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Odd Bodge Wire on PowerBook 160

Spode

Active member
I have a PowerBook 160 that isn't working. Hear a Chime, nothing on screen. Boot from floppy begins but stops quite quickly and doesn't continue - floppy stays in drive.

Starting some diagnostics now but I found this bodge wire. Did the 160 have a known fault that had to be fixed or something? Seems unusual.

IMG_20220128_185413.jpg
 

desertrout

Well-known member
From what I've seen, this bodge wire is common - not sure the reason for it.

Have you recapped the display? I've also seen a bad HDD interfere with booting, so try booting with it disconnected.
 

Spode

Active member
So the non booting was a red herring. Tried a different boot disk and that was fine.

Just finished recapping the display and she lives!
 

Spode

Active member
IMG_20220128_210157.jpg

I take it back - I was testing previously on the bench with no backlight and panel open - just the screen on a piece of paper.

Now I've reassembled it's super bleached out. The more acute the angle I view from, the more I can see.

There no polarising layer with these as far as I can see - there was just the panel and a diffuser, same as the 145 screen.
 

bibilit

Well-known member
There is also a two caps arrangement on a small board (under the brightness and contrast switch) to deal with.
 

joshc

Well-known member
Starting some diagnostics now but I found this bodge wire. Did the 160 have a known fault that had to be fixed or something? Seems unusual.
Generally speaking, bodge wires were fairly common on production model machines back then, and it wasn't just Apple that did this. See the LC III and other machines which tended to have patch wires made to production boards.
 

Spode

Active member
There is also a two caps arrangement on a small board (under the brightness and contrast switch) to deal with.
Are you talking about on the invertor board? You think that could be affecting the signal voltage to the screen?
 

Spode

Active member
I'm going to make a new thread as I don't think it makes sense to hijack this one.

Botch Wire = Normal it would seem in this case, as the machine appears to be running normally :)
 
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