Conquest Two: PowerBook G3 (Pismo)

[iMac600]

And Pismo makes Two.

This is the second conquest in the series, first being the iPod minis I picked up last week. I found this on eBay listed as "For Parts or Not Working" and purchased it with the hope of repairing it.

Apple PowerBook (FireWire)

400MHz PowerPC G3 Processor

320MB RAM (256 + 64)

30GB HDD

ATI Rage Mobility 128 8MB

DVD-ROM Drive

Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.4



(Click to Enlarge)

To my surprise, it also came with an Apple "Yoyo" 45w Power Adapter despite the auction specifically stating it wouldn't be included. No power on situation, spent the morning stripping it down, reseating the Sound/DC Board, reseated the processor, reseated the power supply board and disconnected the PRAM battery (computer won't boot with it connected) and it started up just fine. Took the opportunity to tighten up all the screws and stiffen the body a little while I had it apart.

Overall condition is quite good, some small scuffs and it needs some rubber feet, but it's in otherwise great shape. Will hopefully be able to upgrade it to a 40GB HDD with 512MB RAM depending on density, and i'll be installing an AirPort card as well. Ideally i'll have it running a combination of Mac OS 9.2 and Mac OS X Panther.

Best of all, the inclusion of the Power Adapter now allows me to power up and repair my Wallstreet G3 as well.

Should be a fun little machine. Looking forward to using it.

 

[Unknown_K]

The Pismo should do 1GB RAM (512mb x 2) so RAM density should not be a problem (unlike the Wallstreet).

It is funny sometimes what you expect to recieve in a listing and what actually shows up. I am a member of the Thinkpad forum (forum.thinkpad.com) were a member was ditching a few machines for parts/repairs just for shipping else they get recycled. His listing stated no HD's, might be dead, etc but I wanted an A22M he had so I snagged it. The unit arrived in very good shape other then a keyboard that needed major cleaning. It had a speedy 40GB HD installed (empty), 2 x 256MB PC100 (hard to find low density SODIMM), had 3 OEM A20M restore CDs for NT4/Win2k/Win98, original power brick, and the screen was the better 15" 1400x1050 TFT with no flaws. Not bad for $11 shipping and it works just fine and looks almost new when cleaned up. I did have to replace the main battery as it will not charge and I replaced the keyboard from a parts machine (too lazy to clean the original) but otherwise it was all good (CMOS battery was still good). Now you can compre this to what you find on ebay being in "good condition" and when you get it it looks like a truck ran over it and will not boot.

Sometimes you get lucky.

 

[macman142]

Nice pickup.

 

[iMac600]

Cheers, had a bit of an intermittent boot issue, sometimes it would boot, sometimes it wouldn't and would just beep 4 times (Bad ROM Checksum). Some contact cleaner across the CPU card connector seems to have cleared that right up. Running like a dream now, but still subject to improvements. Will be installing the AirPort card soon, along with the added RAM and the bigger/better HDD, need to adjust the focus pot on the DVD-ROM drive and fix one of the tabs that locks the keyboard into the body as well as it's come loose. I'll seek out some replacement black rubber feet soon as well. Already replaced the thermal compound on the CPU as the old stuff wasn't transferring heat well.

Battery is completely dead, may have to try and re-cell it later on for added mobility.

 

[beachycove]

Couple of points:

1. Where can black rubber feet best be found? I resorted to using little dots of "plumbers' goop" on mine, because I couldn't buy anything like the proper part for less than a king's ransom.

2. Pismo batteries, on the other hand, seem to be available new for $40-50-ish on eBay these days, which is about as cheap as it gets. Unlike Wallstreet batteries, which can be cussedly finicky, the Pismo's seem to be blessedly robust. I'd recommend ordering one of the $40-50 ones if you've money to spend.

Having said #2, mind you, I recently took the cells from a Wallstreet battery, cut away the number needed (the Wallstreet has more cells), and popped them in a Pismo battery case. Almost no soldering was required, except for the relatively small matter of reconnecting the wiring to the circuitry. Works perfectly. You could probably do the same with most any LiIon battery pack of recent vintage if you have access to a spare.

 

[trag]

1. Where can black rubber feet best be found? I resorted to using little dots of "plumbers' goop" on mine, because I couldn't buy anything like the proper part for less than a king's ransom.

I don't know what the Pismo feet look like, but if they're fairly normal round or square, you can probably get a decent replacement at Home Depot. They have a nice selection of rubber/silicon feet.

 

[iMac600]

Couldn't repair the optical drive, it never seems to be able to seek the data on the disc. Will need to find a replacement Pismo optical drive as my current solution (an Intel iMac slot loader drive) leaves a nice opening in the side of the case that i'm not particularly fond of.

Also seems to be finicky still. No boot, I push power, the Caps Lock light comes on, but that's it. If I remove the Processor and reseat it, the machine boots. Has worked every time so far. May need to get a can of CRC and clean the contacts on the processor, or would the fact it has no PRAM battery contribute to this problem?

 

[Byrd]

Would the fact it has no PRAM battery contribute to this problem?

No the Pismo works fine with the PRAM battery disconnected, obviously with no time saved/other PRAM settings. I've found that plugging the PRAM connector back in while the machine is powered up can "jumpstart" it again and it'll charge up, so you can use it normally without having to unplug.

I recently fixed a PB Ti 667Mhz which had the 3 - 4 flashing LED/beeps at startup, by cleaning the RAM contacts with electronic cleaning solvent spray. It only ever used to start up 1 out of 20 times before this repair. So I'd suggest going over the CPU daughtercard contacts, and motherboard with similar stuff, and checking for any damage. If you push down hard on the CPU, does it boot then? That's been my way of diagnosing many a dodgy PC/Mac laptop - the old "press or bend here firmly" can bring many flaky machines back to life, for a moment.

JB

 

[iMac600]

Pressing down doesn't do it, but a full reseat does. Still not sure as to why that is though.

Has to be said, on a sidenote, i'm quite liking this Slot Load drive in the Pismo... may have to mod up a faceplate for it. In the mean time, still need to find a Lombard/Pismo optical drive, CD or DVD, doesn't matter it just needs to be compatible.

 

[Strimkind]

Most tray loading drives seem to work in a Pismo. I have a few dead pismo drives come through my hands, and I was lucky enough to have a few parts PC laptops. I took the optical drives, popped them into the pismo cage, put them in, and they worked great!

Some drives do not function at full capacity (i.e. Quanta DVD/CDRW Combo only worked as a DVD/CD drive, no RW). The DVDRW and other combo drives seemed to work fine. Most of the time the existing faceplate works but is ugly.

Note, I have not put the pismo faceplate on any of the drives I have. I just leave them as is.

 

[iMac600]

The Pismo faceplate is primarily what i'm after. If I could i'd cut a slot in the stock plate, apply filler, sand it back and spray it black to have a slot load drive, but it's a lot of work.

 

[LCGuy]

You'll probably have to find a drive from about the same era, I'm guessing it'll most likely be a Matsushita (Panasonic). Whether that faceplate will fit newer drives of the same vendor I don't know...a few months back I gave a Matsushita DVD drive (pulled from a dead Acer TravelMate) to a mate with a Lombard. The drive works just perfectly, and can even burn CDs and DVDs after he ran Patchburn on it, but despite both it and the original Lombard drive both being Matsushita drives, the faceplate still doesn't fit.

 

[iMac600]

That and my faceplate's broken. It's possibly reusable but i'd rather not.

 

[bibilit]

You'll probably have to find a drive from about the same era

You can rather use a modern one, here is a link to a Toshiba SD-R6472 DVD and burner connected to a pismo, the original faceplate was even reused.

http://www.sterpin.net/uk/dvd8pismouk.htm

No huge modifications needed (small welding done to force it to master -pins 45 and 47) good use of patchburn to get it supported and some glue for the finish pismo look. :approve:

 

[iMac600]

I've finally had a chance to sit down with the PowerBook G3 again. Both Mac OS X Panther and Mac OS 9.2 are running from the primary partition, although i'm considering a repartition of the HDD to allow for fast multi-booting on startup as the Startup Disk control panel is becoming tedious.

At the moment though, i'm spending time getting reacquainted with Mac OS 9. Specifically iTunes 2. I've copied a few hundred of my tracks to the PowerBook and must say that these old machines have seriously good audio circuitry. Using a set of external earbuds connected to the G3 outperforms the sound quality coming out of the MacBook with the same set of earbuds. The sound is clearer at the top end, with minimal distortion. The low end is deeper with more presence. It's almost like i'm hearing the entire waveform, not just the samples that make it through the modern Intel DSP, it's a real treat to the senses.

It becomes more and more apparent that this purchase was a good one.

I almost remember why I became interested in Apple machines to begin with. Over the years i've lost a lot of the look and feel I came to love as the computer becomes less of a passion, a joy to use, and rather a tool that only ever seems to do very little towards enjoyment of user experience. My iMac G3 had it, and this Pismo has it.



Keep in mind folks that I will be looking to purchase a genuine PowerBook G3 Pismo optical drive module at some point. The idea of modifying another slot load drive is tempting, but i'd rather keep the machine as clean and genuine as possible. The slot load Pioneer drive in there currently (from an iMac Core Duo) works, and I like the slot load mechanism, but the face plate is the big issue.

For those interested in current specs, it still has the 400MHz G3 Processor and the ATI Rage Mobility 128. Memory is 512MB in a 256 + 256 configuration. Hard Drive is a 40GB Toshiba as the old 30GB Hitachi was making some awful clicking sounds during use. It's been completely stripped down, cards and connectors reseated, components cleaned. Thermal paste renewed (used Apple Genuine ShinEtsu MicroSi compound). Battery is toast, as in it charges but only lasts about 10 seconds off the battery, but i'll replace it or re-cell it soon. LCD hinges are good, a small amount of play (although it feels like loose screws rather than a bad clutch), so I may open it up, tighten the screws and regrease the assembly soon as well.

 

[theos911]

What kind of Wallstreet is that? I or II? Mine is a II 300mhz. With the 1mb cache it flys under 9, only feeling its age if I try to do iMovie/Qtime Pro or something intense like that. I'm eager for my RAM to arrive; however, mine also has a dead drive. Once I get a drive though, it will be running MintPPC. It has a bit of screen yellowing, and only in the lower left, which makes it more annoying being in only one spot.

 

[iMac600]

I'm not sure to be honest. 233MHz I believe? 14.4" display. Needs a fair bit of work, no battery, no optical drive, crack in the top case around the PC Card slot, trackpad is no longer adhered to the top case... list goes on. However it does power on and it does boot.

Had to reseat the processor card in the Pismo again. Needs a screw to hold the heatsink down I think, and possibly some CRC Contact Cleaner for the processor socket.

Cory had a great suggestion for the optical drive faceplate issue before in the IRC channel. Throw in a second battery. For some reason that idea had slipped my mind but considering it needs a new battery anyway, it couldn't hurt to keep the second as a means of blanking off the bay where the ODD would normally be (plus I can keep the slot load optical drive for when I actually need it, win/win).

 

[coius]

I picked up my battery for $39 shipped. It works great and have been sitting here for near-30 minutes and it's at 94%. It's a 6600mah battery. I think I counted close to 5-6 hours under OS X yesterday from a full charge. I can give you the name of the seller. it works awesomely and would recommend

Cheap enough, and it comes from america and not china. I will see if they ship internationally, or I could get it and re-send it to you if you want!

 

[iMac600]

May have to take you up on the battery offer, but it's a case of when, just been through a house move so I'm a bit strapped for cash at the moment.

Bit if a development, went to test the fan earlier today. Lifted the connector and it just fell apart, wires pulled out of the connector block completely. Fortunately managed to find the same style connector block on the microphone cable of one of my dead iMacs, swapped it with the broken one and it's as good as new, wouldn't even tell it had been repaired.

Also gave the processor connectors a clean with alcohol, refitted the processor to no avail, it still won't power up consistently. I'll reseat it again later and see how it goes.