PowerBook 5300ce

[just.in.time]

Lucked out and picked up a PowerBook 5300ce from my local Craigslist earlier today.  The price was nice, at a fair $50.  The RAM is maxed at 64mb, and the original 1.1 gb hard drive seems to work okay.  The battery tries to charge but just gets incredibly toasty.  No corrosion whatsoever, so that was a pleasant surprise.  I'm going to try to rebuild the battery.  Plastics and hinges still seem good.  But I'll never be closing it again so that's really a mute point.

Only area where it needs some work (aside from battery) is the DC power jack.  It can be a little touchy (much like my old 5300cs was, ironically enough).  Does anyone have any advice for repairing that jack?  I'm planning to just resolder it down.  If anything else more involved is needed I may start a thread for it in the PPC PowerBook forum.

Since my first Macintosh was a PowerBook 5300cs (owned 2001 to 2005), I figured it would be nice to have a 5300 series system again  Of course now I have to sell a machine to make room.

 

[M235i]

Lucky find, my 5300ce I got recently will need a complete rebuild. Crumbled in my hand as I got it out of the shipping box. Oh well. I think yours would just need the solder for the DC Board. 

 

[CC_333]

@M235i That's too bad. If you won't be needing it, I could use the LCD panel (I have a 5300ce, but someone put in a 640x480 panel from the plain 5300c for some reason (the 5300ce's original LCD is supposed to be 800x600, yes?)

c

 

[just.in.time]

@M235i Awesome, that’s what i was hoping for! I’m sorry your unit didn’t pan out though :/  that’s always a bummer when shipping destroys things.

 

[M235i]

@M235i That's too bad. If you won't be needing it, I could use the LCD panel (I have a 5300ce, but someone put in a 640x480 panel from the plain 5300c for some reason (the 5300ce's original LCD is supposed to be 800x600, yes?)

c

That would be correct. I'm thinking of trying to get this machine back in working order, but if it becomes unfeasible (which is a real possibility), I will be parting out the system. I will make sure the lcd makes it to you in that case.

 

[Innes]

Neat. Is it a stock 5300ce or did it go through Apple's rebuild programme? There should be a date printed on the copper sheet that sits underneath the battery if so.

Soldering the power connector on is all you need to do, as thats all that holds it on in the first place. That said, just being attached by solder was what caused the problem in the first place.

I'm very curious to find out how to open the batteries up in order to re-cell them so if you do it, hit me up with the technique  b:

 

[just.in.time]

@Innes, I looked inside the battery bay but couldn't find any stickers or printed/stamped dates.  What exactly did the rebuild program entail?

Planning to tear into the lower part of the machine this week to try to solder that connector back down.

I did step one of the battery rebuild today: opening the battery.   I used a dremel tool along the 3 sides that are hidden inside the PowerBook.  However, the plastic was very "melt" prone.  I had to give it a little assist with a box cutter to cut any stray plastic that had melted the top and bottom back together, as well as to shave off excess plastic that had accumulated along the cut line.  Finally, the cells themselves were glued to one another AND secured to the top and bottom of the case.  I used a hair dryer on the top of the case for several minutes and then a flat head screw driver to gently separate the battery cells from the top half of the case so I could open it up and count the number of cells inside (12 AA sized NiMH cells, btw).

I feel like I got lucky getting this unit when I did, as half the cells inside the battery pack had begun to corrode and leak.  Had the computer remained in storage for a while longer I am sure it would have met the same fate as so many other PowerBook 190 and 5300 series machines have met due to the leak-prone main battery of this generation.  Now to find some decent tabbed NiMH cells on Amazon... Ideally I'll find some cells that have capacities way above what was available in 1995/1996 and the computer will be able to get a better run time than when new.

As much as I'd love to keep this machine, I need to trim away some of the systems I've bought recently.  I'd like to get back to 10 and I think at the moment I'm close to 16.  Oops.  Maybe this one will make its way to the Trading Post or eBay at some point.  Still fun to work on for a bit though, even if just for the trip down memory lane.

 

[bibilit]

 What exactly did the rebuild program entail?

IIRC only a new casing for fragile/broken hinges.

Mine was repaired, no sticker, but a white label with "AA" on it.

 

[just.in.time]

@bibilit Ah okay, thank you for that clarification.  Was your "AA" label in the battery bay as well?

 

[bibilit]

don't remember, but can be.

 

[Franklinstein]

I've seen these things with date stamps up to 1998 in the battery bay. They're still really fragile though so I don't know what the repair program supposedly did.

As for the DC jack, full disassembly of the computer to remove the logic board and then a resoldering of the jack will be required. Some people also apply epoxy to the jack to strengthen its attachment to the logic board. However, sometimes the jack itself is broken internally and no amount of solder will fix it; you'll have to replace it.