Make a PowerBook 5300 or 190?

[Macdrone]

Ok 3 months ago I got some parts of a 5300, a real basket case. Lots of parts but cables ripped and such. Well today in the mail for the price of shipping a guy named Glenn in Sheboygan wi sent me his 190. Total wreck, power brick dead, leaked battery,cracked plastic. With a little cohersion and cleaning I got it to boot. 7.6.1 on it with 40 Meg's of ram. Well I have a 160 and a 170 which both work (one needs screen caps replaced), so do I make a fully functional 5300 or keep it a 190? I am sure with the cables in the 190 the 5300 will boot as the PO went crazy when the screen was cracked on it.

Second question, if I find the color screen and put it in do I need anything else to make it color? I know when hooked to external it's color I'm just new to the PowerBook scene.

Thanks, I know this is all opinion I'm just trying to gt knocked off the fence on this one way or the other.

 

[Byrd]

Both probably have comparable performance (68K code on fast '040 vs PPC code on slow PPC!), and aren't the most reliable of portables made, so I'd go with whatever looks the best in terms of case plastics, motherboard condition, etc. Make sure you resolder the DC jack as most have snapped off or are loose due to their small fragile size.

You can overclock the PB5300 to 117Mhz fairly easily:

http://www.alksoft.com/5300_overclock.html

The colour screen should be a straight swap. The passive matrix colour screen is terrible though, only get the active matrix display if making the swap.

JB

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

If you're not planning on collecting a pile of PowerBooks high enough that you really shouldn't try to stack them . . . :-I

. . . I'd go for the 190 if you can bring it back to life. I'd also go with the grayscale display.

If you wait to find a 5300ce, it's already at 117MHz and the first PB ever to sport an 800x600 (beautiful active matrix) LCD.

With the two of those, you'd have the Alpha and Omega of that 1995-1996 product cycle case design.

You might want to get the 190cs, 5300 & 5300cs later. Definitely do so if you ever get your hands on the almost, but not quite, unobtanium Mustang ProtoBook. It was either the testbed for the 1400's larger display, the Low End Mac for the 1996-1997 product cycle or both, but never shipped.

Even without it you'd have:

190_______Passive Matrix GS

190cs_____Passive Matrix Color

5300______Passive Matrix GS

5300cs____Passive Matrix Color

5300c_____Active Matrix Color

5300ce____Active Matrix Color & 800 x 600

Giving you every LCD/Processor example of a unique series in a compact 12.8" stack or 15" should rope a Mustang. One of our comrades has a Mustang in his corral . . . [] ]'> . . . no, it's not me . . . [] ]'>

 

[Macdrone]

I'm gonna make it a 190 then. It works great and I have a 5300cs on the way for twenty bucks and I have plenty of parts for it so then ill have both sides of that coin. Thanks for the input.

Is there floppies for download for system specific apples some where?

 

[Strimkind]

If you're not planning on collecting a pile of PowerBooks high enough that you really shouldn't try to stack them . . . :-I . . . I'd go for the 190 if you can bring it back to life. I'd also go with the grayscale display.

If you wait to find a 5300ce, it's already at 117MHz and the first PB ever to sport an 800x600 (beautiful active matrix) LCD.

With the two of those, you'd have the Alpha and Omega of that 1995-1996 product cycle case design.

You might want to get the 190cs, 5300 & 5300cs later. Definitely do so if you ever get your hands on the almost, but not quite, unobtanium Mustang ProtoBook. It was either the testbed for the 1400's larger display, the Low End Mac for the 1996-1997 product cycle or both, but never shipped.

Even without it you'd have:

190_______Passive GS

190cs_____Passive Color

5300______Active GS

5300cs____Passive Color

5300ce____Active Color & 800 x 600

Giving you every LCD/Processor example of a unique series in a compact 10.6" stack or 12.8" should rope a Mustang. One of our comrades has a Mustang in his corral . . . [] ]'> . . . no, it's not me . . . [] ]'>

There is also the 5300c with an Active Colour 640x480 LCD, which is far superior to the other colour LCDs except the 800x600 in the 5300ce.

I have also heard of a failed attempt to put a 5300ce LCD on a 190. I believe the issue was due to VRAM.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

That sounds like a plan. I'd like to get a 5300 to check its LCD against the Duo 250's

_640 x 480 x 4bit grayscale active matrix - 9.5" 85 ppi

_640 x 400 x 4bit grayscale active matrix - 9.1" 84 ppi

For those who have never seen the Mustang:



ProtoBook: Mustang EVT - my "elusive Eleanor"

You're right about the 5300c, S! I was just over on EveryMac's specs looking for the daigonal of the 250's LCD and came across the 5300c . . .

. . . of which I have a pair or so! :I

< kicks self and vows to remember that the Video Card Specs aren't the only Specs on LEM with gaping holes in the data >

Edits to be done in red above, thanks! :approve:

 

[Macdrone]

Weird it's missing the badges on the screen so as to not be able to tell what it is. Nice the screen is so big.

 

[theos911]

Now you've got me wondering about my 5300ce screen on the 190. }

With both 540c's dead until I replace their inverter boards, I'd be using the 190 except for that passive-matrix screen. Maybe I should grab a scrap 5300c somewhere to let the 190 see the rainbow.

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

I have also heard of a failed attempt to put a 5300ce LCD on a 190. I believe the issue was due to VRAM.

VRAM in the 190 that's adequate to run 307,200 pixels @ 2bit GS or 8bit Color would be woefully inadequate to run the CE's 480,000 pixel resolution. 156.25% more pixels probably translates into 4bits (or less?) of color depth on that gorgeous screen.

Dunno though, EveryMac's info is equivocal on the subject, you'd need to look into the DevNotes to find out what the real story might be.

The Active Matrix Grayscale LCD from the 5300 would be a much better choice, IMHO.

p.s. EveryMac and LEM are at odds on the 5300's LCD spec, imagine that! LEM says 4bit/Active Matrix, EveryMac says 4bit/Passive Matrix . . .

. . . I'm not cracking the .PDFs for this one, my money'd be on EveryMac.

The more closely I look at LEMspec, the flakier it seems to get.

p.p.s. Couldn't resist . . . : EveryMac it is, LEM's full of beans once more.

DevNote says 5300 = Passive (FSTN) 4bit Grayscale LCD

Corrections above will be in BLUE this time.