My 3lectr1cal Conquests!

[olePigeon]

Google is pretty generous with pushing back support dates. Also, it's a soft deadline. Often it just means the machine will stop auto-updating (even through Enterprise); but if you don't mind erasing the Chromebook, you can often update it to the latest OS anyway through the Recovery Utility. I have relatively ancient Chromebooks that'll still take the latest Chrome OS despite not having been officially supported for the last 2 years, but they won't update on their own.

 

[olePigeon]

@3lectr1cPPC There are numerous tools to turn it into a regular Linux distro. It's also the only version of "linux" I've ever gotten to install without any issues.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Hmm. I'll have to look into that, I've got a old Samsung chromebook that's "unsupported" as of earlier this year.

 

[CC_333]

W/re: turning the 2012 Macbook Pros into chromebooks, I'd rather not, and like @3lectr1cPPC , I make a point of avoiding Chrome wherever possible (I'll use ungoogled chromium occasionally if Firefox or Safari don't work (which is rare)). It's good that it can be done, however, and that's a boon for those who don't mind being locked into Google and Chrome.

I don't really bother running linux on my Macs because, frankly, they're really only designed to be good Mac OS X computers, and they don't run Linux all that well (they do, however, run Windows quite well in general, but only because Apple put some effort into simplifying the process and making it relatively seamless). Therefore, if I want to run Linux, I'd rather go get a PC laptop, as those are often more well supported by most Linux distros anyway. And if I want to put Linux om my Mac to tinker around with, I'll put it in a VM.

Anyway, the tl;dr is that I'm content to let my Macs be Macs first and foremost, even if it means they're slightly more out of date as a result.

c

 

[jeremywork]

I've heard they can have an issue with failing glue due to heat causing some sort of problem or other with the unibody (which apparently isn't a true unibody) but I'm not sure. They do seem to be pretty well-built machines, I certainly like them, although the screens aren't great.

I saw this pretty frequently in the 15" Pro models of the one-off 2008 generation, but not nearly as often in 13s. The load-bearing internal clamshell frame which connects to the hinge would pry away from the glued-on aluminum rear shell, allowing it to pry itself sideways and eventually snap, in turn prying the adhered glass plate away from the display at the bottom. Years ago I grabbed a couple from recycling which had only developed a telltale gap and filled it with epoxy. One of them held this way as a high school hand-me-down for about four years before the gap returned. The other was used more lightly and is still fine.

The "completeness" of this unibody form factor is only called in to question because of the separate midframe element which contains the latching mechanism for the split bottom panel.

The defect can occur in 2009s too, but seems rarer in later models.


The 13" is in a weird category of computers, along with the white unibody models and early Airs which predate Thunderbolt but have abandoned firewire. As a technician this made them slightly more annoying to work with, but few people seemed to mind.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Thanks for the info @jeremywork

I managed to get the white MacBook to boot again, so here’s an updated group photo. SSD for our new arrival is supposed to arrive tomorrow!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Real quick: if you haven’t seen, I recently eBay’d a PowerBook 100 and got it running again with a healthy dose of new caps. Here’s a pic:

And here’s the thread detailing my repairs: https://68kmla.org/bb/index.php?threads/here-we-go-again-powerbook-100-recap-restore.43014/

Anyways, it seems I really do have a problem as I just bought a PowerBook 150 to fix… it boots at least, which was a requirement as these have a nasty leaky PRAM battery that kills them. Hinges are busted as usual, will have to fix them with some 3D printing as usual. Also has a dead drive, but I’ve got spares (they use IDE!) and while I’m in there I’ll probably recap the screen for good measure. Apparently the battery even holds charge (hah!). I’ll update when it arrives, shouldn’t be too too difficult at this point. I wanted one just because they’re so….weird. Just had to have one for the collection, and finding one that works will only get harder with those batteries.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Alright, 150’s in. First off, it does boot, and the internal floppy drive is working! Battery is a generic aftermarket and briefly kept the backlight on when I unplugged it (computer shut off though), I’ll let it charge. Leaky PRAM battery has also been replaced at some point funny enough, and it held .6 volts when I tested it with my multimeter. I’ll probably remove it anyway though. (.6 volts doesn’t necessarily mean it’s dead, they are NIMH rechargeable cells).
LCD is fine, right now I’m doing a quick backup on the new hard drive I installed before I wipe it.

Original hard drive was a Quantum Europa (never heard of that series). It spins but obviously has stuck heads, I’ll crack it open and try to tape up any rubber I see, but being a quantum, the bumper might be under the platters…

Hinges are extremely shot, and I’m going to need to design and print one replacement clip for the display bezel as well. Should easily be able to restore it though!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

The battery held charge for a solid 20 seconds! Will try a recondition program later on.

Edit: ugh, cracked the original drive open to try repairing it and accidentally screwed up the heads… could have probably fixed it too, darn!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I just uploaded an image of the utilities floppy I received with the computer to the garden:

PowerBook 150 Utilities - Macintosh Garden

File is a disk copy 4.2 image of the PowerBook 150 Utilities floppy disk, compressed with DropStuff 5.5.

macintoshgarden.org

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I got the display out to just have a look and make sure the caps aren't leaking (they aren't - I'll probably replace them anyway soon-ish), and found something interesting! I've got this list of LCD part numbers for PowerBooks on my website: http://macdat.net/extras/powerbooklcdindex.html
The 150 was marked down as using the Sharp LM64183P, as evidenced by the panel shown on the oldcrap.org site. I had also seen a photo of the caps on another panel from a forum thread, and they were arranged differently. I assumed a different revision, but it turns out some of these also shipped with a Casio-made panel! Mine would be one of those.

Why does this matter? Well, the 150 is kind of infamous for 2 display issues, vinegar syndrome (which it seems to get more often than other models), and failing LCD driver ICs (which cause dead areas on the screen). Now I'm interested in figuring out if there's a pattern to which panels have these issues more often. Vinegar syndrome can happen to any of them I'm sure, but as I said the 150 seems to have it happen quite a bit more than the 145 for instance. Driver ICs are another matter though. I've seen the same issue on images of PowerBook 190s before, which I know use a Casio screen, but I'd like to see some data. I'll probably make a thread later.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Here’s a newer Mac find! Friend of mine had an unknown model MacBook Pro and offered it for $30, so of course I got it. Turned out to be a mid 2014 13” retina model, not bad at all! It’s got an i5, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, and works mostly fine. Battery is worn out, right speaker is blown and the enter and right shift keys don’t work. Otherwise fine and I got it up and running on Ventura. Pretty good shape too, I’ll post photos sometime soon. May have to replace the battery soon, one of the cells may be swelling (not much - I cracked it open to do a visual inspection and that’s how I found it), but if it gets worse then I’ll have to. New newest Mac!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Here’s a pic of it. Will also be picking up a similarly aged iMac from him in the next couple days.

 

[CC_333]

You've got a generous friend!

c

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Didn’t end up buying that iMac, decided It wasn’t worth the money for the amount of use I’d get out of it.

I couldn’t say no to this one for free though!

It wasn’t until I got it next to my 21 inch Late 2006 iMac that I realized how huge it is! Wow! It boots into High Sierra, will be wiping it and putting snow leopard + Windows 7 until I’ve got an SSD installed. It’s a 27.5” Late 2009 model I believe.

 

[CC_333]

That is a nice looking iMac. I'm assuming that's you holding the camera in that reflection?

I've never had the opportunity to use a 27" iMac except once, when I was selling a 2013 model for a friend. I wish I had just bought it from him for myself, because it was a really nice machine, and it was only a few years old at that point (this was summer of 2016, I believe).

c

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Yep, that’s me. I’ve got it dual-booting Snow Leopard and Windows 7 now, and yeah, it’s pretty nice! That 1440p screen looks pretty good, and it’s really fast on a period OS. I found out it’s also got a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM! My fastest Core 2 Duo system by far.

 

[CC_333]

Neat!

I think some of those 2009 iMacs can be upgraded to a Core2 Quad processor, so you can make it even better!

c

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Ooh, ideas!

 

[CC_333]

Ooh, ideas!

Yep!

I think the GPU is upgradeable too

c