couple of nights ago I first tried installing netatalk on aero-6. There is a binary package in the Debian realm and it installed without a hitch via dselect. However, when it started, the atalkd daemon complained and wouldn't start. I saw:
"socket: Address family not supported by protocol"
messages. afpd and papd loaded without trouble, but they can't work, of course, without atalkd. I searched the web extensively, finally hitting some reference that indicated that message was caused when the kernel wasn't built with the correct hooks, in my case, for AppleTalk. Uh oh, this means that I'll have to build a new kernel. I've never done that on Linux!
Yesterday, I tried just that. I downloaded the Debian package for the kernel_source_2.2.20, then untar'd it and after fiddling with this and that configuration tool, I finally got it configured for the make. The make went without a hitch, but took hours on the old 486/33 aero-2 machine. After it was finally finished, I did a 'make install' to position the new kernel for a reboot. The process updated my lilo configuration makeing a backup of the old kernel. In theory I could go back to the old kernel by simply choosing it from the lilo startup menu.
I rebooted, and the kernel went through the startup process, but then disaster! The pcmcia modules refused to load, complaining that they were built for the original 'kernel_2.2.20_idepci'. This is no good. aero-2 is a laptop with the only network connectivity available via the pcmcia ethernet card. I fiddled trying to load the pcmcia stuff manually but it continued to complain and failed to load. I rebooted. Same result. I rebooted to the old kernel, and the pcmcia stuff loaded okay, but now the ethernet card won't start. It's seems some kind of configuration has changed, but I don't have any idea where to begin to look. So this machine is useless until I can rebuild it. Bleh!
Today, then, I got wise and decided to try the AppleTalk on a desktop machine that was already in my spare pile. The only thing I had to lose with that machine, was the time it takes to install Debian and fiddle with netatalk. I installed Debian 3.0 (Woody) since that's what I am most familiar with. I then installed the extra 'netatalk' package (found in 'non-US' section), along with the kernel sources. I monkeyed with the kernel make configuration and finally got something that would build with the needed AppleTalk support, though make stopped midway several times. I had to restart the make, crossing my fingers that it would complete. Eventually, after about six premature halts with errors, it made it all the way through. Why it was failing I have no idea.
Finally, then, I was able to test out AppleTalk. I booted the Debian server, which came up fine, and started netatalk. I can't remember if there were some minor errors or not, initially, but these are the eventual steps I took to get a functional AppleTalk server/router that was visible by this SE/30:
1. Edit atalkd.conf, and add:
eth0 -router -phase 2 -net 1 -addr 1.1 -zone "AppleRidge"
This sets up the configuration for atalkd and enables the router/seed function. Because I have only one ethernet interface, I use '-router', rather than '-seed' (which I already tried unsuccessfully). This is according to the information found in the atalkd.conf file itself, though the atalkd manpage says nothing about -router. If I had other AppleTalk devices already on the network, then I wouldn't use -router/-seed at all, or the other options. I would only specify 'eth0' and that would bind AppleTalk to the ethernet card. atalkd would then pick up the other bits of configuration from the other 'routers' already on the network.
After making this change I restarted netatalk.
On the SE/30, using the Control Panel, I choose EtherTalk as my physical connection. Then, using the Chooser, I selected the network subsection, and clicked on AppleTalk. Hey, in a couple of seconds I saw my server, 'protiva'! When I clicked 'protiva' or selected OK, I was presented with a login dialog. I wasn't able to login, though, even with a known user from the Debian system.
I scanned the atalkd and afpd manpages, but nothing seemed relavant to logging in to the server. At a loss, I scanned the syslog. Yup, there are entries there from atalkd and afpd. And I see a warning message about not being able to find the file 'afppasswd'. This is the only reference to this file I've see yet; you would think it would be referenced somewhere in the afpd manpage, at least. Anyway, I tried a manpage for aftppasswd, and was pleasantly surprised to find one! It gave enough information that I eventually figured it out. So, here is the next key step:
2. Execute afppasswd, twice:
# afppasswd -c # afppasswd -a jared (then enter password twice)
The first run creates the file /etc/netatalk/afppasswd, which will hold the username and password combinations for authorized AppleTalk users. The second run adds the user 'jared' to the table, after querying for a password.
With these two steps, and the way that netatalk comes 'out-of-the-box' in the Debian package, I was able to actually make the connection from the SE/30! After logging in, I was presented with "Home Directory" as a resource on the server, which is my (jared) home directory. This is specified in the AppleVolumes.default configuration file.
These are the steps taken on the SE/30 for connecting:
1. Control Panel -> Network -> EtherTalk 2. Chooser -> AppleTalk -> (select server 'protiva') -> OK 3. (enter username and password) -> OK 4. 'Home Directory' -> OK
And that's it! A new network volume ('Home Directory') appears on the desktop!
I tried it out! I put in my copy of the Asante diskette and copied the contents to the network volume. No problems! The beauty of this method is that it uses what's already built into the SE/30. No TCP/IP required.
I now have the means to get software from the Internet to the SE/30, and vice-versa!
27-Sep-2007
Today I received two batteries from batteryspecialists.com (SLC-based!) for the Real-Time Clock, at $6.95 each, which included free shipping. The old Maxell was obviously original and had rusted out. This battery is some unknown brand, but it is a proper replacement so I installed it into the motherboard after removing it from the system.
After upgrading the memory (next section), I plugged everything back together and booted up. I set the clock in the control panel, and shutdown. I left the machine for a about 60 minutes and then rebooted again. Sure enough, the clock is correct, and the few other settings that I had made (EtherTalk instead of LocalTalk) were still properly set. So, the battery is good!
27-Sep-2007
Also, today I received four sets of four 4MB 30-pin SIMMs from Ebay seller 'XXXXXXXXXX'. I paid just $6 for each set of four SIMMs! I removed the original memory SIMMs which consistes of four 256KB SIMMs and four 1MB SIMMs, and replaced them with the new ones. So I've gone from 5MB to 32MB total RAM in the system. I reinstalled the motherboard (after doing the RTC battery installation) into the system, and powered up. No problems with the boot up and the system sees 32MB! It's not all usable, because of the 'dirty' ROMs, but with MODE32 I'll be able to use it all. Or, if I install NetBSD it should use it all, as I understand it.
24-Oct-2007
After experiencing freezes and lockups on the #1 SE/30 in the past couple of days, I switched my attention to this machine.
I attached the ZIP drive to the SCSI port and found that it was recognized right off the bat, and even shows as the ZIP icon on the desktop! So, that at least confirms that this system's SCSI is working.
02-Nov-2007
For the past two days, I have tried to install a fresh System 7.0.1 to a ZIP disk with no luck whatsoever. I wanted to use the ZIP disk as my boot disk, to keep away from the internal hard disk while I experimented with NetBSD, again ZIP based. Unfortunately, I struggled mightily with trying to get ZIP disks to be recognized (without using the Iomega driver) and getting a clean System 7.0.1 installation that would actually boot.
Twice I was successful getting the software installed to a ZIP disk, but when I reboot against the ZIP disk, it is not recognized, and the system boots from the internal hard disk. I have confirmed that my System Boot setting has the ZIP device selected, and I can boot a 6.0.3 from the ZIP so I know it is working.
Interestingly, when sometimes when I would boot with the 7.0.1-install ZIP disk in the drive, the system would show a happy mac then would complain that the system software is damaged and
In frustration, I decided to just replace the internal hard disk with a spare 1GB disk and try that as an experimental 7.0.1 base. After re-checking my floppies, I recreated the 7.0.1 software floppy set, and installed it. I struggled a lot with the first floppy. It must be flaky since it took about ten tries to finally get the installation to complete. During the unsuccessful attempts, at some point in the process when using the first disk, Install 1, the system would burp and complain that the disk was bad, or it would just hang.
Finally, with System 7.0.1 installed onto the 1GB drive, I then installed the Asante Ethernet driver without any trouble. After re-selecting the Ethernet device in the Control Panel, I was successful at connecting to the LAN.
For grins, I then selected the entire folder of Mac-related stuff from my Linux box (Proteva) and copied it over. It took a while, but it worked without any difficulty.
03-Nov-2007
With the 1GB drive installed (yesterday) that I could experiment with, I decided to try installing NetBSD/mac68k 1.5.3 and it worked! I just followed the INSTALL instructions that are part of the distribution and had no trouble. The basic sequence was:
1- partition the disk using Apple's HD SC utility (patched) 2- make the Root and Swap filesystems using the NetBSD MKFS tool 3- copy the software sets using the NetBSD Install tool 4- boot from Mac OS using the NetBSD booter tool
Other than requiring several hours to copy the software sets, it worked like a charm!
In the meantime, in an attempt to troubleshoot the present problems with SE/30 #1, I shutdown and replaced the original hard disk, then swapped in the SE/30 #1's logic board. After those experiments, I re-installed this system's original logic board and hard disk, so it is now it is in the original configuration again.
12-Jul-2009
As an 'at last' effort to isolate the trouble with the SE #1 random crashes, I decided to swap motherboards between these two systems hoping that it would tell me if the trouble is in the motherboard itself, or something else like in the analog board or power supply. After making the swap so that this chassis had the #1 motherboard installed, I powered up. Alas, the hard disk didn't spin up, and on screen I see the floppy diskette with a flashing '?' mark. Checking voltages at the hard disk reveal that the 12V line is only at 2.5V! Also, as this was going on I saw an occasional 'pinching' in the video output where momentarily the screen image would narrow slightly before returning to normal. I don't know if that is just because the system hasn't been used lately and just needs some time, or if it is indicative of other problems.
25-Jul-2009
After a lengthy power outage overnight, which killed my endurance test of this #2 chassis with the #1 motherboard installed (which worked beautifully during the entire two-week period), I've now moved the motherboards back to their respective original chassis, without ethernet cards installed.
After the swap, the hard disk still would not spin up, indicating the bad 12V supply line, but I also noticed that the CRT image flickered and jumped to larger and smaller dimensions every few seconds. With the chassis cover still off, I had access to everthing, and I just kind of lightly slapped the analog board a couple of times. I saw the CRT image move everytime I did so, indicating some kind of fault on the analog board. After a few more 'slaps' I saw that the image became stable and, lo!, the hard disk spun up! Hmm. Must be a bad solder joing somewhere. Something to consider looking into in the future.
Anyway, with the motherboard back into this system and the hard drive spinning and system booted, I'm going to let this system just run alongside the #1 unit for another endurance test. Let's see what happens.
30-Nov-2009
Though I had previously swapped logic boards between my two SE/30s, I did it again to confirm that there were no new analog board problems. In the last day or two I have had very poor luck even successfully booting the SE/30 #1 machine, with the screen staying black, or giving zebra stripes, or bonging and then going black. So I wanted to make sure that it was still the logic board. It was.
After the swap, using this system's logic board, the SE/30 #1 ran beautifully for 24 hours. No problems whatsoever.
Considering that the SE/30 #1 has the hard disk with System 7.0.1 and MacHTTP on it, I either had to keep the swapped logic board, or swap hard disks instead, thus turning this system into the webserver I've dreamed of.
Once I discovered that the floppy drive in SE/30 #1 is no longer responsive, that settled it. It is easier to swap hard drives and turn my attention to this system.
01-Dec-2009
I returned the logic boards to their original chassis. Then I swapped hard disks. Two screws and its done!
I fired up the system, and it ran just fine with the swapped hard drive. I'm glad to discover that the different ethernet board runs fine with whatever driver is already on the hardd disk. (Actually, I think they are all the same driver, anyway). So I'm good to go! The unit was buttoned up. I put the cover back on and turned the screws.
02-Dec-2009
My intention is to create a webpage layout on this system that mimics, or at least mirrors, the old System 7 look and feel. I plan to use graphic elements to create the desktop background and a table around the main content that appears to be a Mac desktop/application. To do that I needed some screenshots that I can slice and dice into the graphicel elements I need in the HTML.
A little web-searching turns up the keystrokes needed for snapping the screen under System 7. It's OPTION-SHIFT-3. This put a series of .PICT files in the root directory.
I tried to use my iMac G3 to do AppleTalk with this old system, but there were complaints about incompatible versions. I fired up my Linux box (Cthulhu) with Netatalk installed and it happily talks AppleTalk to both systems. So I used it to receive the image files from the SE/30, and then took them from there with with iMac. Once on the iMac I was able to load each file with the ImagePreview (I think it was) application and save it as a 2-color .PNG file. Once that conversion was finished, I copied the files from the iMac to a WindowsXP machine running CorelDraw and CorelPaint and was able to snip them up into what I wanted.
Now, I need to complete my concept and get to work with the content pages.
20-Dec-2009
With the replacement logic board for Mac #1 working, I swapped the drives back to their respective original systems. Now all is back to normal.
25-Jul-2016
Over the past year or so I have found that this system's internal HDD would not spin up. Removing the case showed everything in order. I saw no loose cables or cable chafing. I removed the HDD, attached it to another system, and fired it up. Lo! It spun up without any trouble. I went ahead and re-imaged the drive and exercised it while on the other bench system.
I reinstalled the drive in this system, but before closing the case I connected power and tested it. No! The drive still would not spin up. Using my voltmeter on the power leads to the drive I found that the +12V line was putting out 0V. A little twisting and fiddling with the drive's power cable brought the 12V back! I detached the other end of the cable from the analog board and checked it. Connectors looked good, no broken wires. Hmmm. Perhaps the plug and socket were not mating very well on the analog board. I reconnected the cable to the analog board, making sure that it was fully seated. A quick check with the voltmeter showed a good 12V. I connected the power cable to the drive and tested again. This time, the drive spun up and was recognized. Must have been a bad mating between the power cable and the analog board after all. I closed the system up and tested. All is well!
Copyright © 2006-2025 Jared Blaser. All rights reserved.