It's Dead...

[benjgvps]

Well, I was going to reinstall my OS on my 180c after getting my PowerBook to VGA adapter... I attempt to boot up and see a a flashing question mark (Of doom). I don't think too much of that until I boot from a disk tools floppy and see that drive setup doesn't see my hard drive at all.

I though it would be a pain though I attempted to replace my hard drive with one from a 145b... When I finally got it open (A screw was stripped), more screws holding on to the hard drive... I got only one out so I decided to do something I now regret, pulling back the metal cage. There was a small stump where a screw hold onto, and I had to move the old hard drive out over that. When I did it came out and the hard drive ribbon broke! I do not have a replacement!

Now I have a floppy booting PowerBook that I will never see using the monitor adapter I paid $35 for and waited a month for. This event has made me realize that these PowerBooks are quite flimsy and unreliable. Now if Apple had used regular screws, I wouldn't be (No pun intended) screwed.

I now have to go back (again) to using my PowerBook 150 with the only expandability being SCSI and a serial port. If somehow I manage to fit system 7.1, the EN/SC driver, MacTCP, and RAM doubler on a floppy; I just might be able to launch apps off of my iMac G3.

It was a great laptop...While it lasted. I put my soul into this machine. When I saw that broken cable, I almost cried. I am REALLY starting to dislike my hobby.

 

[porter]

When I saw that broken cable, I almost cried. I am REALLY starting to dislike my hobby.

Alright soldier, just watch your arcs, it'll be okay.

 

[Mike Richardson]

Can you upload a picture of the cable. I might have one.

 

[funkytoad]

When I saw that broken cable, I almost cried. I am REALLY starting to dislike my hobby.

I know what you mean. I really. Thrown off your horse, it seems pointless to even get back up in that saddle, yet I always do for some reason.

 

[benjgvps]

Can you upload a picture of the cable. I might have one.

I don't have a camera, it would be hard to tell from a picture though.

This is ever worse when it is your portable machine, and having it replaced by a 150... I now have a bunch of cables and adapters that have no use for!

I'm happy that this iMac G3 has been great, I even was able to take the bottom off it to clean out all the crap (Was a smoker home and apperently it was on a table they they spilled juice on it).

I might rub some cash together and hope to find a PowerBook G3 in my future. A portable version of this iMac is EXACTLY what I need.

 

[JRL]

Don't fret. Both an HDD and a cable can be really easily found here if you post a Trading Post Ad.

 

[LCGuy]

JRL's right - the exact same cable is used on the PB165c, PowerBook 180 (greyscale) and possibly also the greyscale 165 and maybe 160.

 

[equill]

LCGuy saith sooth, largely. The exact same cable (922-0027) is common to the 160/165/165c/180/180c. The 140/145/145B/170 use a 630-0534 cable. There are plenty of borked 160s and 180s to be bought for a song, any one of which may yield you a new cable. Galatea, dry your tears. (That comes from a pastoral ode—a mini-opera—by Handel.) But you wil now have respect for a flexible circuit-board doing duty as a cable.

de

 

[Bunsen]

Doing an ebay search for the part number may yield fruit, too

 

[Quadraman]

I got a 150 with a dead hard drive that made a grinding noise and I figured I had nothing to lose so I took the cover off the hard drive, gave the motor a few turns, made sure there was no dirt or anything loose floating around in the case, put it back together and it booted up fine with no more grinding sounds.

Dead 1xx Powerbooks are common as dirt, so you should be able to find one with the parts you need easily. Just don't count on getting power supplies or batteries with them.

 

[benjgvps]

Dead 1xx Powerbooks are common as dirt, so you should be able to find one with the parts you need easily. Just don't count on getting power supplies or batteries with them.

I have batteries and tons of power supplies. Though the PowerBook 180c was a very rare find for the area. I also spent a bunch of money on shipping. I doubt I will find any more 180c laptops for a decent amount of money shipped.

I also don't wish to spend any more on my 68k Macs for a while. What I will do is put some money toward a PowerBook G3 (I'm going for a Lombard or a Pismo) or my PC (Needs more RAM and a new video card).

 

[LCGuy]

Thing is though, like I said - you don't need a replacement 180c, just a replacement cable. Put an ad in the Trading Post - someone here ought to have one from a borked machine that they can sell you cheaply or maybe even give you. As I said, the cable is a common part, shared with several other machines. I bet that if you replaced the cable, the machine would be fine.

 

[benjgvps]

Thing is though, like I said - you don't need a replacement 180c, just a replacement cable. Put an ad in the Trading Post - someone here ought to have one from a borked machine that they can sell you cheaply or maybe even give you. As I said, the cable is a common part, shared with several other machines. I bet that if you replaced the cable, the machine would be fine.

Yes, Though I also killed a few screw holes in the process. I might have to get new plastics or a dead machine with a drive cable. Of course, I need a screwdriver for those silly non-standard screws in the laptop.

 

[thinkdifferent]

Well, I was going to reinstall my OS on my 180c after getting my PowerBook to VGA adapter... I attempt to boot up and see a a flashing question mark (Of doom). I don't think too much of that until I boot from a disk tools floppy and see that drive setup doesn't see my hard drive at all.
I though it would be a pain though I attempted to replace my hard drive with one from a 145b... When I finally got it open (A screw was stripped), more screws holding on to the hard drive... I got only one out so I decided to do something I now regret, pulling back the metal cage. There was a small stump where a screw hold onto, and I had to move the old hard drive out over that. When I did it came out and the hard drive ribbon broke! I do not have a replacement!

Now I have a floppy booting PowerBook that I will never see using the monitor adapter I paid $35 for and waited a month for. This event has made me realize that these PowerBooks are quite flimsy and unreliable. Now if Apple had used regular screws, I wouldn't be (No pun intended) screwed.

I now have to go back (again) to using my PowerBook 150 with the only expandability being SCSI and a serial port. If somehow I manage to fit system 7.1, the EN/SC driver, MacTCP, and RAM doubler on a floppy; I just might be able to launch apps off of my iMac G3.

It was a great laptop...While it lasted. I put my soul into this machine. When I saw that broken cable, I almost cried. I am REALLY starting to dislike my hobby.

I am sure you could find a replacement part on eBay or something... might cost you though. :-/

 

[Strimkind]

I also don't wish to spend any more on my 68k Macs for a while. What I will do is put some money toward a PowerBook G3 (I'm going for a Lombard or a Pismo) or my PC (Needs more RAM and a new video card).

You don't have to spend any money. Just post an ad in your local usedeverywhere.com site, craigslist, and freecycle. You are bound to get something after a while (I did). You can't always predict what it is, but it may be the parts you are wanting to replace or maybe it could be a better unit than the 180c.

 

[benjgvps]

I posted an ad in Freecycle with no response, Craigslist is used very lightly around here, and I will try usedsudbury.com and see what I get.

 

[equill]

Perhaps you are making it harder for yourself than it needs to be? I just dialled 'Apple 922-0027' into Google and got 6 pages of precise hits. 'Out there' isn't always far away.

de

 

[benjgvps]

I just looked at some sites, they all seem to be old, More than I am willing to pay or out of stock. I have my PowerBook 150 now running well now too, Feels slightly faster too.

I may look into getting a new cable though, I still have this PowerBook to 2 VGA and 1 Mac monitor port cable that I paid for...

 

[dav7]

About the proprietary screws, I've found that carefully rotating the screws with a pair of pliers will sometimes get them to turn. It's just the tightening thing that pliers don't do well. :/

(This also works for screws with stripped heads, too.)

-dav7