My 3lectr1cal Conquests!

[3lectr1cPPC]

Thanks - it really is nice to have it back

I’ll still send the cable at some point - I do have enough parts to built 2, just need to do some plastic repairs. Would be nice for that second one to also have the 800x600 screen

 

[jmacz]

Congrats!!!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Thanks @jmacz - I'll have to put your hinge mount replacements to work sometime soon to build a second one out of the parts I have!

So what is your laptop collecting approach or maybe put another way what goals do you have for your collection?

Missed this earlier, sorry about that. My main "approach" would be mainly just to try to find laptops that are unique in some way, whether it be a design element, some problem they have, being just an in general great laptop, a whole number of reasons. I generally try not to keep more boring ones around - if there isn't much interesting about it, and if it's just mediocre in performance for its time, I probably won't be after it.
My main goals are to pick up some of the laptops that are likely going to become near impossible to find working in a few years time, so, ones that have VARTA clock batteries in them right over their motherboards. Stuff like the Toshiba Satellite 430CDT, the WinBook XP (although the ship may have already sailed on that one), the PowerBook 2400c, and a whole bunch of others.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I actually also did something I don’t normally do but really should start doing when I have projects like these - I reassembled the parts unit as well. Too often I just throw the parts in a bin where they take up more space.

This one will be fixed eventually. This set of plastics is too far gone to use I think, I have another spare set that’s much better, but the hinge standoffs have blown out so I need to 3D print some parts first. This one has had the tensioning springs removed from the hinges so they’re floppy - this means no more plastic damage.
It does work fine, just not super usable at the moment. It has the 640x480 5300c display in it now.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

VCF East Swap Meet was today. Got a big haul!

Only two Mac items - a Power Macintosh 5400, intact and should be working, and a PowerBook G3 PDQ that will mainly serve as a parts donor to fix my existing PDQ that has floppy hinges. Both those came from @EvieSigma, good seeing you in person!

Then a bunch of PC laptops as usual.

FIVE Compaq LTE Lites, a full dock, and the service manual. Yep, I went all in on these.
- Lite/25 (386, passive matrix grayscale). Boots to BIOS, needs a hard drive repair or replacement.
- Lite 4/25E (486, active matrix grayscale). Boots to DOS, has tunnel vision.
- Lite 4/25C (486, active matrix color). Parts machine, has broken hinges and the screen is completely off the base, broken display cables.
- Lite 4/25C again. Boots to BIOS, needs hard drive repair/replace and LCD recap
- Lite 4/33C (486, active matrix color). Boots to BIOS, LCD has vinegar syndrome and needs recap. Will swap screen in from 4/25C parts unit.

Then the following misc laptops:

- Dell Latitude XPi. passive matrix, need to get an AC adapter. Supposed to work but has an LCD defect.
- Dell Latitude LM. Untested and need an AC adapter. Very clean.
- Zenith Z-Note 425Lnc. Works perfectly but needs an LCD recap.
- Zenith Z-Note MX. Boots to BIOS but has a grumpy hard drive and the LCD has vinegar syndrome.
- NEC UltraLite SL/25C. Untested, need an AC adapter
- Gateway ColorBook2. Untested, need an AC adapter
- Kapok 8500M. Untested, need an AC adapter
- WinBook XP5. Boots to BIOS inconsistently, has VARTA battery damage, and destroyed hinges, and vinegar syndrome LCD. Mainly a parts unit as I really need a working motherboard for one of these.
- Lenovo ThinkPad W541. Just a great laptop I'll be using for Windows 8.1.

Will probably post some photos once I'm back home on Monday or Tuesday. I have lots of custom AC adapters to build!

 

[jmacz]

You're going to need a new shelf!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Hah… not too far away from needing one. I reckon this haul will fit though.

 

[ClassicGuyPhilly]

Wow once again you cleaned up! Sorry I missed it...next time.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Yep, there’s just always so much great stuff there! A vintage tech collector’s dream.

Here’s the Power Macintosh 5400 back safely at home.

What I didn’t expect is that it would be maxed out! It’s a 200MHz model with 139MB RAM, what appears to be a 64GB SSD of some sort, and a USB PCI card. It has a couple cosmetic issues, but all these do. I’m happy it’s working and mostly in one piece.

 

[LaPorta]

Nice score on the 5400!

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

It was a nice score indeed! I’ve been wanting one of these for a couple years now but wasn’t sure I’d ever find one locally.
As a bonus, it came with the box for its TV card:



The remote is in there too.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Tonight I turned my attention to the parts machine PDQ and combined it with my original one to make one nice unit with good hinges. I got it done and then noticed something very interesting…

This “300MHz” PDQ is reporting 466! Does this actually have an upgrade card in it??

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

The PDQ indeed did! The chip itself on the card is amazing 500MHz part, so it’s been downclocked, probably due to heat. I’m happy with that though, it was completely unexpected! The combined laptop overall has a few cosmetic defects, but it’s in good shape. I’ve now got two working batteries, the floppy drive, and the CD-ROM.
Mainly though I’m just happy it has working hinges now. I can actually use it! I’m thinking I might finally pick up a CardBus USB card for use in this thing. It would be nice to have.

 

[PB145B]

The PDQ indeed did! The chip itself on the card is amazing 500MHz part, so it’s been downclocked, probably due to heat. I’m happy with that though, it was completely unexpected! The combined laptop overall has a few cosmetic defects, but it’s in good shape. I’ve now got two working batteries, the floppy drive, and the CD-ROM.
Mainly though I’m just happy it has working hinges now. I can actually use it! I’m thinking I might finally pick up a CardBus USB card for use in this thing. It would be nice to have.
View attachment 75287

Oh nice! That CPU upgrade is sweet, I bet that’s worth a fair bit these days!

I actually just bought a PDQ on a whim on eBay a few days ago (hasn’t arrived yet). I have always wanted one and this one was nice, working and not horribly expensive so I got it. It’s the top end 300MHz model with the DVD drive and the RAM is already maxed at 512MB!

Overall, I think it should be a really good all around classic Mac. And it will complement the Pismo I’ve have for many years nicely. IMO, if you are just going to have two PowerBook G3s, I think it’s the best to you could have!

And I have actually had a floppy drive for one laying around for years I will finally have a use for! The one I bought has the battery in the left bay, so I’m glad I already have the floppy and don’t have to go hunting for one. And apparently these can read and write 400/800K disks too, so this should be a really convenient system for writing disks for my earlier Macs. The serial and SCSI will make data transfer with older Macs very easy also! Would be nice though to have USB also as you said. It’s actually somewhat odd they don’t have at least 1 USB 1.0 or 1.1 port being a late 1998/1999 machine.

I think the hinges on the one I bought are okay for now (seemed to be standing up okay in the eBay pic), but I will definitely be careful with them.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

The PDQ is a great system. I've had one since 2021 but I've barely used it since the hinges were completely floppy. The first night I had it they were still working, just quite loose, but then I opened them 180 degrees and that did it. The second unit's hinges are quite strong still!
The keyboards are really really nice by the way.

I would like a Lombard or a Pismo someday, but it's hard to justify paying for one, at least eBay prices. I don't want one that bad. I'm torn as well between a Lombard or a Pismo. The Pismo does have some improved features, but the Lombard still has SCSI (with USB) which would make it quite useful as a bridge machine. You mentioned the PDQ being useful as one and indeed - the one thing I have gotten it out for in the past was for data transfer via SCSI. I have an external PiSCSI that I use to interface with my 68k stuff and the PDQ's SCSI is far more reliable than any other PowerPC PowerBook. My 5300, 1400, and 3400 all won't read reliably from the PiSCSI (must be a bug), but the PDQ will. When I want to get software onto one of the 68ks I'll typically get out a PowerBook G4 to directly download from the web, then put it onto a PCMCIA CF card, then put that in the PDQ, then transfer it over to the PiSCSI, then onto my target system. I'll skip the SCSI step for earlier PPC PowerBooks since they also have PCMCIA.
I can also get files directly onto the PiSCSI from my PC using the web interface, but sometimes I need to keep the resource fork intact so using Mac OS the whole way through just makes more sense.

There was a $75 Pismo at the swap meet but it wasn't in the budget.

 

[PB145B]

The PDQ is a great system. I've had one since 2021 but I've barely used it since the hinges were completely floppy. The first night I had it they were still working, just quite loose, but then I opened them 180 degrees and that did it. The second unit's hinges are quite strong still!
The keyboards are really really nice by the way.

I would like a Lombard or a Pismo someday, but it's hard to justify paying for one, at least eBay prices. I don't want one that bad. I'm torn as well between a Lombard or a Pismo. The Pismo does have some improved features, but the Lombard still has SCSI (with USB) which would make it quite useful as a bridge machine. You mentioned the PDQ being useful as one and indeed - the one thing I have gotten it out for in the past was for data transfer via SCSI. I have an external PiSCSI that I use to interface with my 68k stuff and the PDQ's SCSI is far more reliable than any other PowerPC PowerBook. My 5300, 1400, and 3400 all won't read reliably from the PiSCSI (must be a bug), but the PDQ will. When I want to get software onto one of the 68ks I'll typically get out a PowerBook G4 to directly download from the web, then put it onto a PCMCIA CF card, then put that in the PDQ, then transfer it over to the PiSCSI, then onto my target system. I'll skip the SCSI step for earlier PPC PowerBooks since they also have PCMCIA.
I can also get files directly onto the PiSCSI from my PC using the web interface, but sometimes I need to keep the resource fork intact so using Mac OS the whole way through just makes more sense.

There was a $75 Pismo at the swap meet but it wasn't in the budget.

Nice to know about the keyboards! The Pismo has a really nice keyboard (and it’s that clear bronze color that I think is really neat!), so I was hoping the PDQ would also be good.

Last I looked a few weeks ago it seemed like Pismo and Lombard prices had calmed down a bit since I looked last year. I saw some decent Pismos for okayish prices. I got mine at a thrift store years ago!

Oh, that’s great to hear you use your PDQ similar to the way I plan to with good results! And yes, I have also used my 1.5GHz PowerBook G4 in the past to download software many times as well!

$75 would have been pretty good for that Pismo if it was decent and working, but yeah, if it’s not in the budget I totally get that.

 

[MacUp72]

the 5300c looks good though, how bad is the corroson inside?
the PDQ are nice machines, last year I had one with a 12" display, never seen one of those before, only 14".
in the Cardbus slot is a gemeric NEC USB2 card, worked well.