Dead 180c (it's alive!)

[Rockin' Kat]

I have a 180c that doesn't do anything.

When I got it, it powered up off the AC adaptor and had a screen problem due to a bad cable. the bottom of it's case was also light blue rather than dark grey because it had been refurbed at one point in time.

I got rear cover for the back ports and seeing the opporutnity, I also ordered a new bottom so it wouldn't look so weird.

Anyway after putting everything back together with the new bottom it doens't do anything at all.

I've got a new video cable to replace the defective one now, but I've been sitting on it because I don't know what made the computer stop working. I tried opening and reconnecting everything but it won't go.

This really sucks because this computer is otherwise very minty and has a good LCD.

If I were to pull this out and try to get it going, what should I look for?

 

[equill]

Can you be a little more specific about your rescue job? Does 'new case bottom' mean the plastic only, or plastic plus hard drive, floppy drive, MLB, daughter card, cousin card and modem card? If you transferred those bits—and their various connectors—from the blue case bottom, what steps did you take against electrostatic damage? And so on, and so on.

Have you revisited your work to make sure that all connectors are properly mated? If the bottom work was a straight exchange with components already present, have you examined the components for integrity and the fit of connectors? There is just so much to speculate about without more description of the process from you.

To replace the flexible PC board (cable) to the display you needed to invade the top half of the case and the display, which must be done with care. How did you manage this?

de

 

[Rockin' Kat]

Just the plastic bottom. That's all I changed.

I can try looking in it again when I get off of work today.

I havn't tried changing hthe cable to the display yet. I'm still trying to figure out why it won't turn on before I go about trying to replace the display cable.

 

[MacMan]

It may be worth re-setting the power manager. To quote this article, instructions are as follows:

"PowerBook 160, 165, or 180

1. Remove the AC adapter and the battery.

2. Let the PowerBook sit without power connected for 3 to 5 minutes.

3. Reinstall the battery and, if necessary, reconnect the AC adapter.

Note: Steps 1 and 2 will usually reset the Power Manager. However, if the computer still exhibits the same issue, repeat steps 1 and 2 and then follow the step listed below before reinstalling the battery.

1. Using two paper clips, simultaneously press and hold down the reset and interrupt buttons for 5 to 10 seconds. They are located next to the power button on the back panel of the PowerBook."

I've had seemingly dead 100-series PowerBooks that have been successfully resurrected with the two paperclip trick. Give it a shot!

 

[Rockin' Kat]

I'm afraid that didn't work either.

I opened it up, everything would appear to be snug.

There aren't any battereis inside this thing that would make it not boot if they were dead are there? I see there is one soldered onto the pcb behind the keyboard on the top half....

 

[Rockin' Kat]

Well, I unscrewed the board that had the battery soldered to it and checked the battery with my el-cheapo multimeter and it came out at less than .5V when it should be 3V. This battery isn't one that recharges is it?

 

[equill]

Yes. It is a secondary battery, but as in most older PBs, it does not begin to recharge before the system (main) battery has reached near-full voltage, ie not full charge. They are rugged batteries, rarely failing, but they can do so. I had one in a PB160 that recovered after at least a dozen years of disuse. So get the system battery charged if that is possible, and allow another 24hr after that for the backup battery, which may take a while to appreciate its new life.

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[Rockin' Kat]

I'll go ahead and put it back together and try plugging it in for an extended period of time..

What if the system battery is worn out and won't hold a charge?

 

[equill]

I deliberately emphasized voltage rather than charge above because it is (notionally) possible for an M5653 or M5654 NiCd system battery to show nearly full (7.2+) DC voltage, but have anywhere from a few tens of mAh capacity up to full capacity. Of course, only a little capacity (charge) in mAh will not power the PB for any useful time. However, the backup battery (which holds only 30-50mAh charge) can be charged as long as the voltage between terminals of the system battery can reach about 6.5VDC or more.

If the system battery gets very hot during charge it is likely to be shorted internally, and should be re-celled or discarded. In any case, it is not likely to hold any useful charge or reach a useful voltage while it has internal short-circuits.

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[Rockin' Kat]

When I had it open last night I went and took the top half apart and threw in the new video cable cuz I decided if I got it working I didn't really want to open it again.

Now for the more relavant... I got it pluged in around 4AM and it's now 1:52AM the next morning....I flipped up the screen and pushed the power button, but I get nothing. It's still plugged in.

I pulled the main battery out the side and it's not warm at all. A model B628.

 

[Rockin' Kat]

Well it's ben plugged in for well over 24Hours. The main battery still reads apsolutly no voltage on my multimeter and the computer won't turn on.

I havn't opened the computer, but I'd imagine the small cell battery probably isn't charged either.

Is it possible to use my multimeter on the contacts in the computers' battery compartment to see if it's even trying to charge the battery?

 

[Rockin' Kat]

um.... smack forhead?

I got a rather late idea just now to get out my 150. It's funny.... I thought I only had one battery... I know when I found the 150 it had the sliding clip for the battery covering the battery compartment, but sliding it open revealed that there wasn't a battery atatched to it.

Mysteriously when I turned it on, the battery meter on the control strip showed it was charged. There was a battery in it... I'm guessing the 180c came with two of them and I put one in the 150 and totally forgot about it...

Anyway I took the battery out and put the one from the 180c in and turned the 150 back on. The battery charge meter in the control strip didn't even show up, as if there was no battery at all.

I then tried putting the other battery in the 180c and pushed the reset buttton on back and got a "Bong!"

Apparently it's possible for a bad main battery to make a computer not work.

On other notes. I'm glad I installed the video cable when I had it open to double check all the connections before putting it back together to try leaving it plugged in. Now I don't have to dread doing it now that I've got the computer to run.. And the new monitor cable works awsome. No more buggered video.