Partial success restoring PowerBook 100

[Anonymous Freak]

I've had a "flaky" PowerBook 100 for some time.  The big problem is bit-rot in the display (see attached picture.) The case is also in less-than-great condition, and it has a dead 40 MB hard drive.  But the logic board works great!

So I found on eBay a PB100 where the display obviously powered on and had no bit rot, but it wouldn't boot. It cost me a little more than I would have liked (annoying eBay snipers attempting to outbid me at the last minute! It jumped $30 in the last 15 minutes.) But I got it.  As described, attempted to power on, display turns on, hard drive spins, that's it.  No beeps of any kind.

Oh well, I really just wanted it for the display and case plastics.

Open it up - "Well, there's your problem!"  No CPU card!  Tossed in my CPU card and RAM card, still doesn't boot.  Dang, I was hoping it would be that easy.

Swapped my logic board over, and it powers on, ? floppy.  Dang, so its hard drive (only a 20 MB) is dead, too.  Got it to boot from a floppy, and the screen is great.  Now to get a working hard drive again...  Oh, and it came with an original Apple battery (obviously long since dead.). Mine had an aftermarket that looks like crap.  So I'm going to try rebuilding the battery, too.  (I'll start with my crappy looking aftermarket to see if I can at least be successful at it first.)


Relatedly, I also got a PowerBook 3400c today.  Saw it on eBay with a relatively low buy-it-now price, then noticed he was in town.  Made a lower offer on it, and mentioned I was local and could do cash.   ;D  

So, 12 hours later, one eBay auction canceled, and one PB3400c acquired. (With a bunch of accessories.) Battery even still holds a charge.

 

[Ferrix97]

Usually the logic boards need new capacitors, the main problems are weak audio, no video or strange things when connected to power, all of them can be solved with new capacitors

As for the hard drives, they can be repaired easily, I made a brief video showing how to fix them

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Excellent! I have a tab open with a text thread about that, but your video makes it really obvious and easy!  Thanks!

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Hmmm. Now I need a proper-size Torx... My smallest isn't that small.

 

[aplmak]

I've posted on here as well that the capacitors in the display need to be replaced as well... There are 8 - 3.3uf 35v can capacitors with a little square fitting holder around each one. They are bad for sure... I've not seen any that haven't leaked.. I use small sized radial tantalums cut very short to replace them with. I use a small needle to gently remove the gooey rubber plugs where the screw holes are on the front cover and I've actually saved them. You must remove the center display cover before removing the front plastics on the display.. I had a thread on here describing it.