PowerBook 190: Underrated Classic?

[chet david]

Gazing out across the internet, I am astounded by how much the 190 is trashed. It was a legendary machine, and how dare you bash it. Why? Where, oh where, do I begin? Let's start with the core. A 33mhz '040 (no FPU mind you). I have used a 25mhz '040 before and was amazed by its speed. I cannot begin to imagine the speed of a 33mhz '040. Mac OS 8.1 would be great on it, and you could even use HFS+ for large hard disks although you would have to use HFS standard for your boot partition. That brings up another advantage of the 190: IDE. It works with standard ATA hard disks. You could even put an SSD in it to lower the temperature and increase the speed even more yet. That blowed my mind. Another feat of the 190 is the ability to use up to 40mb of RAM. I could stop there, and you would still want one, but I go on. It has PC Card slots! Ethernet, 802.11b, and more. Just slide it in the slot. This picture advertises that you can even upgrade to an active-matrix screen. I never knew that! What are your options, I wonder? B&W active-matrix? Color? 800x600 color like the 5300ce? Imagining that on 190 making me drooling. It also has an expansion bay from oodles of drive possibilities. It even complies with energySTAR. While we take this for granted today, it was a big deal back then. Now, the enclosure. It looks just stunning. It has a black case with the rainbow apple perfectly place. It has a small footprint with a gorgeous bezel. This basic case design carried Apple all the way through the PowerBook G3 Kanga. Just brilliantly stunning design. I hopefully someday I will own a 190. Best PowerBook ever made!

 

[J English Smith]

I'm fond of my 5300's, but with 1400c's and Pismo's as my usual writing machines, dont pull them out much anymore. Surprisingly robust little machines, though. The ones that went through the Apple refurb program hold up pretty well. I always enjoy the feel of the keyboard. I like the 1400 and Pismo/Lombard ones better, but I like the 190/5300 style too.

 

[Franklinstein]

The 190/190cs wasn't a bad machine, but it was really a cheaper 68k-based alternative to the 5300. Personally, I'd rather have the 500 series because it had: dual batteries, stereo speakers, integrated modem, integrated ethernet, and optional PC Card capabilities. It too maxed at 40MB of RAM, but unlike the 190 series, it could also be quickly and easily upgraded to PPC (the 190's "upgrade" consisted of replacing the entire logic board with that of a 5300, whereas the 500 series used a processor card with later models reaching 180MHz).

The factory displays on the 190 were passive-matrix b&w or color with optional upgrades to 640x480 active-matrix panels, though I'm sure nowadays you could easily swap in an active matrix panel from a 5300, maybe even one of the 800x600 panels from the 5400ce.

Like I said, the 190 wasn't a bad machine, it was just sort of 'meh'. Also, the 190 and 5300 series were released concurrently; the 190 wasn't the 5300's predecessor, just a low-end companion.

If I had to choose one 68k machine, I'd probably go with the 540c.

 

[Scott Baret]

I think the lack of respect for the 190 comes from a few sources:

-The dissimilarity to the other 100 series machines

-The overall love for the 500 series

-The fact many feel the 5300 is a flawed machine due to quality issues

-The passive matrix displays

Personally, I like the 190 over the 5300. The price was more reasonable when it came out and it can easily be upgraded to a PPC machine. It didn't have the battery issues and while it did use the same brittle plastics, it did offer the trackpad with the clicking function (the 5300 did not--just read this in an old Mac book earlier tonight).

I've always toyed with the idea of getting a 190 to use with the children I tutor, as the trackpad would be more familiar to them than a trackball yet it would still be an 68K that could run my old programs reliably. The IDE drive is never a bad thing ever due to the price and scarcity of SCSI drives--this is why I like the 150 for tutoring over other models and why I'd want a 190. The 190cs would be preferable to any 190 or 150, since many of my children ask me where the color on the screen is! (Yes, it's passive matrix color, but at least the 190cs is far superior to the old 165c).

However, from a personal standpoint, I prefer the 180c to any old PowerBook. Everyone has their personal preference, and it's not that folks don't like the 190, it's more that many of us have become attached to a particular model for some reason. In my case, the 180c's display, trackball (still prefer them to trackpads), and overall design (not to mention the fact I always wanted one as a kid) make it my favorite pre-PPC laptop. Between trackballs, screens, nostalgia, features, and compatibility, a lot of folks seem to have some other Mac higher on their depth chart than the 190 (and also the 150). Interestingly, these were both low-end Macs in their day, and for some reason, these computers tend to get a little less love in the end--ever notice how we generally like the iMac G4 better than the eMac? (There are some exceptions with machines popular in schools due to nostalgia like Classics and LCs).

 

[beachycove]

The 5300ce required more vram to run an 800x600 screen than the other 5300 machines had, so that the large screen assembly only works if connected to the 5300ce's specific logic board. On the basis of this I would judge that a 190 would not run an 800x600 colour screen, though I admit that I have never actually tried the swap. A 190/ 190cs will, however, run an active matrix screen from the 5300c at 640x480 in 256 colours quite happily. My 190 does so. I had no idea until now, however, that Apple had advertised that capability.

The 190 series is the very last 68k machine Apple produced, and perhaps because of this — and the truly awful greyscale screen most of them shipped with — it was not lauded by the press when it was released. It was the low of the low-end, rather like the PowerBook 150 (which was similarly panned), or the Performa 600, or the 4400. Everyone wanted something better at the time.

Though I too think the 190 (with an active matrix screen) is a thing of beauty, machines that were originally high-end will always be more collectible/ desirable. Thus the interest in the aforementioned 540c, which in truth has its own flaws from our vantage point (intelligent batteries, scsi drive, unobtanium expansion bays, mediocre keyboard....).

 

[Bunsen]

Has anyone got the 640 x 480 9.5" grayscale active matrix? How is it?

 

[beachycove]

There were only passive matrix screens stock on the 190, greyscale and colour, and both at 640x480. Replace with a 640x480 active matrix colour screen from a 5300c and the 190 becomes a much better machine.

 

[shred]

At the time the 190 was released, I had a PowerBook 520 (later upgraded to a PowerBook 540c). I was working with 190s and 5300s almost every day, but they seemed poorly constructed and "cheap" next to my 520.

The 190s leave a bad taste with those of us who worked with them at the time. The 190/5300 series were one of the first PowerBooks with which Apple outsouced manufacturing to a Taiwanese manufacturer (I believe it was Acer). They were one of the few 68k Macs that were so flawed that they were subject to a repair extension program to address serious manufacturing defects. The main problems I remember were that the power socket kept breaking off the logic board, the trackpads were flaky and the display housing was prone to breaking at the hinges. See this sample letter to owners: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA38474?viewlocale=en_US. Those of us working with the computers were the "meat in the sandwich" between customers with broken machines and Apple, who initially refused to admit that there was a problem (sound familiar?). Prior to the repair extension program, broken and faulty computers would come in for warranty repair, have the offending parts replaced with new parts with the same manufacturing / design flaws - and would be back with the same fault a month later. The other thing issue was that the 190 was originally intended to ship with a Lithium Ion battery. Unfortunately, there were some issues with Li-Ion battery packs catching on fire and - at least in Australia - the 190s only ever shipped with NiMH batteries.

Strangely, I have a working PowerBook 190cs (it was given to me) but have no love of it. When I see the 190, it reminds me that I should have kept my old PowerBook 540c.

 

[Bunsen]

Has anyone got the 640 x 480 9.5" grayscale active matrix?

There were only passive matrix screens stock on the 190 / active matrix colour screen from a 5300c

Ah. Once again, lowendmac lies.

Powerbook 5300

• displays:
  640 x 480 9.5" grayscale active matrix with 16 shades
• 640 x 480 10.4" color dual scan with 16-bit color
• 800 x 600 10.4" color active matrix with 16-bit color

I've been hunting for one of these %$!! apocryphal screens for years.

To preserve what's left of my sanity, I've scoured everymac.com and compiled:

The definitive list of Powerbook 190/5300 LCDs

|=================================================================|
| Model          | Size  Color     Matrix  Bits  Shades    Pixels |
|=================================================================|
| 190, 5300      |  9.5   gray    passive     4      16   640x480 |
| 190cs, 5300cs  | 10.4  color  dual-scan     8     256   640x480 |
| 5300c          | 10.4  color     active     8     256   640x480 |
| 5300ce         | 10.4  color     active    16   1,000s  800x600 |
|=================================================================|

Maximum VRAM in every case is listed as 1MB; no minimum is given.
A 1MB 16 bit video card can be added to support an external color monitor.

The 5300ce required more vram to run an 800x600 screen / only works if connected to the 5300ce's specific logic board. / a 190 would not run an 800x600 colour screen, though I admit that I have never actually tried the swap.

Now, I suppose I could check the above against Apple's technotes/devnotes ... xx(

 

[Scott Baret]

Don't always believe Apple either. Case in point--Mac LC IIs and their minimum operating system. Every publication out there says 6.0.8, but I've run LC IIs on 6.0.7 without any problems.

 

[Franklinstein]

I have a base model 5300, and its original grayscale display is passive, not active. Interestingly, the back of the display has a different style than the other 5300 models, with a horizontal line and two vertical lines in the center of the case as opposed to the two vertical lines on the outside of the case in the other models. It's also the only basic 5300 I've ever seen in person even though I've managed to accrue a stack of the cs and c variants in addition to a couple ce models.

I'm not 100%, but I'm pretty sure that, like the variable amount of soldered system RAM, installed VRAM for the internal display wasn't always the same between models: the base model 5300 likely had around 256k, whereas the midrange color models had 512k, and the 5300ce probably had between 512k and 1MB. As for the "N/A" or "1MB VRAM" figures quoted on sites like everymac.com or LEM, that's the VRAM on the optional external video card, not the internal display.

On another note, has anyone ever seen the 3.5" CDROM drive for these things in person? They were supposedly available but, like the LiIon batteries for these machines, nobody can find them. However, I'm pretty sure that the reason these drives are so rare is that nobody used 80cm discs, not that they were recalled due to a fire hazard. The only example of this drive I've ever seen was in Jeff Goldblum's 5300ce from Independence Day.

 

[LCGuy]

I'd be surprised if the CD-ROM drive was even released - that machine used in Independence Day was a prototype - you can tell as the badge that should normally say "Macintosh" has the model (which from memory is actually PowerBook XXXX, like the prototype 5300s), and the badge that normally says "PowerBook 5300" is blank.

 

[naryasece]

I purchased the screen form a 5300ce to swap onto my 5300c (it has 1mb vram, so it can run the 800x600 at thousands of colors). I swapped the 640x480 active matrix screen onto the 190cs and it worked great. With 512k vram, I can display 256 colors at 640x480 and thousands at 640x400. I thought that was really neat!

Later I got curious to see if the 190cs could support the 800x600 display. It does, but only up to 256 colors. Switching it to thousands causes the display to goes gray. The machine still works though. I think it is the only 68k PowerBook to support an 800x600 internal display

It is a neat powerbook and I appreciate the built in PCMCIA card slot, though it seems slower than my 280c. I just wish I had more ram for it!

 

[beachycove]

That is a real surprise! Wow.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

When you say grey, do you mean greyscale (but useable), or solid grey (and therefore unusable)?

 

[MattB]

This thread inspired me to pull out my old PB190 and fire it up. Still works perfectly, though its main and PRAM batteries seem to be dead and the port door is missing (not that I've ever come across one that still has the port door on it). I'm going to have to try leaving it plugged in for a few days...doing that brought both batteries back to life on one of my Kangas. Overall it's really not a bad machine for what it is and it brings back fond memories of using 68K Macs growing up.

My favorite part about my 190 though is the story behind me acquiring it. When I was in high school some of my friends and I got in a bit of trouble for playing Quake 2 network games in the computer lab during our free periods, and as a result we had to help the technology department clean out a huge closet full of old computer equipment and throw in a dumpster for recycling (this was not a harsh punishment). Most of the stuff was junk or broken, but I saw the 190 sitting with its power adapter in a pile and had to have it. The head of the tech department let me take it and a Digital HiNote 486/75 of some kind (the reason I wanted this one now eludes me). But the point here is that me getting in trouble in high school got me a 68K Powerbook and a great conquest story.

 

[naryasece]

When you say grey, do you mean greyscale (but useable), or solid grey (and therefore unusable)?

The whole screen went solid gray, the black and white checkered pattern. The machine still responded to mouse and keyboard input, but would not display any output until I changed it back to 256 colors (or less).

 

[Bunsen]

Can you change the resolution to 640x480 or 640x400 and then change the colour depth? Or is that not possible on these machines?

 

[naryasece]

Unfortunately not, the 190 is like the 2300c (or 5300c with 512k video ram) where it switches the resolution when the color change occurs. But perhaps there might be some third party software that switched the resolution, like screen squeeze? I'll look into that...