A friend of mine recently obtained one of these systems which initially did not work. The original power supply is dead so she researched and found a PowerBook battery can be used as a substitute. She also purchased a "rebuilt" battery as the original has long since passed. Initially it did not power up so the first thing that was suspect was the caps. She gave it to me to recap and that work has been completed (all caps, SMD and axial electrolytics). There wasn't much in the way of capacitor leakage so the board cleaned up nicely with no observable damage to anything.
After a partial reassembly I was able to coax the system to power on and eventually boot. However, the screen is not very bright (thinking I need to get the operating system up so I can set the brightness via the control panel) and now we have to disconnect the hard disk (assuming it's either bad or drawing too much power). I suspect the battery is not being recharged so as time passes and the power is consumed the system begins to exhibit more problems.
That said I now have it torn apart and would like to begin troubleshooting it. I've read a number of threads on this system as research but have not begun any troubleshooting. Power supply measurements are the first thing I want to test but I'm not sure how to go about doing this. I've read that it is not good to operate this system solely from the power supply so I am here to ask: How should I go about setting the system up to troubleshoot it? Is it OK to plug in the external power supply and attempt testing with just it? Or do I have to connect the battery (which would make troubleshooting challenging as to do that I need to have the top case connected and the wires for the connector aren't long enough to have it sufficiently out of the way)? Perhaps connecting to a bench power supply (I have an inexpensive one which does not limit current)? I have a voltmeter and DSO along with the schematics. However, I want to seek advice as to a proper set up for testing.
On another note the hybrid chip looks fine, I can detect no sign of damage and don't suspect any as the research I've done suggests the damage comes from leaking capacitors and there was little leakage from any of the caps let alone the ones in front of the hybrid chip.
Finally, on another note, I cut open the original power supply and removed all of the caps for testing with an EST meter. They all tested good with one of the 1000uf caps possibly being out of spec. No leakage or damage to any of the caps observed. I've purchased some replacement 1000uf caps but haven't purchased the others as it'll cost approximately $30 to get them. I've already spent $9.00 of the 1000uf caps and not sure if I should invest any money into the power supply. Any thoughts as to what I should do with it? Why did Apply glue this thing together?
After a partial reassembly I was able to coax the system to power on and eventually boot. However, the screen is not very bright (thinking I need to get the operating system up so I can set the brightness via the control panel) and now we have to disconnect the hard disk (assuming it's either bad or drawing too much power). I suspect the battery is not being recharged so as time passes and the power is consumed the system begins to exhibit more problems.
That said I now have it torn apart and would like to begin troubleshooting it. I've read a number of threads on this system as research but have not begun any troubleshooting. Power supply measurements are the first thing I want to test but I'm not sure how to go about doing this. I've read that it is not good to operate this system solely from the power supply so I am here to ask: How should I go about setting the system up to troubleshoot it? Is it OK to plug in the external power supply and attempt testing with just it? Or do I have to connect the battery (which would make troubleshooting challenging as to do that I need to have the top case connected and the wires for the connector aren't long enough to have it sufficiently out of the way)? Perhaps connecting to a bench power supply (I have an inexpensive one which does not limit current)? I have a voltmeter and DSO along with the schematics. However, I want to seek advice as to a proper set up for testing.
On another note the hybrid chip looks fine, I can detect no sign of damage and don't suspect any as the research I've done suggests the damage comes from leaking capacitors and there was little leakage from any of the caps let alone the ones in front of the hybrid chip.
Finally, on another note, I cut open the original power supply and removed all of the caps for testing with an EST meter. They all tested good with one of the 1000uf caps possibly being out of spec. No leakage or damage to any of the caps observed. I've purchased some replacement 1000uf caps but haven't purchased the others as it'll cost approximately $30 to get them. I've already spent $9.00 of the 1000uf caps and not sure if I should invest any money into the power supply. Any thoughts as to what I should do with it? Why did Apply glue this thing together?