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PowerBook 170 Power Supply Brick

desertrout

Well-known member
Even from the Australian sites? Hm. Well, I don't know much about Jaycar or Altronics, but they each seem to have several locations in Perth, worth a call.
 

Ll3macorn

Member
Even from the Australian sites? Hm. Well, I don't know much about Jaycar or Altronics, but they each seem to have several locations in Perth, worth a call.
already tried, they dont have any of the caps at all. ive just ended up spending 35 aud on the caps just then from mouser anyway
 

Ll3macorn

Member
ive just spent so much money, the caps came, i installed them. and the psu outputs 7.9 volts occasinally but goes all over the place, i plug it in to the powerbook and clicked the power button. it just goes to 2 volts. im absolutly furious rn
 

3lectr1cPPC

Well-known member
Yeah, these things don't always go to plan. Make sure you've cleaned around the caps really well. That gunk those ELNA caps spew out is insidious and really difficult to get clean. There's also an output adjustment potentiometer or two.

Also - any reason why you wanted the original PSU working? You can get cheap replacements for around 10 dollars in the US on amazon, not sure about AUS but wouldn't see any reason why it wouldn't be the same there.
 

Ll3macorn

Member
Yeah, these things don't always go to plan. Make sure you've cleaned around the caps really well. That gunk those ELNA caps spew out is insidious and really difficult to get clean. There's also an output adjustment potentiometer or two.

Also - any reason why you wanted the original PSU working? You can get cheap replacements for around 10 dollars in the US on amazon, not sure about AUS but wouldn't see any reason why it wouldn't be the same there.
i cleaned it fully out, its no longer outputting anything at all now. also replacements are like 40 aud its ridiculous
 

desertrout

Well-known member
I feel ya... welcome to hobby. :) We're dealing with really old devices that often have (ike this adapter) suffered damage, so it's not always going to go smoothly, and may not ever result in a fully functional device. Just about everyone in this hobby has several machines that just aren't fixable, even after hours and hours of troubleshooting and dollars and dollars of investment, myself included.

This adapter probably could still be repaired if you're up to the challenge (sounds like a bad transistor. Also, double check your capacitors to ensure their polarities are correct). But if you don't have the funds or wherewithal for that right now, I'd suggest making regular visits to local second-hand shops for power adapters (or electronics recycling centres, if they sell stuff in your area)... anything 7.5V and 2A or 3A, or one of the adjustable ones, will work. It might take a while for the right one to show up, but when it does it'll only cost a couple bucks. I live in a smaller, remote city in the nether-regions of Canada and I've been pleasantly surprised at some the stuff that I found at second-hand shops - especially odd-ball power adapters I've been looking for.
 
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