Gentlemen... Behold! I have a Powerbook 520.

[John Hokanson Jr.]

I have a Powerbook 520. You must FEAR this 520, for it has a blazing fast 25mhz 68LC040 processor and a swank 16 shade passive matrix B&W screen.

You must all bow before it!

Special thanks to forum member racepres who sold it to me.

Anyways, it's a pretty good cosmetic condition, but I have some questions about it.

1. Is there anything like "Apple System Profiler" on System 7.5.3 that will give me an overview of the hardware installed on this thing?

2. The single battery in the right hand bay is pretty clearly shot (it's also taped together and looks like it's seen better days). What is the likelihood of getting a replacement?

3. Ditto with the PRAM batt. It thinks it's 1904.

4. I'm probably gonna want to wipe the drive. Any hope of getting system 7 floppies?

 

[classic]

Nice score! Bows low

1. No, but there is an excellent utility called TattleTech 2.84 http://www.tucows.com/preview/207028

2. Replacement depends on where you are. For me, in the great southern land. Little chance.

3. See above

4. All 19 of them! http://download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/

On a side note macmetex has 33mhz processor's for $1 plus shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Daughter-board-processors-66-33mhz-520-540c-PB-Apple-/310280296274?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item483e259752

I installed one in my 520c and it is definitely zippier.

 

[MacJunky]

I seem to recall that if you have 7.6.1 installed and do not mind appearance manager.. there is a version of ASP that will work and is nicer than the default 7.6.1 one.. but I cannot remember any more details and might have gotten something wrong.

 

[bbraun]

As for the battery, I just got my battery recelled at http://www.batteryrefill.com/. After running it with Battery Amnesia to give it a full discharge, I got 104minutes of runtime in a 520c. In a 540c with a 167MHz NuPower upgraded machine, 40MB RAM, and the wifi setup described in this thread http://68kmla.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=15279 I got maybe 65mins of actual use (macssh, cyberdog,fetch,etc.)

The process was fairly simple, I ordered the recelling service on their website, sent off my battery, they refilled it, sent it back. The whole process took about 3ish weeks, maybe a little more. The battery was clearly cut open and epoxied back together. It was a little tight fitting in the battery bay again, but much better than a dead battery.

One thing I did notice is it won't power on with just the battery and a dead PRAM battery. Even if the battery is fully charged, it needs to be plugged in to turn on. After powering on, the AC can be removed, and it runs fine.

 

[John Hokanson Jr.]

Also, the keyboard really sucks and slows down my typing speed, but I presume that should be filed under "normal."

 

[bbraun]

I personally adapted to the keyboard. It is definitely a bit different.

I was looking at replacing the pram battery on my machine, so disassembled a spare to identify the pram battery before buying a replacement. Unless I'm doing something wrong, it's a hassle to get to. It is located in a compartment above the left battery bay, and connects to the top case where the trackpad is. To get to this, you might kinda sorta be able to pry up the top part of the case after removing the 4 front keys. However, to get easy access to it, you need to remove the entire top case from the machine, which involves removing the LCD among other things, which requires removing the display access panel that seems incredibly sensitive to breakage.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

The 1400 also uses the same PRAM battery (and is similarly crazy difficult to reach), so you can use one of those too.

 

[John Hokanson Jr.]

As far as a recell is concerned, I'm not holding my breath. It appears to have something like 16 AA batts inside and is held together with chewing gum and bailing wire (I think one of the contacts on the inside broke). Really nasty looking.

The keyboard works, but it's almost like it's suspended on shock absorbers and you need to restrike keys sometimes in order to get them to register. If you type slower than normal it seems to work okay.

 

[John Hokanson Jr.]

I know about the 19 image disk set, but I am going to have to wait till I get a AAUI to RJ45 transceiver, because that's about the only way I'll be able to get software onto this thing. My iMac is sans floppy, of course.

I do still need to create a boot disk or sorts though. Something that will allow network access after I wipe the drive.

The best thing would be if I can get 7.1 or 7.5.3 install disks, but that doesn't look like it's an easy find.