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Another PowerBook 170! Non-booting, shorted diode. And a Japanese keyboard?

desertrout

Well-known member
Picked up another PB170 very cheap ($15!), sold as non-booting. Turned out to be the Schottky diode D16. These seems to be a pretty common fault, fails shorted. Symptoms are a non-response to power on, and a dead short at the power connector. The same diode on 160/165/180 logic boards is D15. In both cases, they're located on the underside of the logic board near the power connector.

The replacement part in the same package doesn't seem to be available any longer, but you can use https://www.digikey.ca/en/products/detail/diodes-incorporated/DDZ13B-7/700105 - which is a fair bit smaller but can be made to fit. I was able to get one from a donor board I had.

The reason I bid on this was because of the Japanese keyboard (I honestly don't need another PB, this is #9). This one came from Indianapolis, so not sure what the story is. I've never seen one before except for on the JLPGA. There doesn't seem to be anything on the HDD suggesting a Japanese user.

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