5300c keyboard

[Innes]

Hello

I got a PB 5300c recently, and as far as I can see only two things on it are broken (which given this models reputation, is probably quite good). The first is the battery which was at the early stages of leaking, caught it just in time before it did any serious damage, and the second is a diagonal strip of keys on the keyboard which are having none of it.

I'm not expecting it to be fixable and will use an external until I get a dead parts donor, although I had this specific diagonal failure happen to a corsair strafe after I upset a glass of water on-top of it and was just wondering if anyone knows what component may have caused this specific failure.

Otherwise, the machine is in superb condition. I can only assume it was docked for it's entire working life as it is practically blemish-less.

It's also got 8.6 on it, and had the memory bumped up to 42mb. Most resources on the model say to take it up to 8.1 for a solid performance so I'm considering bumping it down as I have something running 8.6 already

cheers

 

[CC_333]

Where in the world are you?

If you're somewhere in the US (or nearby), I have an extra keyboard for a 190cs (pretty much identical to the 5300c, save for the screen and CPU) that you can have?

Let me know if you're interested so I can go looking for it.

c

 

[Innes]

I'm in the UK, so postage is maybe feasible as it's nice and light, however I have had an idea, if it can get to an address in California for early next month, it could come back with some colleagues out there on a work trip. I'll have to worth this out but let me know how much you want for it in the meantime?

 

[CC_333]

Hmm, $20 plus shipping seem fair enough?

c

 

[Franklinstein]

You could try to simply reseat the keyboard cables; they may have worked loose or gone in crooked, something that is typical with RAM upgrades on these.

The power port may need attention at some point but aside from the battery these things weren't that bad, just underwhelming and (at introduction) overpriced.

 

[Innes]

Hmm, $20 plus shipping seem fair enough?

c

It's just dawned on me that this keyboard you have will be US layout, which is technically not that big-a-difference from UK, particually on laptops, but I may have sourced a full parts donor with a £ button and the power socket pin I need too.

 Very much appriciate the offer though. 8)

So I may have read that these things struggled to deliver enough power to everything that needed it, anyone know if this is the case? I've run up against an odd issue where the machine fails to completely boot if a keyboard and mouse via ADB, and CD burner via SCSI are plugged in at the same time. it's fine with one or the other so i'm just wondering if it's not disking out the right levels of juice.

 

[Franklinstein]

So I may have read that these things struggled to deliver enough power to everything that needed it, anyone know if this is the case? I've run up against an odd issue where the machine fails to completely boot if a keyboard and mouse via ADB, and CD burner via SCSI are plugged in at the same time. it's fine with one or the other so i'm just wondering if it's not disking out the right levels of juice.

The Portable wouldn't function at all without a serviceable battery, so it stands to reason that even these later models would be a bit touchy without one. However, as with all other machines of this vintage, the power supply capacitors (in the brick and in the computer itself) probably aren't at 100% anymore and need to be replaced, and so they're more likely source of your problems.

 

[Innes]

Got me a parts donor, a CS with a knackard case and screen but a funtional keyboard. Unfourtunately the keys are covered in super glue so im now wondering how realistic it might to switch the caps over. Low I exspect, I cant imageing i'd manage that without snapping some things.

Taking the wreck apart further has allowed me to see that the part of the battery connection pin that had corroded and fallen off actually wasnt connected to anything, so technically it should still function fine, not that it matters as I really dont think any batterys should be put back in those bays without the cells being removed first. The parts donor's battery had cracked and corroded stuff in the same way that the main one had, but worse.

The hard disk in the donor works and has system 7.6 on it, and the logic board and video card look ok too. Haven't tested the floppy drive yet