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Are Mac SEs/Plus worth restoring/selling?

T

TheLazy1

Experienced Member
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Jun 2, 2009
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Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
I have a few compact macs lying around: 1 SE Superdrive, 1 SE FDHD and 1 Mac Plus 1MB.
If I remember correctly the SEs randomly hang, not sure about the Plus though.

Are these worth restoring and selling?
I also have a ton of old software on disks for it, if I can find them.

Running out of space, they have to go somewhere :)
 
They're not worth a fortune, but they're not worthless either. If they're in nice condition with all peripherals it could go for a decent amount.
 
I've got an old SE sitting in my closet too, I think... Been a while since I even looked at it actually, but I think that it was an FDHD...

I know that at least up to a few years ago that there were still individuals using these for home web servers and basic browsing if they had an ethernet card.

I also seem to remember there being a way to cheat and get color on the internal monitor, iirc a super-rare video card of some sort was all that was required.

I'd say that they're still worth something to somebody, especially if there's anything added into either of them.
 
Last time I had an SE it had value.
...or the person I dealt was so desperate for an SE he traded me his NeXT Cube. ;)
 
I have a broken SE I tried to fix and failed. It's in very nice condition externally, but a new video card and PSU is now needed. I'm waiting to see if anyone is gives a scruffy one away locally I can swap the board and PSU with. I've got later working Macs (like an SE/30) so it's not an urgent aquisition. I just hate to see a nice case go to waste at the recyclers.
 
I actually have a 3com etherlink SE, I'm not sure if it works though but I guess I'll throw it in one of the SEs and see what happens.
What would be the best way to stress test/find the faults.

I know there are faults so selling them is out of the question until they stress test OK for at least 6 hours.
 
The Plus machines still have the signatures of the Mac team on the inside of the case. (Later models have some of them left, but not as complete a set I think). The Plus is also interesting because it has no fan or internal hard drive so it is very quiet (apparently sometimes they overheated because of this, so companies sold fans that sat on top). The simplicity of the machine appeals to me.
 
mark66j said:
The Plus machines still have the signatures of the Mac team on the inside of the case. (Later models have some of them left, but not as complete a set I think).
Click to expand...
I think the practice was discontinued in late model of SE, but I can't be certain (it's been a couple of decades since I last pop an SE.)
mark66j said:
The Plus is also interesting because it has no fan or internal hard drive so it is very quiet (apparently sometimes they overheated because of this, so companies sold fans that sat on top).
Click to expand...
A lot of people (foolishly) covered up the vents on the top of the unit (books, blankets, bits of trinkets what nots) and causes the unit to catch on fire, or the causes the casing to melt (I have seen several of those in my days servicing compact Macs.)
 
The Plus and SE are probably the most ubiquitous of the compact Macs. They're just about "a dime a dozen" right now. (The Plus was sold, with ZERO changes to hardware specs, for FOUR AND A HALF YEARS! Just imagine going in to the Apple Store, and seeing a G5 iMac. Yeah, it might only cost $500, but still the same G5 with 512 MB RAM and Radeon X600?)
 
I do agree that these units are easy to come by on eBay, cost can be low as well. I recently picked up a couple units on eBay and paid more for shipping than the units themselves. The thing I noticed is that a lot of these units have little or no software included with them. The high dollar units (right now anyhow) are the 128k/512k systems with accessories and software.

I wouldn't toss any of the old Apple units no matter what there working condition, I'am sure you can find someone out there who would pay for shipping at least to get them off your hands.
 
I have one SE in perfect working condition with the keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately I'm still trying to restore an LC II far enough that I can use it as a bridge system to get software and files on/off the SE. I plan on retr0briting it and just having it alongside my newer Macs.
 
STorrence said:
I have one SE in perfect working condition with the keyboard and mouse. Unfortunately I'm still trying to restore an LC II far enough that I can use it as a bridge system to get software and files on/off the SE. I plan on retr0briting it and just having it alongside my newer Macs.
Click to expand...

The usual leaking capacitor problem with the LC?
 
If you want an LC II I have like 10 of them, will sell one for whatever you want to pay + shipping.. :p
 
I assume so. It whistles through the speaker and I've noticed a couple of corroded caps around the expansion slot on the motherboard. I have another LC II with good caps though, so I might do a transplant. It works perfectly except for the network card. You can read more about it here. How easy are the caps to change out with a soldering iron?
 
I found a bit of Mac plus stuff over the past few days:

Mouse
Keyboard (missing 1 key and cable)
External floppy drive (not sure of density)
External SCSI hard drive

I'll have to power it up tomorrow and see what's up, would such a package be worth anything?
 
The whistle is very tell-tale of dying caps. The LC series used really low-grade caps that are almost guaranteed to fail. It's especially apparent in the audio section, which is near the PDS slot.

STorrence said:
How easy are the caps to change out with a soldering iron?
Click to expand...

Not too bad, if you've soldered coarse surface mount before. I'm probably not the person to ask, as I solder fine-pitch surface mount at work fairly regularly (try building a discrete op-amp on a board the size of a postage stamp!). One recommendation though, don't unsolder the old caps. The electrolyte weakens the bond between board substrate and copper, so the heat from the iron can completely detach the pads. I snip the whole capacitor off with sharp angle cutters (the kind meant to cut component leads flush with the circuit board) then remove the remaining pieces of capacitor legs with a swipe of the iron tip. Once everything is removed, go through with a Q-Tip and alcohol to remove any leftover electrolyte. If the board is really messy, you can wash it in the sink, dishwasher (no soap), or in an ultrasonic cleaner if you can get to one.

Your non-working network card may very well be caused by bad capacitors too. My LC wouldn't use anything in the PDS slot (I had an Apple IIe card) until it was recapped.
 
glitch said:
Your non-working network card may very well be caused by bad capacitors too. My LC wouldn't use anything in the PDS slot (I had an Apple IIe card) until it was recapped.
Click to expand...

Thank for the suggestions! I'm not very proficient with a soldering iron so I don't know if I'll undertake this operation myself. However, I will do as you say if and when I dive in. The caps on the Asante network card look fine from what I can tell, so I'm pretty sure the issue is with the caps around the PDS slot. Any chance that I could replace the caps with more reliable modern ones? Or are they so specific that I would need to use exact replacements?
 
Any capacitor that will fit the footprint will work. A lot of people like to use dry tantalum capacitors, since they are touted as being more reliable, but the problem really comes down to Apple's use of cheap capacitors, not the type used. You'll find a few Internet resources in which fanboys try to equate the capacitors in the LC and Classic series going bad to capacitors in tube equipment going bad. That's not really the case, as the chemistry of electrolytic capacitors changed dramatically in the 80's. Apple made the choice to save a few dollars (literally -- the replacement caps won't cost you more than $5) and it came back to bite them. Even though only the capacitors around the PDS slot appear to be bad, they should all be replaced.

I like to replace them with capacitors that look similar, so it's not obvious that the board has been restored (aside from the fact that it now works!) You can buy correct capacitors from Mouser, Digi-Key, et c. Some people even use through-hole capacitors and bend the leads at right angles to solder them to the surface mount pads, but with the LC series that can interfere with the PDS slot.
 
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