PB 160

[equill]

tomlee59

I had heard from an acquaintance (an American-born immigrant) that California is a State of Mind rather than a State of the Union. If we are therefore to indulge in retrospective neologism I have to favour your alternative: first conjugation. The 'a'-based stem appeals to me, especially in such parts as the imperatives nerda and nerdate, and the lesser likelihood of a changed stem in the perfect tenses. Just imagine the likes of nitti = I have been/I was a nerd, as opposed to nerdavi.

That said, I hesitate to propose that in effect it is really a hitherto unrecognized deponent verb, passive in form but active in meaning, but there ... I did. Nolle dumtaxat nerdari miles sed etiam liberatores.

de

 

[mongo_the_catcarouser]

First-time post:

I'd like to bring my 165c back to life. There's no response at all. No chime, no drive noise. Nuttin'.

I have a new rechargeable battery on the way, but it COULD be the transformer brick, I suppose.

Could it also be the internal lithium battery, or will it recharge when I get the power flowing?

Any suggestions on due diligence tests before I start cracking the case would be appreciated!

 

[beachycove]

Try booting it with no main battery inside. A dead main battery will (sometimes? always?) prevent booting. The dead coin-cell backup battery would not normally prevent booting, but might cause other anomalies once you get it running. As equill says in the posts above, however, they will often revive with some TLC.

Opening a PB1xx up is not difficult; these models are easy to work on. Just be careful at the beginning when separating the top from the bottom, as there is a delicate cable that connects the two halves which requires disconnecting right at the beginning. You do not want to tear it.

When apart, check to see that processor and ram card (if installed) are a) present and B) properly seated. It is a good idea to disconnect and then reconnect all plugs, which sometimes has the effect of renewing old and tired connections. Also check to see that the internal power connector does not require re-soldering.

If these simple strategems (which should not take you more than 15-20 mins.) do not lead to success, then the next step would undoubtedly be to verify that your power adapter is providing current to the machine.

 

[mongo_the_catcarouser]

Thanks, Beachy!

I'll give it a shot this weekend when I'm back in the office and let you know the results.

 

[equill]

MTCC

These forums are stuffed full, pressed down and running over with references to resuscitation/resurrection of PB 1nn models (even including the PB 100 proper, which is more like The Luggable than it is like the rest of the series).

We can advise you from a distance, but only you—on the spot in more ways than one—can open, clean, break and remake connections, check the presence and function of components, and then systematically work your way to success. The 165c/FSTN (and the 180c/TFT) use a 10MB (max.) 'cousin card' atop the daughter card (with the 68030 processor on it) for memory expansion. Without a CC you will be limited to 4MB of RAM out of the ceiling 14MB.

Opening the PB is easy enough, as beachycove wrote, but you don't need to do it more often than necessary. So, while you have the two halves apart, look also at the inverter board's connections and the flexible PC board that does duty as a video data cable through the right display hinge, and make sure that it has not been torn.

de

 

[mongo_the_catcarouser]

Good news, the replacement battery worked like a charm in the 165c. The old PBs are so much tougher than the current aluminum/metal crop -- something I know from recent sad experience.

Thanks to all for the advice. Isn't it amazing that an entire computer could run on 12MB of RAM?

Now, does anyone have a decent self-contained "guestbook" app that'll run on this old school PB?

 

[LCGuy]

Good to hear you got it going again. As for a "guestbook" app...could you maybe knock something up in HyperCard? I can't see it being too difficult...

And an entire computer running on 12MB of RAM is not amazing...these things were designed to run with only 4!