New Arrival: Mint 180

[LCARS]

I posted a few weeks ago in the Conquests forum, but I think this post belongs here. This is my latest eBay find, a PowerBook 180. It is in perfect condition but sold as Parts Only because it lacked an adapter. A new adapter arrived today and it powered on after it soaked up some electricity. It is running a lean version of 7.1 with practically every extension disabled. It has something called Connectix PowerBook Utility v2.1 running, which seems feature rich. It shows some Ram Doubler lineage in terms of annoying underlining, but it does sleep/wake faster than my new Macs.

I'm not sure if this is due to age or software, but the HD sounds like it goes to sleep after it opens a file. I will open a folder then the HD will click like it does when it has gone to sleep and it will become very quiet, then click back on when needed. Performance wise there does not seem to be an issue. I could not find anything in the Connectix manager about putting the drive to sleep so quickly. It is set for spin down after 30 mins. Where might I go to find a larger HD? I have not had much luck in finding 2.5" SCSI drives.

Another oddity is when the (presumably dead) battery is inserted. If the computer is on, it will immediately shut down when the battery is inserted, only to start up automatically when it is removed. The latest file I could find on it is dated '96, so I think it has been unpowered for a while. Is this a normal reaction to a dead battery?

 

[beachycove]

... it will immediately shut down when the battery is inserted, only to start up automatically when it is removed.... Is this a normal reaction to a dead battery?

Yes, it is normal, but even these batteries can OCCASIONALLY be redeemed. My PB180 (also new to me) behaved like this, but after a little coaxing, began to accept the battery. It is now giving well over an hour on a charge after 15-20 cycles.

If, however, the battery is leaking etc., it obviously needs to be recycled. Note in case of leakage that the chemicals are nasty.

 

[Byrd]

Is this a normal reaction to a dead battery?

Yes it seems to happen when the battery hasn't been used for some time on PB 1x0 machines, and usually a good way to get a cheap Mac as it refuses to turn on unless the battery is pulled When the is Mac turned off, if you plug in the battery and let it charge for a while, then power on, it'll probably chime but quickly switch off. Keep repeating this (charge for ~ 1 hour, try turning on, pull battery in/out), and it should be happy to run with the battery installed.

See it it charges, and then run Battery Amnesia utility to cycle it - some I've had good success with (getting ~ 45 minutes after a few cycles), others not so (refusing to charge, or going for a while then refusing to charge back).

JB

 

[LCARS]

Thanks beachycove and Byrd. The battery does not look to be leaking any fluids. In fact it looks like it just came out of factory shrink wrap. I'll try the battery revival remedies. What kind of PRAM battery does this machine take? I would imagine mine has lost its charge.

Beachycove- how do you like your new 180? I've been very impressed so far. Its hard to imagine computers could function with a 60MB HD and 4MB of RAM.

 

[beachycove]

Well, I have 8MB and a 120MB HD, so I am not so restricted.

I do like the machine. The screen is a thing of beauty (especially in a well lit area with the backlight off), and a fast 68030 is very nimble when running the right software.

By contrast, the first Mac I owned was a 68030-powered Performa 600/ IIvx, and it was anything but nimble running anything - being so poorly designed.

EDIT

Byrd's recipe for reviving old batteries for the 1xx-series exactly matches my experience.

 

[LCARS]

8MB of RAM and 120MB HD sounds blissful from my 180's viewpoint. I agree, the screen is spectacular. When I was looking for a 180, I thought about the color model but did not like the small screen size and I had a feeling that an active matrix grayscale screen would be something special.

What did the Performa 600/ IIvx suffer from? If I can revive this battery, even to the point of being accepted as a flat one by the system, I will be very happy. I used to take laptop batteries for granted until the day I booted my trusty '98 Inspiron up and without warning it shut off in the middle of my work.