PB180 OS

[CelGen]

So I have a 180 that I ahve been fighting with to get an OS working on it.
I first tried 6.0.4 (long shot but worth a try) and that didn't work. Neither did 7.1.
I then managed to get 7.5.3 booting but right after the install and restart it starts to boot and then gives me a sad mac.
I could of sworn the hard disk (my only 230mb drive) was fine but I can't confirm this with Snooper or Norton's disk tools because the standalone boot floppies won't work because it says 6.0.4 and 7.1 are too old.
Is there an enabler or something I'm missing here?

[Scott Baret]

System 7.1 requires System Enabler 131 to run on all 1992-1993 PowerBooks, including the 180.

[beachycove]

System 6 will not work on the PB180. System 7.1 requires the enabler, as has just been said, and a boot floppy is simple enough to hack. I am sure you know how.

More generally, however, I have a couple of machines that exhibit similar behaviour. The closest in kind is a PowerBook 170, which will sometimes boot and sometimes not. Booting is generally partial. The right system enabler is definitely present.

I think the machine is not giving enough power to the drive, frankly, as failure to boot is accompanied by the drive spinning down, and as the same drive is known to be working, in that it works just fine in another 68k PowerBook.

[CelGen]

Okay, looks like 7.5.3 was okay.
Turns out instead that the hard drive is dead.
Could not reliably mount it on another powerbook while in traget mode without crashing, couldn't even low-level format it with out it failing.

Great, I'm out of Powerbook drives larger than 80mb.

[insaneboy]

Great, I'm out of Powerbook drives larger than 80mb.

least you have *a* powerbook drive. I have a pair of 180's work fine other than the lack of HDDs.

[Scott Baret]

Look for one of the IBM-branded 80MB drives. I know the capacity is small, but these seem to be the most reliable of the 2.5" SCSI drives. If you are ever offered a PowerBook 1xx for free or for a low cost, it's worth taking just to see if the hard drive works.

[insaneboy]

If you are ever offered a PowerBook 1xx for free or for a low cost, it's worth taking just to see if the hard drive works.

how do you think I ended up with two 180's to begin with. Turned out both had already been harvested for their HDDs

[register]

If you really want to use an old PB be sure to check our Wiki for SCSI hard disk replacement options. My personal experience with CF and PATA storage adaptors from the Japanese dealer Artmix are very well (aside the fact that you flatten a hundred USD for each one, without storage media). I prefer the CF to SCSI adaptor card, as this will provide a very quiet and sufficiently fast storage module. You could even think of making a hardware hack using two CF adaptor boards, one with an external accessible slot for a removable CF or SD card }:)

[nvdeynde]

Turns out instead that the hard drive is dead

What's the brand of the hard drive ? If it's still spinning up but the heads are locked in the parked position it often can be fixed.

You need to open the drive's housing in a dust-free environment and remove the parking mechanism of the heads.
I had good luck with Connor and IBM drives, regrettably not with Quantum models.

if you have spare dead hard drives, open one up and give it trial. There's nothing too loose anyway if the drives aren't working anymore.

Nico