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Time to restore the 170

PB145B

Well-known member
I’ve had a rough PowerBook 170 for several years now, with an almost perfect LCD (no tunneling, and only one dead pixel).

The 170 (along with the 145B) are my favorite first-gen 100-series PowerBooks.

It’s time it gets the restoration it deserves.

Here’s some pics of it in the current state:

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I have purchased a nice-looking PowerBook 145 that I will be parting-out to restore this 170.

Here’s what needs replacing:

Lower-chassis (almost every standoff has broken free. Will have to find a way to transfer the PowerBook 170 label over. I think some heat would encourage it to come off)

Rear-half of display housing (this one is cosmetically not good, and the mounting points are iffy, it’s actually the one that used to be on my 145B)

Hard drive (currently has an 80MB, also used to be in my 145B, but is now completely dead. Doesn’t have stiction, don’t know what’s wrong with it). I already have a spare 160MB and another on the way, so I’ve got some options there

Port door (completely missing, but the 145 I’m getting has the door)

That’s about all.

I have already replaced the upper-chassis, as the original was also REALLY bad, the trackball standoffs were broke, along with several of the ones for the keyboard. 

The screen really is beautiful on this 170. The pictures don’t do it justice either. It looks more “green” in-person. Very easy on the eyes.

I will also be rebuilding it with System 7.0.1, which is what it ran originally.

That’s all for now! More to come...

 

PB145B

Well-known member
The 170 is DONE:

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As you can see, I had to fix one of the hinge standoffs. I just drilled a hole and put a long screw through it. Not pretty, but it works. I know there is a 3D printed solution now, but I don’t have a 3D printer yet.

Swapping the 170 label from the old bottom case to the new one was easy. Just heated it up and it peeled right off, and I reapplied it to the replacement bottom with some spray adhesive.

This bottom pan was much better, and had only one broken piece I had to glue.

I popped a spare 40MB Conner drive I had in it, which works great. I still might put my 160MB IBM drive in there though. I also now have another spare 40MB Conner from the 145 I just got for parts.

That’s pretty much it! I’m very happy with my 170 now.

 

PB145B

Well-known member
Thas great it looks great 
Thanks! I had a lot of fun with this project. Really like this generation of PowerBooks. The PowerBook 170 (and really all of the 100-series) was one of the first machines I really started eyeballing when I was first getting into vintage Macs roughly a decade ago, so I'm kind of sentimental for them in that regard as well. Many good memories of spending hours up late researching and watching videos of these. :) And I'm still just as fascinated by them now as I was then, and always will be.

 
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PB145B

Well-known member
Here it is running the “DOS Shell” AfterDark screen saver, my absolute favorite one:

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It just types commands out on its own, mimicking the look of a DOS machine. Just too cool. I use this on all of my 68k Macs.

 

ArmorAlley

Well-known member
Here it is running the “DOS Shell” AfterDark screen saver, my absolute favorite one:

View attachment 34913
 

It just types commands out on its own, mimicking the look of a DOS machine. Just too cool. I use this on all of my 68k Macs.
I wonder if there ever was a BSoD one? Windows NT would have been right around then (well, NT came out in 1993 and the PB 170 in 1991).

 
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