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Macintosh Portable Charger, 1500ma (MAX) Aftermarket Options
- Thread starter uniserver
- Start date
techknight
Well-known member
Hey, did you fix your boost converter circuit yet?
uniserver
Well-known member
yes 4 out of 6 boards, now powerup the stock hard drive with a fresh boost reg installed. the other 2 are just dead they don't power up at all.
i still have 6 bad boards, lol but atleast 4 of them will powerup the hard drive.
1 powers up, boots from the hard drive, but shuts its self down once booted up. saying battery is dead... when its fully charged, and when plugged in as well.
3 power up, get video and sad mac tone.
i still have 6 bad boards, lol but atleast 4 of them will powerup the hard drive.
1 powers up, boots from the hard drive, but shuts its self down once booted up. saying battery is dead... when its fully charged, and when plugged in as well.
3 power up, get video and sad mac tone.
The 3 still get a sad mac after rapid power cycling? Another trick I have found is to leave the machine running for a few minutes with the sad mac display, then shut it off with the reset button and hit the keyboard. Are all Portable PMUs as picky as mine to reset? This machine never boots normally after having all power removed from the logic board, always a sad mac and the power cycle shuffle to clear it.
techknight
Well-known member
The battery dead one either has a blown fuse, or more likely, the ADC that reads the batteries voltage needs replaced. I am unsure if the ADC is integrated into the PMU IC or not. all the new microcontrollers have all that crap built in, but the old ones may not.
However, its also possible the PMU IC is bad, but since the ROM was dumped/known, i think its an off-the-shelf part that can be reflashed and replaced. The one that dont power up is either missing its 5V from the 5V regulator, or the PMU IC needs replaced with a new one flashed with the ROM.
Machine was put to sleep using System 7.0. I re-cored the battery with a 6v 4.5Ah gel cell. The original Gates battery was 5Ah, but this one fits in the old battery case nicely. I believe the machine uses the same amount of power whether its shut down/"turned off" as when its put into sleep mode booted into an OS. My machine has a modem and 4MB RAM card installed.
Macdrone
Well-known member
Well they say and print that it uses the same power when asleep or off but mine will drain the battery when asleep but not when off. That may be an issue with my two portables if that's the case but sitting with battery off for me = no drain when asleep = dead battery.
techknight
Well-known member
here is an idea: use a power switch 
well I guess you could remove th ebattery, but thats not nearly as fun.
well I guess you could remove th ebattery, but thats not nearly as fun.
uniserver
Well-known member
acutely i like your idea technight.
My brother use to buy 6x6 military trucks from the govt and re-sell them.
by default he would always install a battery cut out.
Not only as a battery disconnect, but used kind of as a security device because they have no keys or ignition, just a big flip switch and a button to kick the starter over.
My brother use to buy 6x6 military trucks from the govt and re-sell them.
by default he would always install a battery cut out.
Not only as a battery disconnect, but used kind of as a security device because they have no keys or ignition, just a big flip switch and a button to kick the starter over.
techknight
Well-known member
Too much work, you have to slide the back off, then slide the battery cover. I am very lazy.
I like the switch idea. Flip, done...
I like the switch idea. Flip, done...
techknight
Well-known member
Yea, when its charging a battery. not without the battery in place...
I'm coming in to this discussion a bit late, but did you try removing your RAM card and modem? At one stage, I had a third party 7MB RAM expansion card in my my backlit portable (IIRC, it went in the PDS slot, because the machine was never built to take that much RAM in the RAM expansion slot) and it hoofed through power when on standby. The RAM card consumed so much power that when in standby, two ICs were warm to the touch! It was replaced under warranty, but the new one was the same - I guess it was just a poor and non-compliant design. In the end, I replaced it with a different type of RAM expansion card and the problem went away. I still have the old card kicking around somewhere - it seems too good to throw out, since it cost some serious $$$ back in the day!
It's interesting to hear that people running computers off PowerBook AC adapters have experienced hardware failures. Mine has been run from an M5651X 7.5v / 2.0A adapter for about fifteen years now. I still have the original power supply, but I found that the white plastic was turning yellow from the heat with it running the Portable 24 x 7 - the computer was left powered on continuously for quite a few years. I guess that I was lucky that I always had a working (re-packed) battery in the portable and it was rarely used on battery, so would not have had to charge a flat battery very often, if at all.
uniserver
Well-known member
yeah i mean if you watch it… and do not over charge the battery.. then you should be fine with a 2.0 pb charger + good battery
but if you leave your charger plugged in over night the next day you will notice your battery is hot, or quite warm to the touch.
the biggest thing is when people run the machine with out a battery + 2.0/3.0a charger that is a circuit cooker.
but if you leave your charger plugged in over night the next day you will notice your battery is hot, or quite warm to the touch.
the biggest thing is when people run the machine with out a battery + 2.0/3.0a charger that is a circuit cooker.
