I think HD SC setup won't work with drives over 2 GB, and yours may be a tad over that size -- the "1 GB" drive that came with my 7500 was actually 1080 MB.
It's strange you can't boot 7.5 all the way... but if you can boot on 7.5.5, try the patched version of Drive Setup 1.5, it's what I normally use to format and disks work great on the SE/30. But if my above supposition is true (>2 GB) you may need to partition it -- SE/30 won't mount a disk with any partition over 2 GB, at least on 7.1.
Sooner or later, your board should be recapped. Did you wash it? It won't restore the properties of failing caps, but at least will remove leakage that could, in time, corrode the traces, rendering the board beyond repair
Washing is a temporary solution, but highly recommended in the meanwhile...
The simasimac effect on startup is completely normal with "upgraded" ROMs -- the IIfx didn't have a built-in screen, so its ROM doesn't bother erasing it during the initial memory test. And the video cards do not output a video signal until properly initialized by the CPU after the memory test, anyway.
Mode32 won't be necessary with the upgraded (clean) ROM; however, I have it installed in "all" my HDs, and they all boot fine any machine, either with clean or dirty ROMs. Be warned that the Mode32 installer does more things that just copying the extension, so try reinstalling it properly!
On second thought, I had some 24/32 bit problems with my "upgraded" SE/30 -- it seems that some PRAM contents could be harmless to the original ROM, but confusing to the upgraded one. Try resetting the PRAM, just in case. After that, and with Mode32 enabled, you'll have to enable 32-bit addressing in the Memory control panel.
Hope this helps, and you'll be enjoying your SE/30 soon!
It's strange you can't boot 7.5 all the way... but if you can boot on 7.5.5, try the patched version of Drive Setup 1.5, it's what I normally use to format and disks work great on the SE/30. But if my above supposition is true (>2 GB) you may need to partition it -- SE/30 won't mount a disk with any partition over 2 GB, at least on 7.1.
Sooner or later, your board should be recapped. Did you wash it? It won't restore the properties of failing caps, but at least will remove leakage that could, in time, corrode the traces, rendering the board beyond repair
Washing is a temporary solution, but highly recommended in the meanwhile...The simasimac effect on startup is completely normal with "upgraded" ROMs -- the IIfx didn't have a built-in screen, so its ROM doesn't bother erasing it during the initial memory test. And the video cards do not output a video signal until properly initialized by the CPU after the memory test, anyway.
Mode32 won't be necessary with the upgraded (clean) ROM; however, I have it installed in "all" my HDs, and they all boot fine any machine, either with clean or dirty ROMs. Be warned that the Mode32 installer does more things that just copying the extension, so try reinstalling it properly!
On second thought, I had some 24/32 bit problems with my "upgraded" SE/30 -- it seems that some PRAM contents could be harmless to the original ROM, but confusing to the upgraded one. Try resetting the PRAM, just in case. After that, and with Mode32 enabled, you'll have to enable 32-bit addressing in the Memory control panel.
Hope this helps, and you'll be enjoying your SE/30 soon!