E-mu Emulator Sampler User Forum for the EIII EII EI and EIII XP

General Category => EII Technical Issues / Tips => Topic started by: ditabeardmemo on July 27, 2009, 05:03:38 AM



Title: Help! "SimasiMac" on an SE/30 connected to an EII+ HD
Post by: ditabeardmemo on July 27, 2009, 05:03:38 AM
Hi everyone:

I realize this is somewhat off-topic, as this is mainly a discussion board for EII technical issues, but I was hoping someone could help with a serious problem I encountered on a Macintosh SE/30.  I purchased this unit second hand for use with my Emulator II+ HD,  and it came fully loaded with the OMI library, the E-mu library, the Sound Designer software, etc. Hence, I'm very concerned about recovering this data... even moreso than I am recovering the computer itself.

In any case, the computer operated normally for the first few days after I bought it. Then, however, it developed a strange pattern at start-up:

http://www.biwa.ne.jp/%7Eshamada/fullmac/repairEng.html#SimasiMac

I started to see the "zebra-like" horizontal rasters a few days ago, but eventually the machine would boot to the desktop as normal.  Now, however, the stripes appear for about five minutes, and then the smiley Mac appears, but then it goes away for 5 seconds and comes back ad infinitum, never completing the boot procedure.

It appears as if some people have found solutions to SimasiMac, but have any of you dealt with this specific problem, or worked inside one of these machines? I'm under the impression that the CRT monitor retains a very dangerous voltage even after the unit has been unplugged, so I'm wary of opening it up and unseating or reseating any chips.  It also looks like - under a worst-case scenario - I might have to replace some capacitors, which is beyond my current soldering ability.

Last night I powered the machine off, unplugged it and let it sit overnight, but the problem persisted this morning.  I also tried it in a different electrical outlet to no avail.

If anyone has advice as to how I might solve this, I would be most appreciative. At a minimum, I would love to salvage the contents of the hard drive... in addition to the rare libraries that came with the machine, I had just finished transferring my entire library of 5" floppy disks.

Thank you!
Brandt


Title: Re: Help! "SimasiMac" on an SE/30 connected to an EII+ HD
Post by: dr.c on July 27, 2009, 03:09:36 PM
Hi, Brandt...


Very late here, I will answer tomorrow. I've got a few tracks

Cheers


Title: Re: Help! "SimasiMac" on an SE/30 connected to an EII+ HD
Post by: rokuez on July 27, 2009, 04:03:02 PM
Perhaps more numerous and profficent experts on vintage macs
are on a mac forum of some sort

Try googling you mac model plus the keyword forum

goodluck and if you find a great mac forum for vintage / old macs that work with the eii please let us know in this thread ^_^


Title: Re: Help! "SimasiMac" on an SE/30 connected to an EII+ HD
Post by: wintermute on July 28, 2009, 01:26:37 AM
Hi,

I also had several issues with my MacPlus.
Here are some things I encountered:
- empty battery
- RAM faulty or badly seated
- bad soldering points on the PCB

The soldering points and the RAM caused a lot of problems on my Mac (Zebra patterns, no picture etc.)
Since I re-soldered them all and swapped the RAM problems have gone away.

You might also check this troubleshooting guide.
It covers most of the problems:
http://www.jagshouse.com/classicrepair.html

Good luck!


Title: Re: Help! "SimasiMac" on an SE/30 connected to an EII+ HD
Post by: dr.c on July 28, 2009, 01:38:30 AM
Let us know wich forum you have chosen and we will join you there.