Anonymous Freak
Well-known member
Alright, I have three PowerBook 500-series systems. All of them have *SOMETHING* "off" with them.
They are:
540c with some case damage, but perfect screen, no hard drive, only 4 MB RAM.
520c with PPC upgrade, but with screen that is WAY off on contrast (must turn contrast all the way down to see ANYTHING,) 12 MB RAM.
520c with 68k, 20 MB RAM. The only fully-functional one. But, of course, it's "meh", having the passive matrix screen and no PPC.
So, I figure I need to do some transplanting - obviously I want the better screen. I need to put a hard drive in it (I have a PCMCIA cage, and a 32MB PCMCIA flash card (yes, an honest-to-goodness full-size PCMCIA flash card, not an adapted CF card,) and I could swear I had a 500-series booting off it at one point, but now I can't get the 540c to boot from it.) And then I'll need to bump the RAM. But then the question is: Do I put the PPC in it? I have two rebuilt batteries, but haven't done any battery life testing - anyone know if the PPC 603e @ 133 MHz will absolutely kill battery life compared to the stock 68k? Then the final one will be to replace the case-damaged parts. (The top panel of the main section - aka the "wrist rest" area.)
Once I'm done, I'll have a pair of 520cs up for sale, in various states of usability.
They are:
540c with some case damage, but perfect screen, no hard drive, only 4 MB RAM.
520c with PPC upgrade, but with screen that is WAY off on contrast (must turn contrast all the way down to see ANYTHING,) 12 MB RAM.
520c with 68k, 20 MB RAM. The only fully-functional one. But, of course, it's "meh", having the passive matrix screen and no PPC.
So, I figure I need to do some transplanting - obviously I want the better screen. I need to put a hard drive in it (I have a PCMCIA cage, and a 32MB PCMCIA flash card (yes, an honest-to-goodness full-size PCMCIA flash card, not an adapted CF card,) and I could swear I had a 500-series booting off it at one point, but now I can't get the 540c to boot from it.) And then I'll need to bump the RAM. But then the question is: Do I put the PPC in it? I have two rebuilt batteries, but haven't done any battery life testing - anyone know if the PPC 603e @ 133 MHz will absolutely kill battery life compared to the stock 68k? Then the final one will be to replace the case-damaged parts. (The top panel of the main section - aka the "wrist rest" area.)
Once I'm done, I'll have a pair of 520cs up for sale, in various states of usability.