Ok It's GLOD...But It's Still a PowerBook 2400

[TheNeil]

I've landed a PowerBook 2400!

It arrived yesterday and it is absolutely pristine. Packaged in its original box (itself in pristine condition), complete with floppy drive (in original packaging), all original leads (some still wire-tied), manuals, registration card and sales leaflets/brochures, and install disks. The thing is absolutely perfect in terms of packaging and the machine itself looks like it only just left the factory. Even if it didn't come with all of the extras, it would be a great little machine (God alone why Apple killed it off - it's a gem).

It's the 180MHz version with 80Mb RAM and a 1.3Gb HD as is running OS 9.1. Now for the bad news: It suffers from GLOD which is proving to be a right pain to fix or even get around.

Pulled the whole machine apart last night and removed the PRAM battery, left it until this morning (with the main battery out) and it started booting as soon as I plugged in the PSU. But it's really, really temperamental so...anybody got any ideas about how to make it a little bit more reliable?

 

[Christopher]

Don't shut it down ever?

 

[sastark]

Mind if I ask how much you paid for it?

 

[TheNeil]

Mind if I ask how much you paid for it?

Not all: £34 (+£16 p&p) 8-o

 

[Franklinstein]

The power system in those things can be tricky. Some GLODs are caused by bad PRAM batteries, as you have noticed, and those are curable. Unfortunately, when the power boards die, they also present the GLOD, and usually the COD (click of death) is also noticed. One of mine has a dead power board. It would boot sporadically when it felt like it, and then it quit booting altogether, the only signs of life being the click (a small pop sound from the speaker) and the green light. Swapping in a test power board from a working model restored its functionality. Putting the other power board in the other machine resulted in the same dead state, so I know where the problem lies, anyway.

I have yet to find a schematic for proper troubleshooting of these boards, and no individual components themselves test bad. I notice some odd voltage readings on my dead board, like there's a short somewhere, but haven't been able to isolate it. I dunno. A new power board is one thing I'll be looking into, when one turns up on eBay.

Fortunately, my other 2400s work properly for now (knock on wood).

 

[tomlee59]

Congrats on getting the 2400! I hope you'll be able to solve the intermittent GLOD problem. I have a 3400 that exhibits a similar instability. I haven't had the time to troubleshoot it in detail, but perhaps there's a slight congenital weakness that afflicts these machines...

 

[MacMan]

My PowerBook Duo 2300c also suffers from the Green Light Of Death, (I'm going to use it's proper name ), and my workaround for that is to remove the battery before startup and before plugging in the power supply. In the situation it will start no problem but whenever the battery is in it just sits on the green light.

Nice find on the Duo 2400 btw, was it on eBay UK?

 

[Byrd]

If the usual PRAM/power manager resets don't work, it's time to trawl the 2400c mailing list, and research the repair of the SMT fuses (IIRC there are about six that can fail).

http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/duolistfaq.shtml

I successfully repaired two 2400c by replacing two SMT fuses on the motherboard, in different locations on the two machines. The fuses were fairly easy to obtain from an Australian electronic component reseller, but I had to get a friend to buy them for me as had an ABN/could set up a business trade account with them.

The 2400c I kept has had no issues with the fuse repair - it's specced to 240Mhz G3 112MB/40GB HD. Oh, and there is also the Cardbus modification which is pretty easy to do as well. YourMacStore in California still sell the 96MB RAM module for USD $59, which isn't too steep, in my opinion.

http://www.yourmacstore.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=20

JB

 

[Aoresteen]

Some GLODs are caused .....

OK, so what is a GLOD? Google was no help.

TNX!

 

[tomlee59]

Some GLODs are caused .....

OK, so what is a GLOD? Google was no help.

TNX!

GLOD = "Green Light Of Death"

[This is a problem where the 'book won't turn on, but the green LED in the lid simply glows mockingly at you.]

 

[Aoresteen]

Thanks Tomlee59!

The only Mac laptop I've owned was a PB100 manny yeras ago.

 

[TheNeil]

Nice find on the Duo 2400 btw, was it on eBay UK?

It was actually advertised here on the forum by a very nice chap in Germany. I certainly wouldn't have got it for the price I paid if it had been on eBay

 

[TheNeil]

If the usual PRAM/power manager resets don't work, it's time to trawl the 2400c mailing list, and research the repair of the SMT fuses (IIRC there are about six that can fail).
http://www.themacintoshguy.com/lists/duolistfaq.shtml

I successfully repaired two 2400c by replacing two SMT fuses on the motherboard, in different locations on the two machines. The fuses were fairly easy to obtain from an Australian electronic component reseller, but I had to get a friend to buy them for me as had an ABN/could set up a business trade account with them.

The 2400c I kept has had no issues with the fuse repair - it's specced to 240Mhz G3 112MB/40GB HD. Oh, and there is also the Cardbus modification which is pretty easy to do as well. YourMacStore in California still sell the 96MB RAM module for USD $59, which isn't too steep, in my opinion.

http://www.yourmacstore.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=20

JB

Interesting. The PRAM/reset trick definitely seems to have stopped working so it might be time to investigate replacing the fuses.

Out of interest, just how difficult a job was it? My soldering skills are, ahem, useless so I'd be really interested to know whether it's ultra-fiddly work or whether a klutz like me could manage it.