Portable!

[stevep]

I just returned home with a Mac Portable! A fellow who gave me some stuff via Freecycle some months ago remembered me and dropped an email my way offering it!

It is an M5120 with the numeric keypad instead of trackball. Has the ac adapter but the lead acid battery is not present, so I believe I need to make a small mod to get it to run just on the adapter. Can anyone confirm this?

Looks as if there is a modem card and a couple of other cards there too.

In great shape too, no cracks or chips.

 

[John8520]

Ooh, other cards than the modem! Take lots of pictures!

 

[retrogmr]

It is an M5120 with the numeric keypad instead of trackball. Has the ac adapter but the lead acid battery is not present, so I believe I need to make a small mod to get it to run just on the adapter. Can anyone confirm this?

Get a Powerbook 100 series (100, 140, 170, etc.) AC adapter; it has enough juice to run the Portable without the battery.

 

[stevep]

It is an M5120 with the numeric keypad instead of trackball. Has the ac adapter but the lead acid battery is not present, so I believe I need to make a small mod to get it to run just on the adapter. Can anyone confirm this?

Get a Powerbook 100 series (100, 140, 170, etc.) AC adapter; it has enough juice to run the Portable without the battery.

So the adapter that is original won't do it? Does the mod to the switch have to be done (mentioned on Low End Mac)? I have one here someplace for a PB100 - now the hunt begins!

 

[stevep]

Photos, before someone says "photos or it didn't happen"




http://www.flickr.com/photos/16539524@N00/3050658553/

 

[retrogmr]

So the adapter that is original won't do it? Does the mod to the switch have to be done (mentioned on Low End Mac)? I have one here someplace for a PB100 - now the hunt begins!

I didn't have to do anything special with mine; I think as long as you have the battery cover on you're all good.. make sure you replace the 9 volt PRAM battery while you're in there.

 

[Sludgedragon]

That looks like it's cosmetically in lovely shape! :b&w:

 

[Brooklyn]

nice!

 

[Christopher]

That is in way too good of shape to real!

 

[MacMan]

A 100 series adaptor provides more current than the Portable's adaptor and is often enough to get it going. The best adaptor to use is that for the 165c and 180c (M5652) as it provides more current than earlier adaptors. If the Portable won't start then try holding down the programmer's switch and restart button (on the left hand side) for 10 seconds then press a key on the keyboard. You may need to repeat this several times.

Alternatively try to find another 6V lead acid battery and wire it to the battery contacts. There are batteries available new that are practically the same as the Portable's original battery, but unfortunately I don't know any part numbers etc.

Another alternative is to use a 6V DC generic power supply wired directly to the battery contacts inside the portable. If playing around with wires on the contacts take care of the polarity (looking from the front of the machine the left contact is positive and the right negative). The positive contact also has an insulating square of plastic around it (though Portables made your side of the Atlantic may be different).

 

[stevep]

Thanks for all the help guys! I got it to power up using the PB 100 adapter.

40 MB HDD, 4 MB RAM, running System 6.0.7. It has Word 4.0, Excel 4.0 and MacDraw Pro installed.

Only issue I see is that with the battery cover installed, it won't boot up fully - it almost gets there and restarts. This must be the reason for disabling that switch as mentioned on Low End Mac.

With those extra cards installed I thought the RAM may have been higher; I will have to pull them and see what they are.

I am most happy to find that it actually works though!

 

[retrogmr]

Without the finding one of the somewhat exotic 8MB cards floating around (don't remember who made them), you've got a maxed out Portable. Nice score!

 

[stevep]

Without the finding one of the somewhat exotic 8MB cards floating around (don't remember who made them), you've got a maxed out Portable. Nice score!

Yes, the 4 MB sounds right - 1 MB on the board, and one card checks out as a 3 MB ram card. The other card, plugged into the PDS slot is a LXPi card from PSI. Searching on-line reveals it to be a card to "break Apples 4 MB barrier" and can raise the Portable to max 8 MB RAM. This Portable does not recognize it. Does System 6 have a maximum RAM amount? This PSI card also has 3 small switches on it; maybe these are not set correctly. Would this be the "somewhat exotic" 8 MB card you mention?

 

[retrogmr]

Check out this auction:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Macintosh-Portable-5120-(Non-Backlit)-PDS-2mb-RAM-Card_W0QQitemZ260313018127QQcmdZViewItemQQimsxZ20081109?IMSfp=TL081109104010r20966

I think these cards "stacked", so it's possible you just have a lower capacity model. System 6 can definitely handle up to 8 megs (my current Backlit Portable has 9MB and is running 6.0.8 ).