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PowerBook 170 - My 1st 68k Mac!

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
I just bought a PowerBook 170 off of eBay! Now, it hasn't arrived yet so I'll have to update the thread when it does, but here's what I know about it from the listing.

1. It turns on and displays the cursor, but no question mark floppy.
2. It has a hard drive, but it's dead and just spins up and down. I believe that this is due to the sticky bumper issue and I'm confident that this is both repairable, and the cause for no question mark floppy.
3. It comes with a carry bag (OEM apparently), an external ADB number pad, the original manuals, and the original charger. The charger is dead though, so I've ordered a cheap one off of Amazon to use until I get better soldering tools to use to recap the original.
4. It comes with the battery, however it is dead (duh) and bulging, so it has been removed. It is still included though.
5. The rear I/O door is actually present! However, it doesn't stay closed. Probably broken plastic clips.

Alright, now for the unknowns:

1. Display Hinges. There weren't any photos showing a clear view of them from the back, so I can't say whether or not the standoffs are broken yet. I do have a place in town where I can get new ones 3D printed if they turn out to be bad.
2. Tunnel Vision. I know it's extremely common. The seller didn't mention anything about it, and the display looked really nice in the pictures, so I'm hoping if it does have any of it that it's minor and only comes on after a while of being used.
3. Pretty much any details on the specs. (HDD capacity, RAM, etc.)

Now, for my plans:

The first step is going to be an attempt at reviving the old hard drive. (Probably a Connor). Hopefully it will be as simple as taping over the melted rubber and then putting it all back together. If worst comes to worst, I can always get a SCSI-2-SD.

Next, I'll test everything else. Keyboard, trackball, floppy drive, let it run for a while to test for tunnel vision, etc.

Then, assuming the floppy drive works I might try clean installing System 7.1. What OS version do you guys all recommend for a 170? I guess I'll have to wait and see how much RAM it has before deciding.

Finally, in the far future I might just go ahead and do the hinge repair (assuming the original standoffs are good) just as preemptive maintained. I also want to try to build one of those 3D printed batteries that use NiMH AAs. It would be awesome to take this thing to the Apple Store and boot it up. I took my G3 Wallstreet recently, and it definitely got a lot of attention. :) 100 series PowerBooks have got to have one of the easiest battery rebuilding processes of any laptop.

So, this is going to be my first 68k Mac, my oldest Mac and my oldest laptop. I think I've chosen a pretty good first one. First of all, it's a laptop, and I like laptops. Secondly, it doesn't have those stupid SMD caps that everyone hates so much. Thank god! It's also Active-Matrix, which is good for usability. I've just recently seen what a passive-matrix grayscale display looks like for the first time as I've recently revived my old IBM PS/Note 425 laptop. Admittedly, it's not recapped, but wow the quality sucks. The only real major problems with these are the display hinges, hard drives, leaky batteries, and of course, display tunnel vision. None of the fixes to any of these require soldering repair (assuming the battery didn't destroy the board, which it didn't in my case), which is great for me!
I'm super excited and I can't wait for it to arrive, I've wanted a 100 series PowerBook for a long time, and the 170 is definitely at the top of my list.

I can't wait!
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
F93E8590-D360-4136-A649-81C94851653A.jpeg
It has arrived! It’s in amazing condition, the hinges seem alright. One of the standoffs on the right might be broken but it all looks pretty good. As described, the power supply is completely dead, so I’m going to have to wait until my replacement arrives to actually test it.

Looking at it in person though, this thing is absolutely MINT. I couldn’t be happier with the condition. Still, I did manage to break the hard drive cable when I was taking it apart to do the rubber bumper fix. So, with that setback aside I was able to get the sticky rubber taped over to hopefully fix the drive. I guess I’ll have to wait and see when both my charger, and my new cable arrive.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Well, my charger arrived today, and it works!
IMG_1637.JPG

The display looks great and I left on for around 30 minutes and no sign of tunnel vision! Unsurprisingly, the floppy drive is dead, and of course, my HDD cable is still just as ripped as it was yesterday. So, I guess I'm stuck until my new one comes in from eBay. Hopefully my Hard Drive fix worked!
 

AndyO

Well-known member
That looks in great condition, and I'm a bit envious since my 170 disappeared out of my life years ago, and I wish it hadn't! Good luck for the hard drive, but as I found - even if briefly - with my Classic, setting up a BlueSCSI device instead if it isn't functional is pretty easy!

A great first 68k Mac!!
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Thanks guys! I certainly will. I can't wait for the cable to arrive so I (hopefully) can get it booted from that old 40MB Connor drive. It does appear to have max RAM, which would certainly be very cool.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Well, my new hard drive cable finally...


...shipped.

Yeah, it's going to be a few more days before I can actually test most of this thing out. I still can't wait!
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
My cable arrived a couple days ago - I'm only now getting around to an update here.

My hard drive fix worked! It boots a nearly clean copy of 7.0.1, so it's nice I don't have to clean up a messy install. The floppy drive is dead though, so until I repair that I'm not going to be able to use it for much. I did clean out the trackball rollers, and I can confirm that the keyboard works. It's pretty fast too! The screen is excellent.
 

Quadramatic

Active member
Great find. I used to own a pair of 170’s many years ago. I have a 180 I bought here on this forum and love it. They are excellent laptops. I was surprised at how fast 7.1 fees too. Glad you avoided the tunnel vision problem.
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Thanks! It's a super cool laptop. It still needs a bit of work (hinge fix, floppy drive repair/replace, plastic standoff repair, battery rebuild, and hopefully an easy method for file transfer. RaSCSI maybe?), but it's usable as is right now, and thank god, no tunnel vision.
 

Quadramatic

Active member
Also I had no idea about that hard drive tape fix. It actually works! A pulled a dead Conner Powerbook 100 drive out and had it running in just a few minutes. Thanks for that!
 
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