The Macintosh SE/30 is probably one of the most popular of the original compact Macs. Unfortunately they are one of the many victims of leaky surface mount electrolytic capacitors. If you own an SE/30, and it hasn’t been recapped, GET IT DONE! Don’t assume that yours will somehow be immune. All Mac SE/30s have leaky capacitors, and the longer they are left leaking, the greater chance that they will get damaged beyond repair.
The logic board pictured is one of the earlier revisions with the socketed 68030 CPU. The later revision has a dark grey soldered CPU, and the 47µf 16V capacitor near the ROM slot is above the slot rather than below it.
It’s very common for the SE/30 to develop issues with the video multiplexer circuit (the row of Ux8 ICs below the large axial capacitor). Look closely for damaged traces or leaked electrolyte around the pins. I am also seeing more and more issues with failing RAM multiplexers (the ICs labelled “F258” above the ROM slot). If you’re using known-good RAM but are still getting sad Mac chimes, the fault may be with one of these ICs.
If you are trying to diagnose a faulty SE/30, be sure to download this newly re-illustrated schematic diagram from GitHub.
Replacement components
- 1µf 50V KEMET tantalum capacitors (T491C105K050AT)
- 47µf 16V KEMET tantalum capacitors (T491D476K016AT)
- 220µf 16V Vishay axial capacitors (MAL213825221E3)
- 470µf 16V Vishay axial capacitors (MAL211835471E3)
Recapping guides
Other guides
