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You might also want to search this forum for Wally's posts on this subject. He's done the most thorough experimentation and research of anyone I know. I'll briefly share my experience: I've swapped out cells to rejuvenate battery packs for 'books as well as for Dells and VAIOs. I've had mixed...

Although it is likely that the little notebook drives are indeed more fragile than their desktop counterparts, it does not necessarily follow that notebook drives are all destined for a short life. We'd have to gather a lot of statistics to know for certain; anecdotes and assertions from...

Thanks to Mac128 for refreshing all of our memories on this, and for providing a link to Apple's own information on this topic. In the US, none of the classic Macs shipped with dual-voltage analog boards. Assuming that your source of analog boards is not too far from your home in Ohio, they...

The warning in that pdf is a very general warning. It's saying this: "If the analog board died because other stuff connected to it misbehaved, then the new board is at risk of similar damage." It's certainly possible for this to be true, just as it's possible for a previously undetected comet to...

Thanks for the kind words, Bunsen. I appreciate it greatly!

It could be that your power brick is a little on the weak side (and are you sure it's the right one for that 'book?). Inserting a floppy makes the drive spin up, and the extra power drain could cause a dip in supply voltage, triggering a reboot. If this rebooting happens less often (or not at...

I'm not a fan of Matsushita drives. Apple's firmware is unnecessarily restrictive about what media types are supported, and Matsushita steadfastly abides by its agreement with Apple not to provide any firmware support. Consider yourself fortunate in being forced to upgrade. :) I recommend...

The PB150 is an oddball in several respects. The HD driver resides in ROM, for one thing, and the presence of another driver on the HD will generally prevent booting. Internal HD Format version 1.0 should do the right thing (I don't believe any version of Drive Setup works correctly for this...

Is there a reason for 7.6.1, as opposed to 8.x? The 3400c is much happier with 8.1 (and better still with 8.6), owing to the diminished need for emulation. Video playback, for example, is much poorer with 7.6.1 than with 8.1, and poorer still than playback with 8.6, on a 3400c. If you're still...

A "die" is just another term for "chip," where "chip" here refers to the actual unpackaged silicon. When you produce chips, you make wafers of them at a time. Then you slice and dice them into separate chips. The singular of "dice" is "die," so that's how the term evolved. Today, "chip" can...

It may appear to be "VGA-like" but it is "VGA-like" in the same sense that some substances are "food-like." :) These adapters allow you to connect to a TTL-type monitor. Finding modern monitors that will sync to a classic Mac's particular rates is probably a bit challenging. The circuitry...

There is no adjustment, no pull-down spring that I recall. And don't unscrew anything; that will only make things much, much, much worse. If you did not bend the copper-ish spring (it's not coiled; it's the flat piece that connects the head arm to the chassis) to the point of putting a crease...

Here are a few simple, non-soldering things to try before setting it aside for another day. From the photo, the board looks relatively clean, but certainly dusty. It might benefit from a thorough and careful clean. Also, the error message may or may not be correct. The self-test is necessarily...

It is likely that you have a shorted flyback. The horizontal drive transistor is pretty robust, so one might assume that something serious caused its death. If you plan to give it another go, I recommend performing some resistance checks of the flyback windings.

With a computer of that vintage, I'd open 'er up and take a look around before doing much of anything else. My guess is that you will find that many electrolytic capacitors on the logic board have leaked, leaving conductive smudges on the board. Clean the board thoroughly, and replace the...

I agree -- that is indeed a clean and clever upgrade, and one I'd never seen before. As to your excellent question about why Apple did what they did (and didn't do what would've made more sense), perhaps it's all an artifact of Steve Jobs' opposition to expansion of any kind in the first place...

The chips in question aren't DRAM chips. My guess is that the mod is indeed directed toward enabling more RAM, but it's in the address decoder circuitry. Or not. :)

It's not actually my methodology. What I described is what a DriveSavers technician told me is their approach. I agree that if they were to see something obviously damaged on the logic board, they'd likely alter their strategy. However, disassembling in a clean room does not involve much...

What they do depends on what they find. Generally, they open up the drives first, without having applied any power (to prevent doing any more damage). If the heads are damaged, then they will try transplanting the platters into a healthy host. If the heads and platters look ok, then they...

Jaz drives do have a spotty reputation. Whether or not it's well deserved, the mere fact of its spottiness suggests that reliance on Jaz disks for backup may be somewhat riskier than perhaps you'd like. I'd recommend supplementing the Jaz with a CD burner. Use good media (e.g., Verbatim or...