Powerbooks

[didius]

Today I got a powerbook 170 and a 145b. According to the previous owner the 170 was the only one working.

But apparently both are working, there's just a faulty powerbrick.

I didn't own any 68k powerbooks to this date so I'm kinda a newbie on the subject. They seem like pretty cool machines. Can anyone point me to some nice sites about these machines? About the internal organs of the machines? (Google gave me more information about the history etc)

2 more questions:

1) If the 170 is turned on for about 3 minutes the corners of the screen seem to lose their backlighting, what to do?

2) Did anyone open up a Powerbook powerbrick and fix it? Can it be done? Are there 'take apart guides'?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

DevNote

Service Source

Congrats!

 

[uniserver]

The powerbook 170 can develop what is called tunnel vision… it happens because the LCD has been contaminated with moisture, due to a failure in the Sealant used for the LCD, its a common flaw with the 170. also watch out with the plastics, they are really brittle.

There are some things you can do that can help your tunnel vision. for instance one suggestion was to place the screen into a 5 gallon bucket filled with rice for 3 or 4 weeks.

The other suggestion that i followed was to bake the LCD panel screen its self in the oven at 215 degrees for a couple hours.

I only baked mine for 30 min. I would like to say it made about a 50% difference, the only down side is a few dead pixels now appeared. maybe that was because i needed to bake it longer. dunno.

I had picked up a powerbook 140 from an electrical engineer in canton, mi. He told me he took apart the power brick and fixed something with it but never said what.

I wold assume the Radial Caps in there would start to leak at one point.

 

[Bunsen]

bake the LCD panel screen its self in the oven at 215 degrees for a couple hours

Just to double check for those of us in metric countries: you are talking 215˚ Fahrenheit (just over 100˚C) here, correct? Because I'd hate for someone to stick their LCD in the oven at 215˚ Celsius (420˚F) ...

 

[uniserver]

LOL YES, sorry, the temp is F not C.