PowerBook 100

[JRL]

Yay, I'm back after two months!

Nevertheless, I got a free PB 100. It only lights up when I press the keyboard, though. It was also kinda not in the best shape (the mouse button had broken)

However, I got some neat stuff with it too;

extra PB 100 memory card

20 MB 2.5 SCSI HD (original HD)

manual

floppy drive

It had the max 6 MB installed and a decent hard drive upgrade.

 

[Franklinstein]

Those things are fun. If only there were software available to revitalize the old hard drives, and spare batteries were easily obtainable, I'd be happy.

AFAIK, the only way to boot the 100 was to press a random key on the keyboard, or maybe the reset button on the side; there was no dedicated power button and they didn't respond to ADB keyboards' soft power key.

These things are nearing two decades of age, so it's no surprise that they are often touchy. Those potentiometers for the brightness/contrast go bad after a while, ribbon cables break down, capacitors leak, and corrosion sets in everywhere else, while the original hard drive (often a Conner) often fails long before then. It's very unfortunate.

But it's a worthy project, and a neat computer if it's ever up and running.

 

[MacG4]

ive got a pb100 parts machine for sale if you need it.

 

[macgreg]

PowerBook 100s are very cool - I have about 4. Never found one with the 6MB RAM upgrade though (still looking - all mine have 2MB + 2MB).

They are very easy to work on - all Phillips head screws so you don't need any special tools.

 

[Strimkind]

I need to find a few minutes to open mine up and see whats wrong with it. So far it starts and the screen lights up but its blank. HD spins up too. Going to try to play with it once and see what i can do.

 

[Morrick]

Yes, the spacebar is the power button on the PowerBook 100. I, too, have one -- with 6 MB RAM! -- and I love it. But at the moment it seems more dead than alive. After months of undefined issues, I narrowed it down to a faulty power adapter. But a PowerBook 170 is on its way from Canada, and has a power adapter that should be fine with the 100 as well. Let's see what'll happen.

Nice conquest!

Cheers,

Rick

 

[JRL]

Thank you everybody for the comments! I haven't been able to try the PowerBook 100 again yet, but I'm pretty sure it's gonna need some work.

On the bright side, I get the extra 2.5 SCSI hard drive.

 

[coius]

Nice! I have always had a soft spot in my heart for the 1xx series of PowerBooks. Save for the 190's, they are really nice machines.

I had a PowerBook 170 as my first "Self-bought" machine. Cost me about $100 off of eBay (when eBay was new) back in 1998, right after we got the iMac G3.

I loved the simplicity, as well as the battleship gray that it had. The other thing I loved was that I could turn off the backlight and use the natural reflectiveness of the black & White screen to bounce the sunlight/light off of it and I could like about 1hr more battery off of it.

I took it to school and it lasted for about 2 years until my dog pulled my bookbag off the kitchen counter and *BAM!* cracked the screen. Too bad...

I ended up getting a PB 190cs, and sadly, it was better than my G3 iBook 900Mhz, but not by much. Despite all the problems, I would take the 190cs over the G3 iBooks any day (Except clamshells. I owned a blueberry, but even that wasn't without problems. 3 logicboards later, and I got a G3 Dual USB, and it goes on...)

I never really had much luck with laptops. I tend to abuse them, but lately, I have been taking extra caution around them. Especially since i paid $1600 of MY OWN money on a MacBook. I have been ultra happy with it. The first was replaced due to failing plastics, but the one i got now is splendid and I have no complaints.

But anyways, 'grats on the score!

I had the pleasant experience of working on both the 170, as well as a 150, and they are rock solid, hard to abuse, and really easy to fix.

Keep us up to date with what you are going to do!