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Here we go again... (PowerBook 100 Recap/Restore)

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
So I've finally done it, I bought myself a (dead) PowerBook 100 off eBay. Great shape, tested to power on (no chime, no boot, blank no-contrast screen), and includes some fun extras including the original floppy drive! Screen doesn't have any pink splotch damage or vinegar syndrome either. I'm quite aware of how troublesome these guys can be to get up and running again, which is why I'm making this thread to document my process. Of course, I'm hoping a good recap and cleaning will bring it back but plenty still have LCD issues after, so we'll have to see what happens with this. Can't wait to get started, and any tips or advice from anyone who's been down this journey before would be much appreciated. I'll update next when it gets here.
 

imactheknife

Well-known member
Well, being on the same path with a powerbook 100 will follow this thread too. I bought a pb100 local. Recapped what i could on logic board. Turned on and got flashing question mark. Next time, just black lit screen. So removed remaining caps and on lcd as well. Trying to order ones i need now to see if that Will bring her back.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I hope you can get yours running! I will admit that I'm quite worried about whether I'll be able to fix this one. Just so many factors at play in these. This is also my first time having to clean up a cap mess on a mac logic board, I've only done displays so far, along with logic boards on newer systems with no leaks yet. Lots of potential for broken traces and other issues. Not too worried about removing chips anymore now that I've got a hot air station. Getting this tool was a big factor in why I decided it was finally time to take the plunge on a 100. I've wanted one for a long time (years, even before I started collecting these old PowerBooks) but never had the skills and tools to make it happen. Now I do!

If there's one thing I'm happy about, it's that I won't have to deal with any hinge issues! Sony built a good hinge.
 

imactheknife

Well-known member
Well, i would not use hot air near lcd screen. To be honest, those old caps break off really easy. You lift them up and rock them back and forth till legs break. Then clean off pads with flux and braid.. hot Air to close to lcd..
 

imactheknife

Well-known member
You will see what i mean when you see the caps on powerbook 100 lcd. Not like other caps.. they are black and look like smd caps. Also, be careful of using to much isopropyl. I used a lot and some leaked in between layers of display. Not sure if permanent on one of my pb100’s
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Definitely won't be using hot air on the LCD. I've dealt with those black cased caps before on an old IBM PS/Note laptop that I still don't have working (freaking ribbon interconnect cable broke, and the keyboard's dead), but the caps on the LCD were easy. Heat up the solder on one leg, lift away, repeat on the other and it's off. Not super worried about those. More so on the logic board. And I'll be careful with the IPA :)
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Alright, good news. Seller agreed to remove the trackball from the PowerBook and package it separately in the box to prevent any risk of the infamous “pink splotch” showing up!
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
It has arrived! And it made it in one piece. It was packed with tons of bubble wrap (although somewhat insecurely), but all parts arrived in great shape. The seller also packed the trackball separately as I requested.

I plugged in the PowerBook and it immediately started up to the blue/black screen of death as expected. It can be caused by 3 faults:
1. The contrast is just turned all the way down
2. Bad capacitors on the LCD panel
3. Backlight is receiving power and turning on, but the LCD is not initialized and is not receiving signal.

It's very likely to be a combination of 2 and 3 behind my issue.

There's a small dark spot where the trackball would be, but no pink spot damage, and it shouldn't be noticeable when the LCD is actually displaying an image. You can see it in the picture, but it's minor.

IMG_1036.PNG

After unplugging it and plugging it back in again, the hard disk spun up, and then back down, and then back up, and then back d-
Anyways, I instantly recognized the spindle sound of the drive as being distinctly one from a Conner, and upon taking the laptop apart, it is! And that's good news, as the fault I described is a known one, and is caused by a rubber bumper inside the drive turning sticky. The heads get stuck, and the drive has no idea what to do. Fixing it is as simple as opening up the drive and taping over the bumper, then it should be good to go again.

Next, I began to disassemble the PowerBook. The rubber on the bottom has all turned to goop, so I had to scoop it out with a spudger to get at the screws. The whole thing is like a big jigsaw puzzle, with lots of little covers to remove, especially for getting the display housing apart. I took care of all of them, and here's how the caps look.

logic.jpg
cpu.jpg
lcd.jpg

Not too bad! They've certainly leaked, but they haven't done much damage yet. Just a bit of surface corrosion that should clean off with a bit of effort. My caps are due in tomorrow, but in the mean time, I can give this thing a really good clean, make my reference images for my website (and for me to use tomorrow), and get these crusty caps off. Perhaps I'll even crack the HDD open, fix the bumper issue, then test it in my 170.

I don't want to jinx it, but I think I've got fairly decent odds here! I'll be sure to look very carefully for any bad traces, and I'm probably going to desolder the 2 150uh inductors, as I've ordered replacements for them anyway, and it will give me additional clearance. Wish me luck!

Edit: Ughhh I just realized while making the reference photos that I didn't order enough caps! The source I found for my website has it correct, but I copied it down wrong and went off my website. So I'm going to have to make another order... At the same time I'll get caps for other stuff I've gotta fix but this stinks. Guess it won't be until Monday that I'll be able to fix this darn thing.
 
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3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Still got a bunch of pad cleaning to do, but all caps are now off the logic board, and the pads are mostly clean! I twisted them off as I haven’t gotten a chance to practice with my hot air station yet. As I suspected it all went fine and no pads were broken. Those 47uf caps absolutely stank!
48E53E65-6D64-4B0D-A082-B345284A6FF6.jpeg
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
If you can believe it, this is AFTER cleaning. Still a long way to go here, but all the pads are good. Just very dirty and in need of serious TLC.79DABB9D-9C17-4FE6-84B8-97A8BE2F22C6.jpeg
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I taped over the rubber bumper in the hard drive but unfortunately it isn’t working. Stays spinning now but doesn’t seek or boot and HD SC Setup says that it couldn’t access drive information.
 

imactheknife

Well-known member
Nice powerbook 100!! Looks good. I saved two out of four conner drives. Wish the other two worked too. Lots of goop on lcd caps. I had same issue. I am still waiting on my cap kit to arrive. Where did you get the 150uf inductors from? Would love to replace those on my first powerbook 100
 

imactheknife

Well-known member
Still got a bunch of pad cleaning to do, but all caps are now off the logic board, and the pads are mostly clean! I twisted them off as I haven’t gotten a chance to practice with my hot air station yet. As I suspected it all went fine and no pads were broken. Those 47uf caps absolutely stank!
View attachment 50855
To be honest, i have been using twist method now for a long time. My preferred choice. Hot air good for removing ic chips and stuff. Have to be so careful not to melt or cause other things to come off.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I haven’t verified them yet, I got the list of mouser PNs I ordered from a guy on the VCF forums, and these were included. He had to replace them when he recapped his, and those were the ones he used and they worked for him. Not his fault I ordered too few of certain cap values, got my info wrong unfortunately.
Since my last post, I’ve just been working away at those corroded solder pads. Display pads are looking decent now, and I got the one cap off the CPU board. Also did some cleaning on the ADB Mouse II and floppy drive that it came with, and I tested the mouse (which works).

I’ll order the rest of the caps I need tonight, and then finish it off on Monday. Since I’m not just going to make a mouser order for 3 items, I’ll also just go ahead and buy caps for my 1400c and the remaining few I didn’t replace on my 5300. It can’t hurt.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Caps aren't actually getting here until tomorrow now, and I'm not going to be around to work on it until Monday afternoon so no updates until then. And then of course those last 2 caps I didn't realize I needed won't get here until wednesday... I'll bet if I could figure out which ones are used for the audio circuit, I could just leave them off and test with them missing, but nah, I'll probably just wait.

I went today and tested the 3 CMOS batteries with my multimeter and they're good! 8.5v combined, which should hopefully be enough. I'll bet they were replaced at some point. I also noticed a ceramic capacitor on the logic board that had clearly been resoldered in the past, I wonder if someone was using this not too long ago before it died, probably mid 2000s I'd guess.

I'm just really hoping that this doesn't happen to me.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I got the HDD recognized by SilverLining! Says that it can’t reliably access it though. Running a write test right now, then I’ll try a format. I highly suspect it’s toast, but at least it seeks.

Edit: From running multiple tests, the drive will read but is reporting some sort of hardware error from the firmware and won't initialize at all.
 
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3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Everything is now recapped, except for the 2 missing on the logic board. Same symptoms as pre-recap, except that now I have to press a key to start it which is expected behavior. I’ll wait until the other 2 caps get here before testing further, but I’m expecting the same results if I had to guess. We’ll see.
 
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