Powerbook 150 no power

[Macdrone]

Got one for price of shipping and plugged it in, hit power and nothing. tested power supply with voltmeter and its juicing as it should. Opened it up and found no caps to speak of as they are all tants on the motherboard. So i pull the screen , keyboard reackball board and it says jedi board (very funny) which I find a corroded 2.4 volt battery. I clipped it off as to clean up the damage and test the trace. Trace is good, question is does it need the battery there to boot? Contacts on the power plug are solid and continuity are good, fuse on motherboard checks solid. So do i need to install pram battery before it will power on or is there something else?

 

[beachycove]

Did you remove the main battery?

 

[Macdrone]

Yes and I did the PKU reset but no activity at all. I am going to buy a 2.4 volt battery tomorrow and solder it to the "Jedi" board and see if that helps. At this point not anything happens when power button pressed. I may pull main board to check but this thing is pristine so I don't see any dust being under it. Looks like it was never used.

 

[Macdrone]

Ok 2.4 volt battery soldered to position on Jedi board. Pulled motherboard, not a spec of anything under it. When put together get just over 9 volts to battery contacts. So power gets that far. I am at a loss why no activity. I guess the switch could be bad? If I just short the contacts it should turn on if that we're the case?

 

[mcdermd]

FWIW, my PowerBook 150 is in the exact same shape doing the exact same thing.

 

[Macdrone]

I have power to charge the battery, power to the pram battery on the Jedi board that the speaker is on. It's strange power is getting everywhere, including to the switch. I may pull the board again tomorrow and jump (bypass) the switch to see. It's the cleanest looking 68k Mac I have ever seen to be this dead with no SMD caps is strange.

 

[mcdermd]

Apple does note that an adapter of too high a wattage can damage the logic board.

 

[Macdrone]

I have the original power adapter showin 7.2 volts exactly. So I am not sure how I can have power to everything but it won't start.

 

[uniserver]

Mcdermd mentioned the wattage not the voltage, However, I would think the main board would just pull what it needs.

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP145

Looks like it calls for 2 amps.

Hummm.

 

[beachycove]

There is the GLOD phenomenon (Green Light of Death), caused in some PowerBooks by lack of charge in the backup battery, and confused power management software.

Did the cells you just installed come pre-charged, by any chance? Equill used to opine on here about this question, and regularly advised leaving a PB that you want to resurrect plugged in, even if apparently dead, for at least a couple of days before resorting to anything more drastic. I would go with that for now.

The PB150 is closely related to the Duo series, and the Duos certainly were afflicted by the GLOD problem. But it is found here and there in some machines, rather than in all machines — one of life's little mysteries, as it were. I say this because I have seen differences in different Duos in this regard with my own eyes, and because I have a PB150 that will boot with a dead backup battery, quite happily (and then charge it), but that does not mean that any old PB150 would do so.

You should try to get it going. It was a lowend product, but I personally share Trash's fondness for the machine: I find the screen good (for what it was), and can't understand why people complain about it; I like the RAM expansion possibilities; and having IDE rather than SCSI is, of course, a unique advantage in the thing. Mind you, if it won't boot, none of this is going to get a lot of use.

 

[Macdrone]

Well I am not sure but the original plug is 2 amps and since I use it for running my portable I am guessing its good to go.

The battery I installed in place of the corroded battery on the inverter board was pre charged, and when unit is plugged in the line got power for charging it so ill look into the power deal. Ill leave it plugged in and charging for a couple of days and see.

I am willing to try anything at this point. The case an everything is in such good shape, it just makes me sad it won't click or anything. I have motherboards from macs that were marked non working that I hooked a speaker to and they booted so you just never can tell.

 

[techknight]

you need to check the power management IC, it is the one responsible for switching on all the boost/buck regulators that run everything in the machine, make sure standby voltage is present at that IC.

 

[Macdrone]

Do you know where that IC is or what it is labeled as? If its toast can it be replaced?

 

[techknight]

Dont have any pics of the PB150 Mainboard, only ones I have to reference from is the 140/160/165.