PowerBook 100

Seek advice, give advice or tell others about your repair and restoration projects

PowerBook 100

Postby Beags on Wed Jan 01, 2014 3:14 pm

I have had a mostly dead PowerBook 100 lying around for ages just in case I could resurrect it. And whaddya know, I picked up a second one on trade me for about $5.00 - Woohoo!!!

Stage 1 - Pull apart both 'Books and see what is under the hood:
Found: 6MB Ram card and 2400 baud fax modem in the newest purchase. One display very dark, other very good except purple star in top quarter. One base starts up with a scratchy noise and no startup chime, other starts with a chime and a hard drive whirr but can just make out a flashing '?'.

Stage 2 - Pull working components together to make one full working unit:
Connected working base with working top, installing Ram card and modem. Booted PB100: Startup chime, bright clear screen, Ram checks ok, floppy drive clicks, hard drive spins up but still only a flashing '?'.

Stage 3 - Obtain System 7.1 install floppies, format HDD and install:
And whaddya know (again) I picked up a PB180 on trade me, this time for about $1.50, and OS 7.1 on 6 floppies came with it!!! A PB100 comes with an external floppy drive that connects to a smaller version of the square SCSI port found next to its bigger cousin at the back with the rest of the I/O. Now that you know this, !@#$, I can't get either of the external FDDs or the other super drives from the semi working PB180, the definitely dead PB520 or the other 3 rescued from dead PB150s, to successfully and consistently read floppies. I have cleaned the heads but to no avail and can only assume the heads are out of alignment or something. Have to do some more research on that particular topic as a working floppy drive is essential to my restoration. Any suggestions or links for FDD repair are greatly appreciated!!!

Stage 4 - Swap out HDD with other small scsi drives in stock:
Tried both 40MB drives from the PB100s but no joy - suspect at least a format or they may just be toast (they are approx. 22 years old!). I have 3 or so 120MB drives from the PB150s but they were made by Sony and they 'decided' to go with IDE. Now I'm down to my last 2, an 80MB from the PB180 and a 160MB from the PB520 (both SCSI). The 80MB has 7.1 on it but is only a specific install for the PB180 and wont boot the PB100. The 160MB has 7.5.5 on it and does boot the PB100 - yay, finally some success. Trimmed down the system and disabled non applicable extensions and control panels. Tried a couple of applications, Word 5.1 unexpectedly quits with error type 3 - definitely need to get a working FDD and clean install everything as I don't know the condition of the system and can't run Norton Disk Doctor without a bootable floppy as well.

Upcoming stages:
- Completely pull apart both top cases and to try the other screen only with the currently working hard ware.
- Pull apart both track ball assemblies and cobble together to get a consistently working unit.
- Repair and frankenstein (only 2 of my 7 super drive FDDs are supposed to fit in the external case, hehe!) a working external floppy drive.
- Format the now internal 160MB HDD and install with OS 7.1.
- Obtain an external USB floppy drive to connect with my Clamshell iBook, running OS 9.2.2 so I can 'sneaker-net' across installers, from Macintosh Garden, to the PB100.
- Clean up the best looking plastic casing and from both PB100s and fit to create finished unit.
MacBook Pro 13" 2GHz Core i7 (Business workhorse)
iMac 24" 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (Home workhorse)
Indigo Clamshell 366 MHz G3 iBook (Classic workhorse)
IBook 500 MHz G3 (Homework workhorse)
Powerbook 520c (Project workhorse)
Beags
 
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am
Location: Marton, Rangitikei

Re: PowerBook 100

Postby Beags on Thu Jan 02, 2014 3:39 pm

Stage 5 - Swap out display unit, trackball assembly and case plastics etc:
Used a Service Source pdf on the PB100 to fully disassemble the display top case of both units and swapped out just the LCD module - tests good, have attributed the original dark screen fault to the inverter or interconnector boards. Swapped out and cleaned the other trackball assembly, tracks much smoother. Swapped out display bezel; top-case outer cover; feet; clutch covers and center cover (after breaking one of the tabs on the other trying to refit, grrr) etc; and cleaned all surfaces. Looking great and generally operating well but still needs a reliable FDD (next stage) and a clean install of 7.1 (7.5.5 works ok but hoping to go that one more step retro!).
MacBook Pro 13" 2GHz Core i7 (Business workhorse)
iMac 24" 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (Home workhorse)
Indigo Clamshell 366 MHz G3 iBook (Classic workhorse)
IBook 500 MHz G3 (Homework workhorse)
Powerbook 520c (Project workhorse)
Beags
 
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am
Location: Marton, Rangitikei

Re: PowerBook 100

Postby tezza on Thu Jan 02, 2014 4:11 pm

Yea, looks like you're getting there. Great work!
Tez (Terry Stewart) (Administrator)
Collection: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/co ... /index.htm
Projects and Articles: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm
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Re: PowerBook 100

Postby Beags on Fri Jul 25, 2014 9:30 am

Sidetrack - Stage 5b? Obtain all in one Mac eg Classic II, max ram (10mb!!!) and upgrade HDD. Work out how to install Mac OS 7.5.5 and Apple Share 3.0 or 4.0. Obtain Local Talk cables and connectors or maybe just a mini din 8 to 8 cable to start serving and networking from Mac (server) to Powerbook 100 (client).
MacBook Pro 13" 2GHz Core i7 (Business workhorse)
iMac 24" 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (Home workhorse)
Indigo Clamshell 366 MHz G3 iBook (Classic workhorse)
IBook 500 MHz G3 (Homework workhorse)
Powerbook 520c (Project workhorse)
Beags
 
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am
Location: Marton, Rangitikei

Re: PowerBook 100

Postby Carcenomy on Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:29 am

Want a Classic II? ;)
Just the local Commodore hobo and middle-aged PC hoarder.
eisa on Trademe. A lasting reminder of a Compaq fetish when I was younger.
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Re: PowerBook 100

Postby Beags on Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:36 pm

Yes please!
MacBook Pro 13" 2GHz Core i7 (Business workhorse)
iMac 24" 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (Home workhorse)
Indigo Clamshell 366 MHz G3 iBook (Classic workhorse)
IBook 500 MHz G3 (Homework workhorse)
Powerbook 520c (Project workhorse)
Beags
 
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am
Location: Marton, Rangitikei

Re: PowerBook 100

Postby mehimu on Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:17 pm

Thanks, nice post
Himadri
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Re: PowerBook 100

Postby Beags on Fri Oct 10, 2014 6:13 pm

Stage 6 - Get a working floppy drive. After many tests and isopropyl applications in-between attempts to read known good disks (which were sacrifice-able) I was able to get one working - yay PB180 now allocated for spare parts. I successfully created a set of floppies for Mac OS 7.0.1 install, booted the PB with "Disk Tools", erased the now internal 80mb drive (Yay PB180... again!) and installed said Mac OS 7.0.1. It starts beautifully and with the choice of OS it only uses approx 1mb of the available 8mb of RAM - nice!

Stage 7 - Install software to use in further projects with PB100 and (hopefully) an Apple Share 4.0 server. Duh, Duh, Duuuh! Oh no, the "Chimes of Death" and a sad mac!!! Will try a RAM reseat etc tomorrow - really hope it isn't the extra 6mb of RAM, it probably cost in excess of $400 originally just for that.
MacBook Pro 13" 2GHz Core i7 (Business workhorse)
iMac 24" 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (Home workhorse)
Indigo Clamshell 366 MHz G3 iBook (Classic workhorse)
IBook 500 MHz G3 (Homework workhorse)
Powerbook 520c (Project workhorse)
Beags
 
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am
Location: Marton, Rangitikei

Re: PowerBook 100

Postby tezza on Fri Oct 10, 2014 7:53 pm

Oh no! Good luck with the resuscitation. Hope it's successful. :shock:
Tez (Terry Stewart) (Administrator)
Collection: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/co ... /index.htm
Projects and Articles: https://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/index.htm
Twitter: @classiccomputNZ | YouTube: Terry Stewart
Trade Me: tezza5
tezza
Site Admin
 
Posts: 2382
Joined: Thu Jan 01, 1970 12:00 pm
Location: Palmerston North, New Zealand

Re: PowerBook 100

Postby Beags on Sun Oct 12, 2014 6:52 pm

Mission complete - RAM reseat did initially work and sad mac has come back very infrequently but I can deal with that. I can't work with just 2mb of RAM and I can't yet turn on virtual memory but will keep an eye out for a 3rd party control panel or some such. Now onto Macintosh Garden to pimp up the software.
MacBook Pro 13" 2GHz Core i7 (Business workhorse)
iMac 24" 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo (Home workhorse)
Indigo Clamshell 366 MHz G3 iBook (Classic workhorse)
IBook 500 MHz G3 (Homework workhorse)
Powerbook 520c (Project workhorse)
Beags
 
Posts: 98
Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2012 9:50 am
Location: Marton, Rangitikei


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