Macintosh SE Restoration and SD-2-SCSI upgrade 

Definitely smart to warn people about the possibility of a high voltage discharge from the CRT...

So glad I wasn't the only one that jumped when he popped the CRT cap off LOL

its odd that the two best nerds on youtube live so close to each other

I used to service these back in the early 90's. One other thing you want to look at on these old macs is the analog board. Specifically, the solder connections under the flyback transformer. They used to crack around the pins from the heat and screens would flicker and go dark. I never worked on one that didn't need those connections reflowed.

"oi, the guy is out there massaging cream on his computer parts again." - a concerned neighbour

Man, these restorations are supremely satisfying. I've got one of those Floppy Emu devices you showed at 16:20, it's a great little investment for all sorts of Apple machines!

why is this so entertaining? it's literally a guy cleaning an old pc XD similar to pressure washing I guess

I never realized just how soothing it is to watch someone restore old computers.

Imagine in 30 years time, 8-bit guy restoring the very device your watching this on in present day, as an antiquated system. From your mind i suppose!

Never been much of a PC/electronic enthusiast but I can’t stop watching these restorations. It’s nice to learn about old school electronics like this and you explain everything so nicely and straightforward.

You know you're pro when you have sheets of aluminum "lying around"

the suction cup pop scared me

No need to Replace the Hard Drive. When I got my '87 SE, it only booted off of a floppy. I accidentally ran into a door frame with it, and voila, the Hard drive began to work again.

My grandparents have one of these that works completely fine, I feel like doing some preemptive maintenance next time I’m there.

2:44 Wow, that battery is ancient. How amazing. "Anyway, I ordered a new one on eBay for $8." ._.

I have proof the SCSI2SD card works in a Mac SE. I have done it. Mine didn't work either until changed the name of the drive to "seagate" and a few other options. Also I booted up the machine first with floppies then formatted the drive within System 6. You can't (at least with mine) simply drag and drop files to the sd card. The way I'm able to get files onto the Mac SE and upload to my pc is through ADTpro with use of my Apple IIGS and the 3.5 floppy drive. Also make sure the files are good for transfer relabeling them from ".disk" to ".po". I'm able to make floppy images for it using minimac emulator.

This was uploaded only 4 or so minutes ago. How are people commenting hours ago?

Even though the project didn't turn out as expected I loved the entire process.

This is long, but here goes: I've been working on an SE/30 restoration. My machine has a perfect motherboard with no leaking capacitors and a highly valued ethernet card. Your video has inspired me to go all the way on restoring the case, keyboard, and mouse with a peroxide solution. It's not surprising that you're having a nightmare putting software on that SD card. It's painful since HFS isn't supported by any machine after Jaguar. Don't ask how I know! I'm sure you know old software is available at a number of sites for free (my favorite price). Getting software installed was a painful step-by-step process. I had a modern Mac to download the basic drivers for upgrading the system-- but you have to write them to an IBM formatted floppy, which obliterates the file name. It's a roll the dice scenario whether the System 7 software can figure out what to do. Some files work, others, notsomuch. I tried networking a modern MacPro to the SE/30. It would log on fine, but again, HFS left the internal drive unreadable and unwritable. Darn it. But I did get the drivers to load a Zip drive-- which ups your content to 100MB and speeds things along. I dug out an old Yosemite G3 Mac, but it had no drive and the internal battery had exploded. A clean up and new battery got it working. I cannibalized an old external IDE drive and installed OS 9.2 from an old CD installer-- surprised I still had it. The G3 talks to the SE/30 with no problem over FTP, but it's not very fast at file transfers. That's where the Zip drive becomes invaluable. OS 9.2 is better at navigating the internet than OS 7, but many pages fail to load since Java is ancient on these machines. But an open source community retrofitted Mozilla for OS 9, called Classzilla. Viola! Downloads are pouring in-- over to zip-- over to the SE/30. Done. Because the G3 has USB native, I suspect loading up your flash drive should be done on an OS 9 machine. I'm not done yet. I have a flakey power cable to the hard drive. I need to locate a replacement with the proper pins. I'm interested in some of your friend's upgrades. They look like fun-- or a pain-- if you're into that kind of thing.

it's been over a year and a half, time to finish this project.

great video as always David! one tip i for discharging a crt. i wouldn't trust an alligator clip to hold on the screwdriver, i usually remove the alligator clip and wrap wire around the screwdriver. I've been bitten when the clip came off the screwdriver in the past :\

10:10 Why not use a hot glue gun? That would seem to be less of a pain.

This is like watching Druaga1. I like it.

I've had experience with this exact issue and managed to get my Quantum HDD working by holding it by my side and swirling it fast clockwise then anti-clockwise. You may need to perform this multiple times to free up the motor. It will free up the bearing and if there’s a valid OS install it should boot. There was a firmware update you could burn to the Eprom back in the late 80s that addressed this issue.

Uh... Isn't the SD card's write-protection lock enabled?

Jump scare at 5:39. I actually jumped.

After that talk about electrocution, 5:40 made me jump.

This may sound stupid, but maybe the read lock on the SD card is pushed up

"Attaches just like an old vacuum tube" Well, it is an old vacuum tube. CRTs are just a very specialized application of the same technology.

Oh the hours I spent on my SE. You brought back great memories.

Steve Jobs' ghost is making sure you can't use old Macs, so you'll have to buy a new one.

SD-to-SCSI? That is awesome. I had no idea these things existed

I got to around 13 minutes and was thinking... Did he remove the write protection from the SD-card. :O

What I admired is the candid way you present your original hypothesis and that you found it was not true. It is a huge learning lesson, not just about the incompatible card, but your professional way to present it. Telling others something does not work is a huge contribution to someone interested in something similar.

Dude. You are like the coolest nerd on RU-vid. So much respect!

I was born in 2001 and the oldest pc i have used was one from around 1998 i think, it's so cool to see all these old computers and stuff!

I jjumped out of the chair when the high voltage conector poped out! rsrsr

Ive worked on dozens of macs over the years, with modern storage as well as original storage. I have found that Lido is your best bet, next being silverlining. I use an SE with a SCSI2SD without issue. Just so your aware. YOU HAVE TO KEEP YOUR PARTITIONS 1.8GB or under! or it will NOT work.

I believe this was the Macintosh computer that was used for my elementary school computer labs in the early 1990s. We played a lot of edutainment games on it like math blaster and stuff

The SE was my first computer at 4 years old, got it back in the 90s when it was already dated, and kept it to this day. I've been hesitant to dive into the rabbit hole of restoration, but you and Action Retro etc have motivated me to dive in.. Thanks for all the effort that goes into making these videos.

Obsolete geek: You heard what 8-bit guy said! Time to do some retrobright action! 😎

Typo at 4:58. "Postive" instead of "Positive". I also just want to say these videos are of great quality and are in general awesome!

I can watch your videos and listen to your explanations for hours. You are one of the nicest and friendliest persons on RU-vid.

I’m surprised no one tries to steal his parts when he retrobrights

I serviced Mac SEs when they were new and tons of other CRT based computers and monitors. Your method for discharging the CRT is sound and I like that you demonstrated how to do it. Another tip you didn't mention: remove ALL jewelry (wedding rings, etc) whenever working with high voltage. Things get really fun when you have to make picture adjustments with the system on.

With the amount of Retro Bright you go through for your various projects, I'd imagine the people who run Sally's Beauty Supply are on a first name basis with you?

You didn't try the original SCSI hard drive in the other SE?

wow, i love the fact that you are uploading new vids much faster now.

My grandpa use to fix crt stuff for the neighborhood in the 80s. Man, if he was still here and knew what I was interested in, he would be stoked.

Watching these teardown videos, I realise I could be dead right now. I cleaned up an old CRT with a brush, wiping the inside dust with my hand and turning it on from time to time if it still worked.... Thank God I'm ok and I learned how to properly deal with old computers!

While I imagine you live in a great neighborhood, have you ever had any parts stolen during the retrobright process?

How to know you're a geek: "I just grabbed a spare price of sheet aluminum I had laying around."

If this was Druaga1, the video would be full of incompatibility problems with that SD/SCSI adaptor...

In the early 90's I gutted one of these, going to a glass shop, making a fish tank to fit inside it. It was a true centerpiece in my cubical with neons (fish), mini fluorescent light and air pump. People still remember it and I have the SE30 shell in my garage.

Macintosh SE: *exists* Iphone SE: allow me to introduce myself

Best thing to get the black marks off is a magic eraser. They do wonders for marks that are stubborn.

1:56 Geez, the good old days when Dave Jones would actually tear something down BEFORE turning it on.

...you'll see why later You never did explain why you vinyl-taped the bracket

I worked on these back in the 90s. It was quite common for the HDD to park and get stuck. This was easily resolved by giving the right side of the Mac a slap as that would get the hard drive unstuck.

THANK YOU FOR DOING THIS AND ALL THE OTHER REFURB PROJECTS YOU DO! This takes me back to when I was in my 20's and I used to hang out at a friend of the family who's dad was a doctor and he let me use their Mac and the internet (back in the mid-90's it was still dial up LOL (no, I don't think they didn't had a DSL line)). They had a Mac that looked similar to this one (with MYST no less) until a few years later they bought a newer model with a COLOR SCREEN! LOL. Man! That Mac was soooo cool! Thanks again man! And KEEP GOING!! Woohoo!

15:22 the large number of INITs (extensions) and CDEVs (control panels) might be contributing to the lock-up. If it's System 7, you should be able to skip them by holding down left shift. I don't think MacOS 6 had that feature, though. :/

You, Sir, are a top level nerd. You, Sir, must be really fun to hang out with. Thanks for all the great videos.

3:08 Don't forget the Sega Genesis!

I like that you are restoring the old classics You are a good person for restoring old classics

Those radius accelerator boards are very fascinating

I love these videos, thank you for uploading, I watched every minute of it!

Didn't see you wearing a Commodore shirt during the C128 video :(

thanks for posting on patron first.

No joke, but I think I have watched this video about 100 times and I'm not bored yet.

So I just recently was able to get the SD2SCSI to work in my Macintosh SE. Mine is one with Dual 800k Floppies and I hooked it up by using the internal SCSI port on the mother board and the HDD Power port on the analog board. I too had the issue getting the drive recognized initially but I was able to get it working using the software Lido 7 to initialize the drive. After I did that I was able to install the OS on it using the normal OS disks.

From the video it looks like you use "Salon Care 40 Volume Creme" for the retro-brightening. Is that correct?

2:49 That battery costed almost as much as the Mac itself 😂

Try checking the SD card wright protection switch

I bought one for $50.00 and it was great! With a keyboard, mouse, OS, no smoke. It worked from the floppy.

Ahh the memories, when I was 7 me and my dad worked on a Macintosh and this just brings back memories

:bangs fists on table: PART 2 PART 2 PART 2 PART 2

Macintosh SE...that explains the iPhone SE

7:36 the way he walks off 😂

Your attention to even the smallest of details never ceases to amaze me... I admire your thoroughness!

I am starting to love all these modern SD drive replacements and floppy replacements that can give new, more reliable life to our beloved hardware!

"Working on CRTs is generally safe.." David, at least two generations of TV repairmen worked on HUGE cathode ray sets with pretty much zero fatalities. And, if you're old enough, you'll even remember the days when TV guys actually came to your house and fixed sets whilst squatting awkwardly in difficult corners of your living room. Safely. It's all a matter of training and respect for danger. Like avoiding big charged capacitors and the tube's EHT supply. Here in the UK, the professional electric group that consistently records NO fatalities is the one that services, installs and repairs super-high voltage transmission lines. Two million volts HVDC isn't very forgiving. Most deaths happen with corner-cutting factory electricians working on 440v three phase systems. Even with the stupidity of the average citizen, the lower voltage domestic 240v kills remarkably few.

You should do a video on your driveway because it seems to be a common character on your videos.

Nice video! Just a quick tip though; you might want to install System 6 instead of System 7. Don't get me wrong, System 7 is great on a Performa or something like that, but for one of the "tosters" as I like to call them, it's just too slow. If you check the system resources in the apple icon, you'll find that the OS alone takes up over 75% of ram! I have three of these set up in a network for occasional Bolo matches, and it simply wasn't possible with System 7.

I have had a Macintosh SE which has a Macintosh SE-30 logic board, the donor SE-30 had a case that was is bad shape though it’s HDD & Logic Board (Motherboard) was perfectly clean & installed in the SE with NO modification. The SE I own has the SONY power supply which was & has been known to be VERY reliable.

Glad you mentioned the CRT. Those things can pack quite a wallop.

5:40 I almost fell out of my chair!

I know you probably thought of this but does the SD 2 scsi card terminate the bus correctly?

Make sure your SD card isn't in write protect mode.

I got a SCSI2SD adapter for my Amiga 500 hard drive. 11/10, highly reccommend! I never knew how freaking loud SCSI hard drivers were (I never had an HD when I was a kid), and it just blew my mind when I first hooked it up. So yeah, definitely get an adapter, even though they are quite expensive.

I plugged it on, inserted the floppy(3.5") and it worked well. A keyboard and mouse. A great deal. My entree into Macs. 7.5 OS

my father had one of these when i was young, and i used to play games on it. have you tried the classic troubleshooting step of slapping it on its side???

Why was it that they made all these old computers in that beige/tan color? What started that trend? You should do a collab with "The Engineering Guy" about an old computer or keyboard...

You sir are a genius. I was using an SE in 1990 with a 19-inch external monitor. It was amusing to see someone's look of amazement and wonder when they first laid eyes on Aldus PageMaker on the big grayscale monitor, doing that desktop publishing thing. "Wow! You can actually see the newspaper page on the screen!"

I really enjoy your attention to the details. Shows a passion for your pass time.

You are very lucky your Mac SE wasn't struck with the "simasmac" disease, which is unfortunately a common problem for these models...

I love your restore videos

0:48 Is that the Apple iShirt? Aren't those things like $600?

I had to chuckle when I head what you called the Torx driver. I was factory trained on these little beasts back in the day and part of the Apple supplied tools for working on them was a case separator tool called "MAC Cracker". It had wide but thin jaws that fit in the seam and a gentle squeeze separated even the most stubborn case parts.

I grew up using these computers. It’s good seeing them again.

Jump scare at 5:40