Looks like the Caps went bad. A common problem with old Macs.
You will need to get the logic board re-caped and a NEW battery.
There are people on ebay that repair these logic boards for about $65
a NEW battery is about $5 on ebay.

Almost certainly a logic board problem rather than analogue board.

This can be anything. Most likely a battery exploded on the motherboard. Open it and post a picture of the motherboard to know.

mpe wrote on 2020-01-21, 11:57:

Almost certainly a logic board problem rather than analogue board.

This can be anything. Most likely a battery exploded on the motherboard. Open it and post a picture of the motherboard to know.

I can't open it before I buy it (remote location) so I guess it's not worth taking a gamble on.

Yep. That's the classic Simasimac problem. Caused by those shitty SMD caps that leak their goop all over the board.

Some people temporarily fixed the issue by putting the logic board in the dishwasher (as ridiculous as this sounds, it actually works) but before doing that, REMOVE the PRAM battery from the logic board.

Speaking of the PRAM battery, it can often blow up, destroying the logic board in the process. Many old 68K Macintoshes were destroyed by those "Maxell bombs" (those faulty batteries blew up due to an internal chemical reaction). So be careful and check if it hasn't yet blown up.

As for opening it, you will need long screwdrivers to reach the two top screws.

I once had a SE/30 showing similar patter. Once opened the board looked like this:

download/file.php?mode=view&id=75016

So don't bet on this one. It can be anything from bad caps to half of the motherboard being destroyed.

These Macs show.a pattern even without any motherboard.

Thanks for the info guys, I'll let this one pass.

Yeah, it’s a black and white display anyways.
You want a “Macintosh Color Classic” or newer for color display.
They are also easier to fix with easy access slide out components from the “Color Classic” or newer.

You could still try to remove the internals and convert it to an iPad stand/dock, It's funny and I have seen videos on YouTube for how to do it. Later, what next? Convert its keyboard and mouse to bluetooth so they could be used by iPad? Why not? hahahaha.

It's still a better fate for a Macintosh than the dust. You could even run Mini vMac or Basilisk II for iOS and still get the original Macintosh operating system running.

Vynix wrote on 2020-01-21, 12:16:

Yep. That's the classic Simasimac problem. Caused by those shitty SMD caps that leak their goop all over the board.

Yeah, except the SE has zero SMD caps, only throughhole axials.

yeah for $20 I'd probably save it just for the case ^^
otherwise it'll just get thrown away.

Daniël Oosterhuis wrote on 2020-01-21, 14:31:

Yeah, except the SE has zero SMD caps, only throughhole axials.

No, but you can never tell what is in the PDS slot or which motherboard is actually in (SE and SE/30 are interchangeable) 😀

Anyway, I think the battery damage has potential to be far worse than caps. It literally eats things out.

imi wrote on 2020-01-21, 15:01:

yeah for $20 I'd probably save it just for the case ^^
otherwise it'll just get thrown away.

Same here. If the hardware really was beyond repair, it would make an awesome case for a hackintosh. I don't know its physical dimensions, but it would really surprise me if you couldn't fit some suitable mITX board and an LCD panel in it. Perhaps it's even possible to reuse the CRT? 😀

Supposing the case is in good condition without cracks, ...

Some people also convert these to aquariums.

mpe wrote on 2020-01-21, 12:32:

I once had a SE/30 showing similar patter.

The SEs belong in horror movies, this is a photo from some local FB group:

So yeah, be extra cautious when buying one.

I had a Mac Classic that's like that. i took it apart thinking it was just the typical leaky caps issue but it was much worse, the battery has leaked. i just chucked it, it was no use. got a Mac IIci to replace it. the IIci only had bad caps but i cleaned it and recapped it and it's now working.

mpe wrote on 2020-01-21, 15:41:

Supposing the case is in good condition without cracks, ...

Some people also convert these to aquariums.

I've got one set aside for just that. 😀 Got it maybe 12 years ago and the HDD was bad, so like an idiot, I scrapped the (otherwise perfectly good) hardware and kept the case. The early 2000s will always be known to me as a dark period of senseless destruction. (sigh)

Don't buy it, unless you need parts like the pretty rare high density disk drive.

SpectriaForce wrote on 2020-01-21, 20:29:

Don't buy it, unless you need parts like the pretty rare high density disk drive. The capacitors on the motherboard have probably leaked over it. It's a lot of work to clean the system board thoroughly and replace the tiny capacitors. It's not worth your time unless you like doing that.

Unless it has an SE/30 board, it'll have axial throughhole capacitors that are not known for leaking.

My understanding is that it's the Varta batery that basically melted itself onto the logic board, I passed on the offer..