Portable Backlit (not backlit)

[Philsan]

I have found a Portable Backlit without hard disk with a full memory expansion.

It has these sympthoms:

- without battery it boots well but after booting I get this message "No battery reserve power remains. The Macintosh will go to sleep within 10 seconds to preserve contents of memory. Good night", and after 10 seconds it shuts-up. In the upper left there is a battery symbol.

- the screen is not backlit. Plugging power, resetting Mac and unplugging power many times, sometimes I have managed to have the screen perfectly lit.

I have the Macintosh Powerbook AC Adapter M56527 (APS-46E) Input AC 100-240V 0.55A 50/60Hz Output DC 7.5V 3.0A.

Thanks in advance.

 

[closeddoors1559]

- I've read the portables need a battery because the power supply isn't enough to operate properly. You need to leave the battery in the Portable.

- Did you look in the Control panel? There might be an option to turn backlight on or off.

 

[H3NRY]

You really do need a battery. 6 Volt lead-acid type as for a burglar alarm, if you don't want to rebuild an original battery. The AC adapter doesn't supply enough surge current, even the 3-Amp one. Also, those adapters are getting old, and don't always supply a steady 7.5 Volts. I had one jump to 19 Volts recently and burn out my Power CD. I suspect when the Portable is trying to fire up the fluorescent lamp, boot, and spin the floppy, it draws too much current. I've also seen several backlit Portables whose internal 5V power regulator is unstable. This can cause similar symptoms.

A backlit Portable needs the Portable and/or Backlight init/control panels in the system folder. It works without them, but the screen may not be lit correctly.

 

[Philsan]

Now display seems to always lit.

When it is lit I hear a noise. Is it normal?

But I continue to get this message "No battery reserve power remains. The Macintosh will go to sleep within 10 seconds to preserve contents of memory. Good night".

Why?

Is it always necessary a good battery, also if I use a powerful PSU?

 

[shred]

The backlight inverter in the Portable makes a high pitched whining sound when the backlight is on. Since converting mine to a solid state hard drive, that noise seems much louder (it's not being drowned out by the racket the old mechanical hard drive used to make).

Take Hen3ry's advice and get hold of a 6v lead acid battery - even if it's connected with crocodile clips. Just don't forget to put the lid back on the battery compartment after you connect it. There's a micro-switch that the battery compartment lid closes. No lid = battery disconnected and the 9v backup is in circuit instead.

Have you reset the power manager by pressing the interrupt and reset buttons at the same time?

 

[Philsan]

Yes, I have pressed interrupt and reset button at the same time many times but nothing changes.

So, a battery must be installed to avoid the "10 seconds" message and Mac going in sleep mode.

Can you give some links of the 6v lead acid battery I should buy and exact specs?

I understand nothing regarding electonics and electricity!

 

[Philsan]

For example, this one could be OK?

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=522-1002-ND

 

[Osgeld]

led acid batteries are usually not that picky, but its best to see what the one inside of it is marked as and try to match it up best you can

 

[H3NRY]

The cell used in the portable's battery is here:

http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?Detail&name=842-1002-ND

There are three of them in series. You can cut or break the battery open and replace the cells by soldering wires to the terminals.

 

[Philsan]

Thank you.

Is it possible to open original Portable's battery without damaging it? How?

 

[Patater]

Can you give some links of the 6v lead acid battery I should buy and exact specs?I understand nothing regarding electonics and electricity!

I'm looking to add a battery to my battery-less Macintosh Portable. I found one Macintosh Portable for sale on eBay with this battery in it. Since this battery doesn't have contacts on the bottom like the apple battery, you'll either have to figure out how attach some wires between the battery and the contacts, or route the cables already present in the machine to the battery. I'm not sure if the cables are long enough or use the correct connector, but its easy enough to splice wires to extend them. Here is another battery that may work. It uses a plate based design internally instead of multiple cells.

I'm still in the research phase of reaching this goal, but I think I have some good options available. Probably the best thing would be to rebuild an old Apple battery. However, without knowing if we can do that safely and without seriously messing up the shell of the battery, or if it is built out of cells like the first battery, I'm not entirely convinced that that's the way to go.

I've taken some pictures of the battery cables present in the machine. You are looking at the back of the bottom of the battery bay.

 

[Patater]

Can you give some links of the 6v lead acid battery I should buy and exact specs?I understand nothing regarding electonics and electricity!

I've come up with two more links for us. This site explains how to move the battery contacts from an old battery onto the PSG-650 battery (the plate based one). It also has pictures of the inside of the Apple battery, which shows the internal cells visibly. This site seems to be selling a new battery with a case and contacts compatible with the Macintosh Portable.

As I don't have any battery right now, I can't tell how easy the Apple battery would be to open, put new cells in, and close up again. Buying a new third party battery is pretty attractive, as it would probably cost me nearly as much to buy a dead Apple battery (but they usually come with an additional Macintosh Portable as a bonus item).

 

[Patater]

This site seems to be selling a new battery with a case and contacts compatible with the Macintosh Portable.

Upon further investigation, that company wants you to send in your old battery which they will rebuild for you. They claim they seal up the casing after they are done, which is a process I wouldn't yet know how to do. That you have to send them an old battery makes that option much less attractive to me as I would have to buy an old Apple battery in addition to their fee. In addition, I would have more fun doing the rebuild myself.

 

[Philsan]

If you remember, without battery I have this message "No battery reserve power remains. The Macintosh will go to sleep within 10 seconds to preserve contents of memory. Good night", and after 10 seconds Mac shuts-up.

I have connected a 6V 5A PSU to my Portable's battery contacts and now I don't get the message.

So I think the computer is OK but it needs a battery installed.

Therefore I have bought three of these batteries http://search.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus.dll?WT.z_header=search_go&lang=en&site=ch&keywords=842-1002-ND

With the help of a friend I will try to open Portable's battery and insert them.