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Powerbook 180 No Boot

macuserman

Well-known member
Alright so I have this powerbook 180 that is in good condition physically screen even looks nice, however it doesn't boot at all, zero anything out of it, the internal battery was removed before I got it and there was some leakage but it was very minimal and I was able to clean it up pretty good. One of the battery terminals is broken but I'm not super worried about it since I dont' have a battery anyways. I checked the PSU with a multimeter and it's giving 7.5V as it should. Wondering what else I should check? I have read conflicting reports about if the 180 requires a PRAM battery to boot or not, would that be my next step to try and replace that? Just not sure what else, there don't seem to be a lot of big caps on the board or antyhing that would be causing problems, but I've never worked on any of the 100 series machines before.

Any ideas?

Thanks!
 

desertrout

Well-known member
The 180 will boot fine without a PRAM. First I'd check the 5A/125V fuse (F1 - right next to the battery terminals... if one of the terminals was broken, there may be a chance a short occurred and blew the fuse). If it's good, just check the board is getting power, perhaps the PSU connector is loose.
 

desertrout

Well-known member
Thinking about that broken terminal... I may be mistaken, but proper continuity / grounding may be required. I'm having a fuzzy memory of a startup issue due to some battery corrosion / oxidation under or around that round mounting... thing, ZH10?
 

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demik

Well-known member
I can attest that the 180 will boot with a bad PRAM or without one.

I may check with another power adapter. Some do show 7.5V at 0amps, but as soon as you need power, the voltage will drop.
 

macuserman

Well-known member
Thinking about that broken terminal... I may be mistaken, but proper continuity / grounding may be required. I'm having a fuzzy memory of a startup issue due to some battery corrosion / oxidation under or around that round mounting... thing, ZH10?
This is great info, that area there was heavily oxidized in fact that's how I broke the terminal was chipping out that stuff, it was super solid but after I removed it all there wasn't really any damage at least visibly to the board. And it didn't really extend past that big plastic connector with the battery terminals either was all kind of bunched up on that thing.

I can attest that the 180 will boot with a bad PRAM or without one.

I may check with another power adapter. Some do show 7.5V at 0amps, but as soon as you need power, the voltage will drop.
Awesome that's good to know for certain. Also do you have any idea which of the two battery terminals is plus and minus? I'm tempted if checking the fuses yields nothing to try powering it directly on the battery leads with my bench supply.
 

macuserman

Well-known member
Ok so the F1 fuse looks blown to me, at least my multimeter gives no beeps when I test across it. Will that affect it's ability to boot from the power supply as well? I could just bridge it for now to see I suppose unless that's a bad idea.
 

desertrout

Well-known member
Yes, from my experience that blown fuse shuts everything down. Sadly there's no schematic (that I'm aware of) to verify, but earlier models (100, Portable) follow the same design in this regard.

Personally I would try to find a replacement. The fuse may have blown for a reason that is still present. Either of the kinds of fuses - whether smd or drop-in - are plentiful and cheap. 180's are not.
 
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macuserman

Well-known member
Yes, from my experience that blown fuse shuts everything down. Sadly there's no schematic (that I'm aware of) to verify, but earlier models (100, Portable) follow the same design in this regard.

Personally I would try to find a replacement. The fuse may have blown for a reason that is still present. Either of the kinds of fuses - whether smd or drop-in - are plentiful and cheap. 180's are not.
Gotcha I’m happy to replace it then. Anyone have a part number handy I can order that will work?
 

macuserman

Well-known member
I'm not exactly sure on the dimensions, but I expect something like Schurter 3404.0121.22 or Littlefuse 0459005.UR should be okay? I think? Double check the length of the one you're replacing.

Is it a SMD fuse or is it one that drops into a holder, like this: https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/littelfuse-inc/0154005-DRT/266637
It's an SMD fuse, although if I could change it to a drop in style that would be awesome so I wouldn't have to resolder it if it blew again. My calipers say 7.2x4.2mm for the dimensions of the fuse roughly they aren't super high precision.
 

desertrout

Well-known member
OK, by that measurement the fuse holder I linked too would be too big... any of the ones I've found are 9mm+... unless that landing size is 9 or 10mm, which looks like it could be. I'd personally just pop in J-lead one, probably the Littlefuse is the better of two, size-wise (it's 7.24mm) -- but the holders are definitely handy.
 

macuserman

Well-known member
OK, by that measurement the fuse holder I linked too would be too big... any of the ones I've found are 9mm+... unless that landing size is 9 or 10mm, which looks like it could be. I'd personally just pop in J-lead one, probably the Littlefuse is the better of two, size-wise (it's 7.24mm) -- but the holders are definitely handy.
I went ahead and ordered a few of the 0459005.UR already so when they come in I'll give an update to this thread. Thanks so much for all your help guys so far it's been very helpful.
 

Cedsrepairs

Well-known member
Speaking of booting ; what would you recommend as far as version of MacOS is concerned for a PB100 and a PB180 ?

What did they ship with ? 6.0.8 ? What's recommended so that they're not too slow in stock config ?

thanks
 

desertrout

Well-known member
AFAIK, the 100 shipped with 7.0.1. The 180 can't use anything less than 7.1. The 100 though can reputedly run 6.0.8L, which would certainly be faster than 7.0.1. I've never tried it though... perhaps I will give it a shot later today.
 

macuserman

Well-known member
So she boots now, kinda, super solid chime sound and the screen looks great my phone doesn't do it justice with the camera, I can move the mouse around, but I never see any flashing folder or boot indication. I hear the hardrive clicking but that's it. Kinda thought I would at least see the flashing folder but I don't know I've never had one of these so I may just need to get a new drive?

So two questions:
1. what's the cheapest way to put a drive in this...
2. What version of OS should I try to put on it and how do I find it, I'm assuming I'll need some floppies...
 

demik

Well-known member
Good job with the fuse !

Some Macs doesn't show the flashing folder IF the SCSI bus is stuck by some device.... which may be your case.
I suspect that you will see the flashing disk if you remove the SCSI drive.

For the drive, you will want something like a BlueSCSI PowerBook edition, but maybe it's just the HDD head which are stuck

OS version: 7.1 on low RAM, 7.5 will do if 10MB+ of RAM. I will start with 7.1.

The OS are avaible on Macintosh Garden (check for Mac OS 7.1.x (extras)). There are two iso that contains images for PB180s
 

macuserman

Well-known member
Good job with the fuse !

Some Macs doesn't show the flashing folder IF the SCSI bus is stuck by some device.... which may be your case.
I suspect that you will see the flashing disk if you remove the SCSI drive.

For the drive, you will want something like a BlueSCSI PowerBook edition, but maybe it's just the HDD head which are stuck

OS version: 7.1 on low RAM, 7.5 will do if 10MB+ of RAM. I will start with 7.1.

The OS are avaible on Macintosh Garden (check for Mac OS 7.1.x (extras)). There are two iso that contains images for PB180s
Yes! I removed the drive and got the flashing folder! We are almost there!!64F418F4-2C73-4F7B-AB61-9290E61518E8.jpeg
 

desertrout

Well-known member
So two questions:
1. what's the cheapest way to put a drive in this...
2. What version of OS should I try to put on it and how do I find it, I'm assuming I'll need some floppies...
Awesome, and nice work!

+1 to what @demik has already said. There is a chance you may be able to resurrect the spinner though, if you're comfortable cracking it open - given that it's not currently working, what's the harm... Depending on the drive, it can often be a sticky bumper or pad for the drive head arm you can replace or tape over. There are some videos and threads about it - or ask more questions if you're interested.
 
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