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Powerbook 150 ADB hack ?

galgot

Well-known member
I remember reading about a hack to have an ABD port on a PB150. Did a quick search but can 't find anything useful, only dead links...

Anyone knows about it ?

 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
God, they were already talking about brittle plastic in 2004! To be fair, my 150 is the worst plastic wise of all my PowerBooks. I’ve totally got to do this hack! Any ideas where to source an ADB Port from?
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Not yet… I really should soon. I’ll likely have to make a mouser order sometime soon, will pick one up then. My main concern with the 150 right now is getting a parts unit for plastics donation. My display plastics are too far gone for hinge fix parts to solve…
 

CC_333

Well-known member
God, they were already talking about brittle plastic in 2004!
It's been going on for ages. As I'm sure you know, the PowerBook 190 and 5300 were notorious for brittle plastics (particularly in their hinges) when they were new, so age need not be a factor in every situation (it certainly wasn't for the 190/5300!), though it does seem that plastics that were cheaply made/marginal when new (ex., the aforementioned 190 and 5300) have aged particularly badly.

This includes most Mac laptops and many desktops and towers manufactured from 1992-ish to 1997-ish.

The so-called SpindlerPlastic formulations (so named since much of it seemingly entered production when Michael Spindler was CEO) seem to have lasted as late as 1998 in some supply chains (the last of the beige hardware, pretty much); it seemed to largely resolve after Apple transitioned to using more metal and polycarbonate-type plastics (a notable exception to this is the inner ABS framework on most slot loading iMacs, which are terribly prone to shattering). However, while polycarbonate doesn't seem to get terribly brittle with age, it has a most unfortunate tendency to crack (notable examples of this include B&W G3 handles and feet and clamshell iBook display bezels, which always seem to crack around that little inset Apple logo that sits below the display).

c
 

ArmorAlley

Well-known member
God, they were already talking about brittle plastic in 2004!
I remember being told in the early to mid-nineties by someone in an Apple dealership in Dublin that Macs were designed with a usable lifetime of 7 years and that they should all be expected to work within that timeframe. 2004 is ten years after the PB 150 was released, so, my guess is, Apple had it built to last until the year 2001 and, if it lasted longer than that, all well and good.
 

twelvetone12

Well-known member
The previous owner of my 150 quite literally bolted the hinges back together! He told me he did it already back in the 90s. This 150 loses pièces every time I touch it.
 
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