Scott Small on Nostr: (🧵 2/7) The #Mac SE Shortly after I got my Mac SE, I replaced the 800k floppy ...
(🧵 2/7) The #Mac SE
Shortly after I got my Mac SE, I replaced the 800k floppy drive (which didn't work) with a 1.44Mb SuperDrive that I picked up from eBay. This also involved replacing the ROMs on the motherboard and the IWM chip with ROMs and a SWIM chip from another SE motherboard, which I also got from eBay.
The SuperDrive initially didn't work either, but I serviced it with the help of my dad and Adrian Black's excellent video guide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pGhwtyFG2I). This got it to the point where it would work about 75% of the time, but the remaining 25% of the time the disk would either fail to eject, or the computer would think that there was a disk inserted when there was nothing actually in the drive.
So, after that initial servicing, I ended up ordering a new gear for the eject motor and replaced that as well... and the drive went from working 75% of the time to working 0% of the time... 😧 I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the SE doesn't recognize the SuperDrive at all now. Putting a disk in the drive has no effect, it doesn't even try to read or spin it up. We think there's some kind of electrical failure, but the voltages look good, and without a schematic to go on, there isn't much more we can do.
And yeah, we tried changing the gear back to the bad one, with no effect.
So yeah, that's now become a "parts drive", and I've ordered _another_ SuperDrive from eBay to start the whole process over again 🙃
Meanwhile, I've installed the Performer 030 accelerator board that I picked up a couple months ago. Haven't actually tried it yet as the whole machine's disassembled, but I look forward to seeing it in action.
As for that other SE motherboard that donated its ROMs to my main SE, eventually I'd like to build it into an SE Mini case (https://jcm-1.com/product/se-mini-desktop-case-for-macintosh-se-or-se-30/), but that's a low priority for now since shipping costs are outrageous.
Shortly after I got my Mac SE, I replaced the 800k floppy drive (which didn't work) with a 1.44Mb SuperDrive that I picked up from eBay. This also involved replacing the ROMs on the motherboard and the IWM chip with ROMs and a SWIM chip from another SE motherboard, which I also got from eBay.
The SuperDrive initially didn't work either, but I serviced it with the help of my dad and Adrian Black's excellent video guide (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pGhwtyFG2I). This got it to the point where it would work about 75% of the time, but the remaining 25% of the time the disk would either fail to eject, or the computer would think that there was a disk inserted when there was nothing actually in the drive.
So, after that initial servicing, I ended up ordering a new gear for the eject motor and replaced that as well... and the drive went from working 75% of the time to working 0% of the time... 😧 I'm not exactly sure what happened, but the SE doesn't recognize the SuperDrive at all now. Putting a disk in the drive has no effect, it doesn't even try to read or spin it up. We think there's some kind of electrical failure, but the voltages look good, and without a schematic to go on, there isn't much more we can do.
And yeah, we tried changing the gear back to the bad one, with no effect.
So yeah, that's now become a "parts drive", and I've ordered _another_ SuperDrive from eBay to start the whole process over again 🙃
Meanwhile, I've installed the Performer 030 accelerator board that I picked up a couple months ago. Haven't actually tried it yet as the whole machine's disassembled, but I look forward to seeing it in action.
As for that other SE motherboard that donated its ROMs to my main SE, eventually I'd like to build it into an SE Mini case (https://jcm-1.com/product/se-mini-desktop-case-for-macintosh-se-or-se-30/), but that's a low priority for now since shipping costs are outrageous.