Table of Contents for this issue:
Macintosh Color Classic
Re: Serial Number Carbon Dating...
Re: Signatures in Macs
Re: SE 30 Browser
SE30 mainboard Q again
Re: SE/30 AGAIN
Re: Macintosh SE...
Re: SE/30 Floppy Drive (unreadable)
Re: Classic II and SE/30
Re: SE/30 Floppy Drive (unreadable)

Hi,

I'm a new member to the list and a first time Mac owner. I just
purchased a Color Classis from eBay. I have been obsessed with
Apple since seeing "Pirates of Silicon Valley" and have wanted to
get rid of my PC ever since; but, I can't justify spending the money
on an iMac until my computer becomes obsolete. So, I purchased a
Color Classic to toy around with and learn about Macs.

I would like to upgrade it as much as possible with as little
modification to the case as possible. The Sonnet Presto Plus is the
only way to go without any modifications is it? I'd love to put a G3
motherboard in there is I could find one cheap, but that would mean
butcering the case wouldn't it? I want to do the screen upgrade, or
replace it with an LCD screen. Any ideas on what I can do to
upgrade this computer?

David

Hi,

I am not completely sure of the process but I think it's something like
this:

The first digit of the Serial (a Letter) will tell you the first Initial of
the city where the machine was manufactured.

The 2nd digit (a number) is the 'ones' digit of the year manufactured.

The 4th and 5th Digits (I believe) are the week in which the machine was
manufactured.

Example:

F4111xxxxxxx (First five digits of my serial and others)

F=_F_remont, CA
4=198_4_
1=?
11=Week _11_

That's the way it goes, I think. Anybody that wants to correct me can chime
in.

Clinton Yelvington
cyelving@cbu.edu

Subject: Re: Signatures in Macs
From: Rob

I have one of those too. How do you find the date from the serial number?

-Rob

I have a Macintosh!! Not a 128K, but an original. Later to be know as the
128K.

Mine is so old, that it was made in the last week of 1983!!
Sadly it doesn't work. But more on that soon.

Many Apple serial numbers tell you a few things. Some are simply numbers.

There may be a small M, or APL to the lower left of the s/n. I don't
know what that means, but I can guess APL=Apple.
Then there may be an asterisk (*) at the beginning, and the end of the s/n.
This is not part of the s/n, simply so that no one can add a character
either side of the s/n, to make it look like a different s/n.
BTW: Apple have used many asterisk types, such as the 5-point, 6-point
(containing a horizontal line), 6-point (containing a vertical line), 8
point (horiz., verti., and 2 diagonals), and the unusual ones... Pictures
would be better to describe those, but I haven't got any ATM, sorry.

Speaking of peculiar characters, rarely, they use a backwards 0! It is a
zero, with a slash in it, but the slash is backwards!

OK, so on to the main part of the SN.

If it starts with 2 letters, or 1 letter, then that usually indicates the
country/mfg. plant of origin.
SG=Singapore
C=Cork, Ireland
F=Freemont (California?)
etc.

Then the next character will be a number, which indicates what year it was
made in. It's the LSD (least significant digit) of the year. So, 0=1990,
1=1991, 2=1992, and so on.

4 can be 1984, or 1985, and so on. I suppose 1 can be 1981, 1991 or 2001!!
This is the part where you'll have to guess/work out/know the era of the
item - which decade it was made it!

Then comes 2 more digits, they indicate the week of that year, that the item
was made in. This goes for motherboards aswell. You can often find Macs were
made in a certain week, weeks after their motherboards were made.

I think it can go up to 53 (53 weeks out of a 52 week year.... :) )

Then there are either numbers, or numbers and letters mixed, in a base36
(probably) system that indicates the actual unique item number for that
item. So, the first <whatever> to be made in the 25th week in 1984 in
Freemont, might look like this: (the dots are for the rest of the s/n, not
yet described)
F524001...
The 10th might look like this:
F52400A...
The 16th might look like this:
F52400G...
F524ZZZ... would be the last they could make, using this system. At that
point, they'd have to slow down, and take a break, until the next week! :)

Lastly, there might be a model number, or order number.
Model numbers usually look like this:
Model Number: M0001
or
Family Number: M1506

I guess the family number idea, is when Apple must've decided "we're gonna
bring out a few of these products, similar in the same 'family' so lets just
give them a family number" This is a pretty bad idea I reckon. As they have
hundereds of products, and the potential for 10000 different model numbers.

Why call all PowerBook Duos, by the same Family Number M7777 (I think) ? Why
not give them uniqued numbers!? Anyway... You'd expect Apple wouldv'e learnt
their lesson, especially with all there business model ideas being changed.
But the still are using the Family Number, instead of Model Number system.
They have been using Model Numbers since they used Family Numbers. An
example is the iBook. They try to be cute, by using the phrase (on the
iBook) "my family number is:... " :)

Well, at least Apple is still in business. Thanks Steve Jobs. I hope Apple
doesn't go out of business, like they nearly did a few years ago!

I think the 1st Family Number was that of the PowerBook 100 (M1506).

The order numbers usually have stuff at the end of them, such as X/A (rev
a), X/B (rev b), LL/A, LL/B, Z/A, etc.
I'd like to know what the LL means.

OK! Last thing I was typing baout, before I deviated, and explained things,
was this:

"Lastly, there might be a model number, or order number."
So I'll continue:
This will be easy to identify, as it has the Mxxxx(...) format, with the x's
being numbers.

There are other serial number types, but I'm not gonaa type about them here,
as usually, I don't understand much about them. And nearly all Macs are
covered by the above description.

Sorry if I bored you!
Here are some examples for you to practice on.
BTW: I don't need your responses on the following, as I'll let you work it
out. But if you need further help, just e-mail/contact me.

*F6496JQM0001AP*
*C6310ROM0001AP*
*F7365UBM5011*
*SG4196MT2WH*
*L50113264* (note: it's a mumboard)
*E241809V1ABA* (note: it's a mumboard)
*F3520UTM0001* <--- I'm very glad I've got this one! :)

Now. Back to the story of my Mac(intosh(128K)).
I was working away, at work, when I was shown this Mac - dead!
I was amazed to see it, and sad it was dead. Then I found out why.
While I was out the back, a friend brought it in, and the technician who was
there, 'apparently' knew that it was a 120VAC machine, but thought "I wonder
if our IEC (Australian, 240VAC) plugs would plug in to it?" And proceeded to
plug it in! Apparently, it was already turned on, and went bang! Or perhaps
let out a small whimper. But there was even a step-down transformer with it!
And many other things! After it had been blown, it was mine. But I wish it
hadn't been!!! Simply replacing the analogue board is not good enough for
me. I'd like to FIX it. There's a book around, that tells you how to do low
level repairs on old Macs, but I don't knwo where to get it.
One day, I'll get it up. So the friend had brought it in for me, but the
other techincian, who'd still a friend of mine, was the 1st to see it :(.

That's all I can think of, to say... So bye for now! 8-)

Joshua Hrouda
Joshua Hrouda Electronics

As a happy, inexperienced, and new SE 30 owner, which
internet browser would work best with my SE 30 running
system 7.6 and where would I obtain it?

RDE

Trick question, an SE/30 cannot run system 7.6. All system
versions after 7.5.5 require a 32-bit clean Mac.
The SE/30 is not.

what might be more helpful is use 7.5.5, up to Netscape 4.08 [ with CFM
68k Runtime ] and use Mode 32 to allow you to address more RAM.

but you are nuts to want to surf on a SE/30. think 9 ", think black and
white, think analogue video. stick to email at the max.

it if is just for the authentic experience, dig out Mosaic v.1

question:

* is it true that you can install an IIsi ROM into and SE/30 and run 7.6
in it?

john

I don't think I missed a reply, but I'm still wondering if there is an
easily identifiable/swappable item of couple of items, on the SE/30
mainboard, related to dead SCSI controller.

I've got one with a bad controller, another with a bad ROM slot, was
wondering which would be easier to move to the other board. Likely,
neither :)

Thanks!
Brian

In response to Robert Elliott:

Secondly, I was told by the person that I bought my SE/30 from
that it was running 7.6 when actually 7.5.5 was installed.

So plan B. Is there a way to install Mac/TCP or TCP/IP on the SE/30?

It comes with your system.

Will Mac/TCP allow me to connect to the internet through the Linksys router or do
I need TCP/IP?

Go to Network Software Selector, which is part of 7.5.3 and 7.5.5,
and choose TCP/IP or Open Transport. That should take care of it for
you. If not, go to Apple's web site and try to find a later version
of OT. Just go to control panels and fill in the appropriate
information once you have it installed.

Sue Korlan
http://www.pilgrimcross.org

If the strong are unwilling to die for justice, the weak are certain
to die without it. Rick Acker

In response to David Goodrich:

anybody know of a site offhand that has diagrams for turning a
macintosh se into an aquarium? thanks in advance! -david

The idea of turning a good machine like an SE into an aquarium is
extremely repulsive. Asking here is sort of like asking the humane
society how to stuff your cat.

Sue Korlan
http://www.pilgrimcross.org

If the strong are unwilling to die for justice, the weak are certain
to die without it. Rick Acker

In response to Adam Loiacono:

The trouble is (and this will sound
familiar if you read the Compact Macs list) is when I insert a floppy, I get a
'Disk Unreadable' error. I inserted a
HD disk with nothing important on it and said Yes when prompted to initialise.
The resulting disk now always works (with only one failed attempt). Once I
persuaded the SE/30 to mount an 800K disk, used the Get Info command (commad-I)
on the disk and got a normal reading of 799K or so on disk. Running Norton's
Floppier on the disk gave me 6856835K free -2139947008K used! Before I
bought it, this Mac apparently sat idle for some time and went on to suffer a one
meter drop onto a slate floor (the strap of my compact mac carry bag broke.) Is this
problems related to either of these disasters? I plan on cleaning
out the drive with compressed air to eliminate dust as a cause (the drive is fairly
dusty) but am unsure of how to do this.

You should be able to get a floppy cleaning kit at a local shop and
use the free version of TechTools that should be available at

http://www.micromat.com

If dirt is the problem this should fix it. If it doesn't, then you have more serious problems with it.

Sue Korlan
http://www.pilgrimcross.org

If the strong are unwilling to die for justice, the weak are certain
to die without it. Rick Acker

In response to Clinton Yelvington:

What I'm wondering
is how to tell the capacity of the 8 SIMMs in the SE/30 so I can install
them properly in the C II and max out the RAM as much as possible...Each of
the SIMMs had eight small black chips on them and a couple had 9 black
chips. I'm trying to configure the CII with 8-10MB but I don't know if I
have any 8MB SIMMs in the SE/30...

If you haven't yet taken the RAM out of the 30, check to find out how
much memory total it has by turning it on and going to about this
Computer or about this Macintosh under the Apple Menu. Since the 30
cannot read any bigger memory in the B bank than is in the A bank, no
matter how much is in the B bank, any reasonable 30 owner is going to
have the larger SIMMS in the A bank which if you are holding the
motherboard of the 30 so that the memory slots are at the top, is the
top four slots. If one set is larger than the other, it will be there
in the A bank. All of the SIMMS in the A bank have to be the same and
all the SIMMS in the B bank have to be the same. I hope this helps
you to figure out the math as to what you have in there.

Sue Korlan
http://www.pilgrimcross.org

If the strong are unwilling to die for justice, the weak are certain
to die without it. Rick Acker

The last time my SE30 indicated a bad disk drive I replaced it with a
known good drive, and it still didn't work. I then tried a copy of Apple
Personal Diagnostic which has a program on it for checking drive
operation. It helped me determine the problem wasn't the drive, but the
drive controller component on the mother-board. I ended up installing a
new mother-board and drive problem was fixed.

Indyfish

I'm planning on buying a new SuperDrive ($5.00) from a local retailer (as
soon as they reply to my emails). At this point, my existing (broken) drive
will become expendable upon which I'll be subjecting it to disassembly, a
thorough examination and a cleaning to determine the fault. I'll definately
look into the head alignment.

Adam.