I just won a PowerBook 520c off eBay for $9.50 sold as-is (with shipping it was about $24 in total). The 520c is my second 68k PowerBook; I already have a Duo 230, but since I don't have a place to setup my DuoDock, it is pretty hard to use. I figured it wasn't much of a risk if it didn't work, and from the photos in the description, it looked really clean. It came in today, and it fired right up! It is in almost perfect condition (thankfully, it was packed really well)--I don't think it was used much by the original owner (It still had 7.1.1 on it, and there weren't many documents and files on it.) There are a few small marks on the case, but I think they will come off pretty easily.
I spent a long time getting the 20 floppy disks necessary for 7.5.3 copied over to it, and upgraded it. I'll probably upgrade to 7.5.5 this weekend.
After spending much time finding the Intelligent Battery software, I was able to recondition the battery and make the computer recognize it. It technically holds a charge, but will only run for about 5 minutes on the battery.
Next on my list is a RAM upgrade--it only has 4 megabytes, which is pretty painful. I also plan on getting an AAUI to RJ45 adapter, so that I can get it online. Eventually I'll get a SCSI2SD, but I'm going to wait on that one for a while (the original drive seems to work fine)
In this photo I have it connected to my laptop using Z-Term and VT100 emulation--but I'm hoping with the ethernet connection I'll be able to do a direct SSH connection to my PC.
I spent a long time getting the 20 floppy disks necessary for 7.5.3 copied over to it, and upgraded it. I'll probably upgrade to 7.5.5 this weekend.
After spending much time finding the Intelligent Battery software, I was able to recondition the battery and make the computer recognize it. It technically holds a charge, but will only run for about 5 minutes on the battery.
Next on my list is a RAM upgrade--it only has 4 megabytes, which is pretty painful. I also plan on getting an AAUI to RJ45 adapter, so that I can get it online. Eventually I'll get a SCSI2SD, but I'm going to wait on that one for a while (the original drive seems to work fine)
In this photo I have it connected to my laptop using Z-Term and VT100 emulation--but I'm hoping with the ethernet connection I'll be able to do a direct SSH connection to my PC.