This one's for our tokyoracer <3
So, tokyoracer had received a Macintosh SE/30 that "didn't work", and threw it in the post for me to look at along with some other fun gear. I've never been acquainted with classic 68k Macs before, and I thought it'd be fun to see if I could help find what was wrong.
Well, put it this way - it didn't bloody take very long to work that one out. :roll:
Basically, classic Macs suffer capacitor plague just like our beloved Amigas, and replacing the motherboard capacitors is a common repair.
So, of course a previous owner reckoned it'd be a great idea to get to work with a fistful of cheap Chinese capacitors and.. going by the "work" you're about to see, a plumbing soldering iron. oh:
Check this out.
Not even attached!
*shudder*... :nono:
Hang on... what the HELL? :wooha: :nono:
Seriously, what the hell is up with that trace?
I'll just give that cap a little push and... Oh teh NOES!!!! veractor:
The trace is just...floating and he's tried to solder it to the leg! :sigh: The pad is obviously missing
So, the first thing I did was undo this awful "repair", and removed all the capacitors. I noticed that on just about every pad, he'd left the legs of the old original capacitors behind! This means he's just gone round snapping them off!
Seriously guys, I hope none of you ever do this. You're going to take a pad and probably a trace with it by doing that, just like this guy. You must have patience, the right equipment, and desolder the components with care! This is not a task for dad's 200W garage soldering iron!
Also, he'd tried to solder the new caps onto the pads without any cleaning up! There was residue and electrolyte everywhere, and the pads were still tarnished and coated in corrosion when he'd attempted to do the fix.
Lots of flux, solder wick, Isopropyl alcohol, and a fibreglass PCB pen were the order of the day to sort this mess out.
When Chris gave me this board, and I described these issues, he wasn't very optimistic about a fix being possible, but I said I'd do everything I could.
I wanted to get this Mac working.
So, here's where that trace went - under one of the Sony chips. I removed the chips and discovered more horrors underneath.
After a cleanup, and a look under the second chip:
The chips also received a good scrub and the legs were cleaned up. Sockets were installed in their place, along with a wire to bridge the broken trace - lucky that that was the only broken connection!
New capacitors in place (I used tantalum parts like the 68k Mac Wiki recommends, and instead of fairly average axial capacitors, I decided to adapt my favorite Panasonics in their place with some heatshrink to protect their legs).
And ready for testing! It was too costly and inconvenient for Chris to package up the rest of the Mac (he says they weigh more than you'd think with their CRTs!) so I used a spare ATX PSU to apply the correct voltages to the board and listen for signs of life from the speaker.
The result?
IT WORKS! :drinkin::armsint:
Initially I got the BONG followed by the "Chimes of Doom", but this was because I hadn't populated enough memory banks. Either way, according to Chris it had never bonged before and never booted, so this was very exciting!
I have a video of me showing the Mac powering up for the first time after taking care of the damage - I will upload it very soon
I called Chris last night, and the conversation started something like this:
*ring...* *ring...*
Chris: Alright chap?
Me: Yeah dude! I gotta show you something. Listen to this!
*BONG*
Chris: OMFG...
So, hopefully we can see this cool little Mac booting up properly one day, once it's back in Chris' posession and he can reassemble it.
Cheers guys!
So, tokyoracer had received a Macintosh SE/30 that "didn't work", and threw it in the post for me to look at along with some other fun gear. I've never been acquainted with classic 68k Macs before, and I thought it'd be fun to see if I could help find what was wrong.
Well, put it this way - it didn't bloody take very long to work that one out. :roll:
Basically, classic Macs suffer capacitor plague just like our beloved Amigas, and replacing the motherboard capacitors is a common repair.
So, of course a previous owner reckoned it'd be a great idea to get to work with a fistful of cheap Chinese capacitors and.. going by the "work" you're about to see, a plumbing soldering iron. oh:
Check this out.
Not even attached!
*shudder*... :nono:
Hang on... what the HELL? :wooha: :nono:
Seriously, what the hell is up with that trace?
I'll just give that cap a little push and... Oh teh NOES!!!! veractor:
The trace is just...floating and he's tried to solder it to the leg! :sigh: The pad is obviously missing
So, the first thing I did was undo this awful "repair", and removed all the capacitors. I noticed that on just about every pad, he'd left the legs of the old original capacitors behind! This means he's just gone round snapping them off!
Seriously guys, I hope none of you ever do this. You're going to take a pad and probably a trace with it by doing that, just like this guy. You must have patience, the right equipment, and desolder the components with care! This is not a task for dad's 200W garage soldering iron!
Also, he'd tried to solder the new caps onto the pads without any cleaning up! There was residue and electrolyte everywhere, and the pads were still tarnished and coated in corrosion when he'd attempted to do the fix.
Lots of flux, solder wick, Isopropyl alcohol, and a fibreglass PCB pen were the order of the day to sort this mess out.
When Chris gave me this board, and I described these issues, he wasn't very optimistic about a fix being possible, but I said I'd do everything I could.
I wanted to get this Mac working.
So, here's where that trace went - under one of the Sony chips. I removed the chips and discovered more horrors underneath.
After a cleanup, and a look under the second chip:
The chips also received a good scrub and the legs were cleaned up. Sockets were installed in their place, along with a wire to bridge the broken trace - lucky that that was the only broken connection!
New capacitors in place (I used tantalum parts like the 68k Mac Wiki recommends, and instead of fairly average axial capacitors, I decided to adapt my favorite Panasonics in their place with some heatshrink to protect their legs).
And ready for testing! It was too costly and inconvenient for Chris to package up the rest of the Mac (he says they weigh more than you'd think with their CRTs!) so I used a spare ATX PSU to apply the correct voltages to the board and listen for signs of life from the speaker.
The result?
IT WORKS! :drinkin::armsint:
Initially I got the BONG followed by the "Chimes of Doom", but this was because I hadn't populated enough memory banks. Either way, according to Chris it had never bonged before and never booted, so this was very exciting!
I have a video of me showing the Mac powering up for the first time after taking care of the damage - I will upload it very soon
I called Chris last night, and the conversation started something like this:
*ring...* *ring...*
Chris: Alright chap?
Me: Yeah dude! I gotta show you something. Listen to this!
*BONG*
Chris: OMFG...
So, hopefully we can see this cool little Mac booting up properly one day, once it's back in Chris' posession and he can reassemble it.
Cheers guys!