Wow, thanks Elfen! I don't think I could have asked for a better response!
I've de soldered and removed the battery. My multimeter says it is still functioning as advertised. Is this likely after 26 years? It's the right brand, and the solder looked identical to the rest of the solder points, but that's a long time! (I suspect it's because the machine has been in regular use - I got the history from the owner. Originally it belonged to a British newspaper until the late nineties, when the owner left the newspaper and bought it off them - he wouldn't tell me how much for - and he used it as his first home computer for a couple of years. After that his children played games on it (probably where the red ballpoint pen came from that took me 2 hours to clean off the bezel last night) it was put in storage for a year and a half whilst the family were in Australia and when he came back decided to use it for writing again because his family used the main computer. when I went to pick it up he couldn't understand why anyone would want it - he was just selling it because his youngest had gone to university and he's got his iMac back!
I've decided not to put a battery back in for now. I can live with the incorrect time for a little bit whilst I decide which alternative battery I should use - I like couple of the threads on here using a button battery as they are much less likely to leak, but like I say, I'll decide and fit a new once next time it's opened up.
With regard to the capacitors, how urgent is this? I know for the SE/30 it's critical, but the SE is not listed on the forum's wiki guide to caps? I was reading in another thread that the SE doesn't have the same problem as the SE/30? I want to keep it running, not a museum peice, but I also feel a bit of history with such an old computer and want to preserve it, so don't want to mod it where it's not needed - just trying to find the balance.
I think if it needs recapping, I'd like to do it myself - maybe fit the battery at the same time! I recapped a sega game gear last year, but I've got a got a couple of through board kits to assemble I might save until I do the SE's board so I can use them as practice before hand and make sure my soldering is spot on!
Ah, yes the accelerator boards! I look at them with such envy, but to be honest they may well be beyond my price point for a quite a while - hundreds of pounds, plus they nearly always come up in the US, so add £50 for shipping! I think the only way I'll get one of those is find one inside another ebay Mac the owner doesn't know what he has (this one cost me £31.50 and I picked it up on my day off!) I may do the same for spare parts - look for faulty SE's (I wouldn't want to kill a living one).
Thanks again for all the tips!!
I've de soldered and removed the battery. My multimeter says it is still functioning as advertised. Is this likely after 26 years? It's the right brand, and the solder looked identical to the rest of the solder points, but that's a long time! (I suspect it's because the machine has been in regular use - I got the history from the owner. Originally it belonged to a British newspaper until the late nineties, when the owner left the newspaper and bought it off them - he wouldn't tell me how much for - and he used it as his first home computer for a couple of years. After that his children played games on it (probably where the red ballpoint pen came from that took me 2 hours to clean off the bezel last night) it was put in storage for a year and a half whilst the family were in Australia and when he came back decided to use it for writing again because his family used the main computer. when I went to pick it up he couldn't understand why anyone would want it - he was just selling it because his youngest had gone to university and he's got his iMac back!
I've decided not to put a battery back in for now. I can live with the incorrect time for a little bit whilst I decide which alternative battery I should use - I like couple of the threads on here using a button battery as they are much less likely to leak, but like I say, I'll decide and fit a new once next time it's opened up.
With regard to the capacitors, how urgent is this? I know for the SE/30 it's critical, but the SE is not listed on the forum's wiki guide to caps? I was reading in another thread that the SE doesn't have the same problem as the SE/30? I want to keep it running, not a museum peice, but I also feel a bit of history with such an old computer and want to preserve it, so don't want to mod it where it's not needed - just trying to find the balance.
I think if it needs recapping, I'd like to do it myself - maybe fit the battery at the same time! I recapped a sega game gear last year, but I've got a got a couple of through board kits to assemble I might save until I do the SE's board so I can use them as practice before hand and make sure my soldering is spot on!
Ah, yes the accelerator boards! I look at them with such envy, but to be honest they may well be beyond my price point for a quite a while - hundreds of pounds, plus they nearly always come up in the US, so add £50 for shipping! I think the only way I'll get one of those is find one inside another ebay Mac the owner doesn't know what he has (this one cost me £31.50 and I picked it up on my day off!) I may do the same for spare parts - look for faulty SE's (I wouldn't want to kill a living one).
Thanks again for all the tips!!