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Need advice on Wallstreet problems

jruschme

Well-known member
I have a 300mhz Wallstreet which mostly works well, but has a couple of issues:

First, I think I have some version of the charging board problem. In my case, the system recognizes that a battery is installed. If the battery is less than fully charged (I have a VST charger), the system will show the charging icon for a while and then go straight to full, even though no actual charge appears to have occurred. If the battery is charged, the system will run on battery only.

Is this the typical symptoms for a charging board problem or should I be looking elsewhere?

Second, the PRAM is dead and doesn't appear to charge even when the system is left plugged in for many days.

Finally, neither the sleep light nor the volume and brightness buttons work. I've had the system apart, but didn't see any obvious damage to the cables to the board. Is this a typical problem? If so, what do I need to replace?

Thanks in advance...

John

 

beachycove

Well-known member
1. sounds like the battery itself is faulty. Have you tried Battery Reset?

2. sound like the backup battery is long past dead.

3. no idea, but I have never heard of this problem in my several years of using and fiddling with Wallstreets of all sorts.

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
Remove the PRAM battery if it is dead, just causes problems.

Sounds like you either messed up a cable or something if those buttons do not work, not a common problem.

 

jruschme

Well-known member
I've tried BatteryReset and it made no difference. I'll concede that the battery is probably bad. The strange thing, though, is that it will charge to four lights and be usable in the Wallstreet if I charge it with the VST charger.

I kind of figured that the PRAM was beyond dead, but I just wanted to check just incase the rest of the symptoms pointed to something more severe (like a PMU problem).

As for the buttons, the indications seem to lean more toward doing a swap of the whole palmrest. It's got the usual trackbad button crack anyway, so I might as well...

One final question... if the indications are that I'm looking at a bad battery, then what are the usual symptoms of a bad charge board?

Thanks... John

 

beachycove

Well-known member
That the battery charges in the VST charger is absolutely key. It can't be a bad battery. Now I am no expert, but I would probably try the following:

  • unplug backup battery and make good and sure that the power manager is reset;
    try recharging the battery in the powerbook on startup
    if it doesn't charge after that, then a faulty charge board is indeed the likely culprit. I have read in the past that the symptoms are consistent with what you describe.


Mind you, I have found Wallstreet batteries in general to be a real problem, repeatedly and over the years, even when relatively new. You might well wonder, for instance, why a Battery Reset utility was necessary in the first place ….

 

Unknown_K

Well-known member
Battery reset was probably needed to fix a software bug in the smart controller inside the battery, something nobody noticed untill so many hours of use in specific circumstances caused the battery to get out of wack. Battery Reset will not revive a dead battery, I think they all have a specific recharge cycle value that bricks them, or something that detects a resistance change when the cell chemistry changes and kills the battery.

All Li-ion cells have a 3 year lifespan wether they are used or not, and Wallstreets are pretty old so any original batteries would be dead or close to it by now. Aftermarket batteries seems to be worse as far as aging well.

I consider myself lucky to have 3 batteries for Wallstreets that take some charge at all (out of 5 units and extra batteries).

 

jruschme

Well-known member
Epilogue:

So, I went on the LEM swap list and grabbed a stripped 233mhz Wallstreet for $25 shipped. This netted me a replacement palmrest with no trackpad cracks and working buttons, a really nice keyboard, a replacement charger board, and replacements for a couple of missing screws.

This leaves me with a couple of new problems...

1) What to do with it? I already have a Pismo as my main PowerBook (as well as a second one which needs new main and PRAM batteries. This started as a project a while ago and continued after getting the Pismo. Still, there is something to be said about an OldWorld PowerBook with all those legacy ports. :beige:

2) What to do with the leftover bits from the donor 'book? Frankly, I'm not sure much of anything is usable unless maybe someone wants some 13" hinges? When is it time to say okay to the recycler?

John

 

Bunsen

Admin-Witchfinder-General
The Wallstreet would make an ideal bridge between an Ethernet/TCP/IP/WiFi LAN and a Localtalk/Phonenet/Appletalk network of older Macs, if, as I vaguely recall, it has old-school Mac serial ports.

 

Danamania

Official 68k Muse
Battery reset is indeed useful for when battery capacity/use gets a bit out of sync.

After months of regular use, a pair of WS batteries in my 300Mhz one will get me around 3 hours. Running battery reset, and they'll go back to over 6 hours worth, going down slowly in total usable time until the next reset.

Dana

 
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