PB1400 Broken Battery Pin

[Mike Richardson]

http://www.silvernetworks.net/IMG_00231.JPG

Sorry the quality sucks so bad. It's an iPhone. I can't find my real camera.

One of the battery pins on my PB1400 motherboard has broken off. Actually, it was mostly there, but when I touched it, it basically disintegrated off into a million little metal shards. It is an integral pin (it's either the negative or positive. I forget. but it's one of the power pins.)

It appears the whole array of 5 pins is in a block and can be de-soldered off the board and a new one put on. Are such things sold individually?

I have a good battery that's giving me about 10 volts (9.6V rated).

 

[equill]

I suspect that when the 1400 was a currently selling model. Apple's standard repair practice of pluck'n'chuck would have been used by AASP's who met what must be a rare fault. Best of luck in finding a spare logic board, which I guess will be your only way forward from here.

As an example, I bought a declared 'for parts' PB 5x0 some while back. The ham-handed disassembly for resale elsewhere of its (upgraded) daughter card, RAM card and HDD had broken the RAM card-retaining plastic, and, Heaven only knows why, one of the keyboard's ribbon connectors to the MLB. A small fault, but catastrophic and terminal. Exit MLB.

de

 

[LCGuy]

A replacement mobo wouldn't be hard to find, so long as you're willing to simply purchase another machine. That would be the cheapest, and most likely, easiest way of getting another mobo. And as a bonus, you'll have more spare parts, too. Just make sure that its a Rev. 2 1400 (1400/133 or 1400/166) if your machine is a Rev. 2.

 

[Mike Richardson]

The Powerbook Guy sells logic boards for $9.99 + about $8 shipping. It seems to be the best bet for getting a new logic board. Plus, he sells the 133 MHz CPUs with 128K L2 cache for only $7.99. I can use that to upgrade from the 117 MHz CPU which is much slower due to no cache.

 

[Bunsen]

Why not drop the extra $6 for a 166?

Also, are you still planning to have a go at repairing the old one?

 

[Mike Richardson]

The 166 MHz one only works in 166 MHz PowerBooks: "Compatible with PowerBook 1400 166MHz models only". I've also read about this elsewhere. It's different for some reason. I'm also getting the processor mainly for the cache which helps a lot.

I don't think I can repair the old board unless I have a dead logic board that I can steal the little block of battery pins from. Nobody seems to have a dead 1400 logic. It would be too difficult to put a new pin into the block but it might be possible to solder a piece of copper to the underside of the board and maybe bend it up to touch the battery.

 

[Bunsen]

Some mechanical strength might need to be added to that arrangement.