68kMLA Classic Interface

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PowerBook 100
Posted by: max1zzz on 2020-11-11 10:12:48 Picked picked up fairly nice looking PB100 on eBay a few days ago, Seller was fairly local to me so shipping was fairly quick Got it today and luckily it survived shipping OK (The packaging was not the best I have ever seen, but was far from the worst!) I can't test it yet as the power adapter for it is not working, I'll have to crack that open and have a look at it. From what I remember these machines suffer quite badly form capacitor leakage so I'll be stripping and recapping it over the next few days, Hopefully the 2.5" scsi HDD in it is ok as I think a 2.5" scsi2sd would cost more than I payed for the PB! I wasn't really looking for a PB 100 but it came up for a good price so I couldn't resist 🙂
Posted by: Challenger 1983 on 2020-11-11 11:36:49 I might have a power adapter you can have, I’ll look for it tonight if you want it
Posted by: Papichulo on 2020-11-11 15:12:54 any of the 100 series adapters work. its a great machine but probably wont do anything until you recap the board and screen
Posted by: Challenger 1983 on 2020-11-11 19:02:19 any of the 100 series adapters work. its a great machine but probably wont do anything until you recap the board and screen You really want to recap this machine, especially the screen as electrolyte can leak and permanently damage the LCD
Posted by: bibilit on 2020-11-12 00:35:28 I agree a 100 % don't forget the small capacitor located in the daughter board. power adapter for it is not working leaky caps
Posted by: max1zzz on 2020-11-12 05:00:36 Anyone got any advise on how to crack the power brick open without destroying it? My usual method of a few sturdy whacks with a mallet is not proving to be very successful and I suspect trying to prise along the seam will just end up mangling the plastic I'll be stripping and hopefully recapping the PowerBook later today, unfortunately all the rubber on the PB has turned to goo so I'm not going to be able to get the feet out and get the the screws underneath without destroying the feet
Posted by: bibilit on 2020-11-12 05:12:41 using two rods (in the psu groove area) and a vice will crack the PSU without too much hassle
Posted by: max1zzz on 2020-11-12 08:42:25 I managed to get the brick apart in the end, I managed to crack enough of the seam apart with the mallet to be able to slide a putty knife between the two half's of the brick and separate it The news is not good though, all caps where leaking badly and where replaced however I still got no output from the brick, a bit of probing revealed the main mosfet on the primary side of the brick is a dead short between all 3 legs. The mosfet is still produced new however I have little experience repairing switch mode supplies outside replacing caps so I think I'm going to seek out a modern switchmode supply that will fit in the shell and leave repairing the original board for another day. Time to seek out the brick for the PSone as that is the same spec as the PB100 series adapters and should do for testing until I can get a morden supply that will fit in the brick
Posted by: MindWalker on 2020-11-12 10:08:12 Anyone got any advise on how to crack the power brick open without destroying it? Late to the party, but I used two pieces of wood and a vice and it worked very nicely (see https://www.reddit.com/r/VintageApple/comments/hbzidj/recapping_a_powerbook_ac_adapter/).
Posted by: max1zzz on 2020-11-14 05:14:23 Got the board mostly recapped (Just need to get the 4.7uf cap and the radials as I didn't have them in stock) and gave it a trip through the ultrasonic cleaner PowerBook now seems to be poring on just fine 🙂 Unfortunately the HD is bad though so I'm going to have to figure something out there, the only real option i am aware of (other than trying to source another 2.5" scsi drive) is the 2.5" scsi2sd but that is both pretty expensive and I can't actually find it in stock anywhere.
Posted by: bibilit on 2020-11-14 05:57:53 What brand is your drive ? some can be revived easily
Posted by: max1zzz on 2020-11-14 06:18:22 it's a 40mb conner. It seems to have trouble spinning up to full speed, sometimes it will only spin up for a second and spin back down and then repeat this 3-4 times before sounding like it has got up to full speed but the drive never tries to seek, I have tried removing the top of the dive and giving the arm a very gentle nudge out of the park position (This has worked for me a few times in the past) but the drive just spins down as soon as I do this
Posted by: bibilit on 2020-11-14 09:48:20 Conner drives are the ones.
Posted by: max1zzz on 2020-11-14 12:16:05 Thanks! Just tried that, drive is now seeking but not booting (I got the happy mac once or twice and even the welcome to macintosh screen once but it froze on boot) Will make a boot floppy tomorrow and see if it works after formatting
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