Best Way to Combine a Powerbook 165 and 180

[iamdigitalman]

Hey guys. I have both these fine machines. The 180 got roughed up real bad in the move, and the case is coming apart at the seams. One of the feet broke, there is a crack in the back of the display, it has no door or hinges for it anymore, and a few other problems.

The 165 is in immaculate condition, because it looks to have been used very little, and was stored in a huge laptop bag with a ton of accessories.

Anyways, the 165's FSTN display is subpar, with the contrast going up and down randomly. I want to swap in the 180's display, display bezel, motherboard, hard drive, modem into the 165's case. Should I replace the bad case parts on the 180, or take the parts out of the 180 and put them on the 165?

oh, I will be replacing the bottom case, so is there any way to swap labels safely?

Also, something fried in the 180 a long time ago when I got it, and it never has been able to charge batteries since. Not even my good one. I do have a 1xx external charger, but what do I need to swap out to make that work again?

Frankenbook, here I come...

 

[JRL]

I want to swap in the 180's display, display bezel, motherboard, hard drive, modem into the 165's case.

From what I'm thinking, you also need to swap in the inverter board if you want to use the PowerBook 180's display as active-matrix screens are not compatible with passive-matrix inverters (maybe in the case of other PowerBook series, but not the PowerBook 1xx series)

and I'd recommend inserting the PowerBook 180's parts in the PowerBook 160 as it's just a little easier.

 

[iamdigitalman]

Yeah, I was planning on swapping the whole display assembly from the 180 into the 165's case. The only thing I need off the 165 is the back plastic, as the one on the 180's has a huge crack over the hinge.

Oh, the 165 also has a 10mb RAM card, maxing it at 14mb. I assume that is compatible with the 180, otherwise Mactracker is lying to me.

Now all I need is a disassembly guide.

 

[Bunsen]

ifixit.com should have it.

Is there any real difference in the 180 logic board vs the 165?

 

[iamdigitalman]

ifixit.com should have it.
Is there any real difference in the 180 logic board vs the 165?

I don't think ifixit goes back that far

As far as motherboard differences, the only one I can think of is the 180 has a 68882 FPU, and IDK if the 165 has a socket for one. Maybe, but i'll just transfer the whole board.

I found the apple service manual on preterhuman. The same one covers the 160, 165, and 180.

 

[iamdigitalman]

ok, I have started the operation. I took everything I might need out of the 180. I forgot on the 1xx powerbooks, the CPU is on a daughterboard, so I only removed that. The 180 had a RAM board, I forget how many mbs, but it is pretty large, and I will compare it to the one I know is 14mb in the 165.

I removed the display, display cable, inverter, interconnect board, daughter card, 1gb HD, and modem. Will take apart the 165 after class tonight.

One note about the interconnect board: in the service manual, for the exploded view, apple only lists one part number for it. Does that mean the interconnect board is the same for both? If so, how did they manage to have 2 different display cables and two different inverters hooked into it?

 

[iamdigitalman]

Alright, the operation is over, and a success!! Everything is working fine, the machine is running great, booted right up off the 1gb HD to System 7.6.1, but it seems to be a little poky with it on it, I think I am going to put 7.5.5 on it, should make it run a little faster. This is with RAM doubler installed, too.

It's even running on battery!! The power supply does not seem to be powerful enough, it was the one in the bag with the 165, but I think I can make it work with the one I got with the 180.

So now I have a Powerbook that looks like a 165, but quacks like a 180.

I whipped out the Apple CD 150 (caddy load!!), but it's causing the chimes of death when it is plugged in. So far, I have tried ID 2 and 7. If it chimes with all IDs, what is going on?

EDIT: It's doing it on all IDs, both top and bottom ports. It's either fried, or incompatible. The light does go from green to orange when the caddy is put in with a disc in it.

Looks like I might be doing the 19 floppy install. What fun...

 

[iamdigitalman]

Sorry for another post, but I can't edit my last one.

It turns out it was a loose RAM card, as it started happening every boot, and it was eight chords, so I popped it open, reseated the card, pulled some foam off the other one, and spaced the card so it would not happen again, since the card is so long it rocks loosely, with nothing securing it.

One casualty though: the port door broke somehow. one of the pegs broke off, luckily not inside the hole, so all I need is another door. Not really an issue, as opening that door every time I turn the machine one quickly becomes a PITA. one of the 1xx series few design flaws. The other being no LEDs.

Still going to put 7.5.5 on it.

 

[register]

Consider to stick with System 7.1 for the PB 180. I think it feels more snappy and runs very reliable. It is possible to replace several extensions or control panels with more recent versions (if necessary).

P.S.: I remember there was a little piece of software called "Disk Light". It does exactly what the name says, i.e. it visualises the harddisk access with the impression of a flickering LED in a corner of the screen.

 

[MacJunky]

P.S.: I remember there was a little piece of software called "Disk Light". It does exactly what the name says, i.e. it visualises the harddisk access with the impression of a flickering LED in a corner of the screen.

Norton Disk Light. Some hate it, some love it.I love being able to tell when I have HDD activity and used it up until I moved to OS X but when I installed it on my beige G3 recently(internal SSD = no read/write sound or indicators) it bombed during boot so now I must live without it or find out why it is bombing.

Let me know if you need it but cannot find it.

 

[iamdigitalman]

yes, I remember disk light. every time I installed norton, there it was. Pretty handy utility, and you could place it in either top corner.

My only gripe with 7.1 is that it's not free, and I don't have a copy of it. I do have a legal copy of 7.6 on CD, and that contains the floppy disk images. And of course, 7.5.5 is free (well, actually, 7.5.3 is, but it's updatable to 7.5.5.)

 

[Juror22]

I just dug up this 'golden oldie', because I was going through some of my non-working powerbooks that I had picked up a while back, and noticed a couple that seemed to be compatibly wrecked.  One was a 160 and the other was a 180.  The 160 had screen issues and the 180 had a battery leak that took out the motherboard and a few of the other components, so I was looking into combining the two and after checking a pdf of the service source, I was still concerned about how much was interchangeable, so I started checking the internet and found this...https://lowendmac.com/ed/lebron/09ll/powerbook-180-reincarnate.html, which, along with this thread, confirmed that it would all work together.

I liked the idea of improving the screen (to active matrix), and getting a bigger hard drive and more memory (only an extra 4 for a total of 8MB).  I would like to have gotten the daughter card from the PB180, with its 33MHz '030 and a coprocessor, but it looked like it was damaged in the battery mishap and I wasn't willing to chance injuring the working bits to try it out.

One last note though, the inverter cable is specific, as well as the other parts that were mentioned in this thread.  The picture is before I put on the last few plastic trim pieces to finish up.

 

[MOS8_030]

Nice!

I have a 180-165 I built about 20 years ago.

It still works!