New Powerbook 180 - Won't Turn on with a battery in it

[khannonnd]

Hey there, guys!

I recently acquired a very clean looking Powerbook 180 (and an Apple branded leather carrying case made for it that I have never seen before).  It had one owner who babied it.

The thing works great - when *only* the AC adapter is used.  If a battery is installed, the machine won't turn on.  If the machine is on and I put one of the (admittedly dead) batteries in it, it instantly shuts down.

Is this a problem with the motherboard on the machine or is this normal behavior for a completely dead battery?

Thanks for the help!

 

[TheWhiteFalcon]

Yes, that's normal behavior for a dead battery, mine does the same thing. The outside cover will slide off the battery with a little effort, and then you can at least put the cap back on so there's not a visible hole on the case.

It's a nice machine, enjoy.

 

[khannonnd]

Good to know.  There is a local company that actually makes new 100-series batteries with new cells, so I think I will pick one up.  Thanks for the info!

By the way, has anyone seen these Apple-branded leather cases?  The original owner said it came with the machine when he brought it brand new.  He said it was like a $400 addition.  (Picture below)

 

[uniserver]

nice kit there.  is that a 180 or 180c?  nice bag too.

 

[khannonnd]

It's a 180.  Only issue I have seen with it is some minor tunneling after it has been on for c. an hour or so.

 

[techknight]

Yup, and that will get worse over time. MUCH worse. they just about all do it. Its a problem with the panel seal and eventually the liquid crystal begins to oxidize or something to that effect. This oxidation builds up a charge and causes the crystals to "stick"

 

[aplmak]

Funny as "luggable" and unpopular the Mac Portable was it wasn't affected by these things... maybe they are but I have not seen it... It's crazy how Apple had to cut corners and costs and make some parts of their products very cheap.. and on other areas make good quality and rugged! Even though... as we were talking about with the PB100's Techknight.. it looks like sony did cheap but not badly built! The PB100 almost seems like a "Chinese" knock off version of a Macintosh laptop... lol!

 

[techknight]

I have. I got one LCD that suffers from it, ironically its the one I did the backlight mod on the first time around. 

 

[techknight]

Funny as "luggable" and unpopular the Mac Portable was it wasn't affected by these things... maybe they are but I have not seen it... It's crazy how Apple had to cut corners and costs and make some parts of their products very cheap.. and on other areas make good quality and rugged! Even though... as we were talking about with the PB100's Techknight.. it looks like sony did cheap but not badly built! The PB100 almost seems like a "Chinese" knock off version of a Macintosh laptop... lol!

But.. the PB100 had a complete redesign of the power supply circuitry, which is an order of magnitude ahead of the original Portable. 

 

[khannonnd]

Yup, and that will get worse over time. MUCH worse. they just about all do it. Its a problem with the panel seal and eventually the liquid crystal begins to oxidize or something to that effect. This oxidation builds up a charge and causes the crystals to "stick"

I was reading one of the threads about the tunneling (the one where people were baking the LCD screens, who would've thought)!  That was from a  couple of years ago.  Was there ever any conclusion reached on how to fix it?