Macintosh SE

[Vader]

I tried to search for this, but had no luck since the forum search would not use the "SE" part.

Anyway, I bought this Macintosh SE at a garage sale for $5. It has a bad OS I think.
When I boot it, it has the welcome to macintosh screen, and then it gets a bomb, with a system error.
* Sorry a system error occurred.
* "System"
* address error
* To temporarily turn off extensions, restart and
* hold down the shift key.

I hold down the shift key and restart and the welcome to macintosh screen says extensions off, but then I get the same bomb again.

Does this mean that the computer has a hardware problem, or I just need to find an OS 6.03 install disc and boot from that (can old macs do that?) and reinstall.
I believe this is just the original Macintosh SE, this one (http://www.apple-history.com/?page=gallery&model=se&performa=off&sort=date&order=ASC), but I don't have specs on it, since I can't actually boot it.
M# is M5010.

[Spock]

If You find a OS 6 boot disk You should be able to boot the thing check out Jag's House here http://www.jagshouse.com/

[Vader]

I found that my dad had a macally usb floppy drive, so I started on a search for a 800k disk. I noticed that with all the old disks are tried, the drive didn't even try to read them. Then I looked up the drive online, to find that it says it supports 1.4 mb disks, so that must mean it doesn't support 800k disks.

So how can I make a disk with OS 6 on it, so I can boot this mac?

[ahunter3]

The SE has a SCSI port, and can boot from an external HD.

Problem with System 6 is that you can't easily create a bootable System 6 disk (floppy or HD) unless you've got a machine that can boot OS 9 or earlier. Even with operating systems between System 7 and MacOS 9, you need to download "FixSix" and drag-n-drop the System 6 System folder onto it because boot blocks worked differently under System 6 (or something of the sort, I think it was the boot blocks).

On the other hand, the SE will boot System 7 :)

I would buy up a cheap external SCSI HD and install System 7 on it. I think you can run the System 7 installer in the Classic environment using the "Install for any computer" option. System 7.0.1 is a good OS for this computer. It is available from the various classic-mac websites as a series of disk images.

[Vader]

I wonder, if I took out the hd, could I put it in my external hd enclosure and put os 6 or 7 on it that way? I am sure my enclosure wouldn't work (right?), so I wonder if maybe I would need to purchase one.

[CanadaRAM]

It's a SCSI drive, so you would need a SCSI enclosure (and a Mac that had a SCSI port).

It's for moments like these that I keep a beige G3 machine around. SCSI, IDE, Floppy, CDRW, PCI slots, boots 9 or X -- it'll cover anything ;)

[Vader]

It's a SCSI drive, so you would need a SCSI enclosure (and a Mac that had a SCSI port).

It's for moments like these that I keep a beige G3 machine around. SCSI, IDE, Floppy, CDRW, PCI slots, boots 9 or X -- it'll cover anything ;)
LOL, are you volunteering to make me some 800k 6.0.8 install discs?

I wish we had kept all our old macs. Then I would have no troubles now.

[Vader]

Just an update, someone from another forum is sending some OS 6 install disks.

[dpaanlka]

If you're getting that error while holding down shift... a new OS isn't going to solve your problem.

[macEfan]

I have gotten that error a couple of times... once it was bad ram, and another time it was a hard drive controller card. id try the OS first, but don't rule out other possibliities.

[Vader]

Well, I was going to take it apart, but,
1. I took out the screws and then I didn't want to crack the case when it wouldn't come open
2. I don't have the proper equipment to work around the CRT discharge issue.

I will be posting here again once the disks come.

[ReanimationLP]

Well, I was going to take it apart, but,
1. I took out the screws and then I didn't want to crack the case when it wouldn't come open
2. I don't have the proper equipment to work around the CRT discharge issue.

I will be posting here again once the disks come.

http://www.repairyourmac.com/Macintosh_SE.pdf

[Vader]

thanks, but it says that the case just comes up once you take the 4 screws out, not true.