Yes - I’ve repaired several 100s, I honestly think they’re a little nicer to work with than all the other 1xx machines. No broken standoffs, no ripped-out display hinges. Slimmer casing with a few nice curves.
The blacked-out screen is, in my experience, the caps near the trackball connector. Assuming you’ve replaced all the surface-mount electrolytics, there is one low-profile 47uF 35V radial electrolytic cap, right in the corner, which affects the generation of the LCD twist voltage (~30V). Replacing that cap has always fixed it for me, if the 1uF/10uF SMDs didn’t.
You were lucky with the Connor drive - the heads usually stick, seemingly delibrately as the head arm has a magnetic stop. You have to fill the slot (with something like UV-cured ‘Bondic’ resin) to get the head arm resting a little further from the magnet, but as I recall there’s also a small white plastic linkage that has another magnet in it, which holds the heads in place. I had to add some tape to that one, to reduce its ‘hold’.
I’ve made a battery that uses 6x NiMH AA rechargeables (has space for 12) and has a cheap board from China to charge the cells (since, unfortunately, the Powerbook itself cannot charge the ~7.2V battery). This is cheaper than the lithium-ion solution that also exists, and for my purposes, it’s pretty convenient. I can charge my battery with a USB cable, and then pop it into the Powerbook for about 1-2hrs usage (writing floppy disks, usually). The external floppy is a bit clumsy but works when both it and the PB100 are on a table
thats a fine example.
