PowerBook 165

[jwse30]

I just bought a Powerbook 165 on eBay for $11 (+16 for shipping :b&w: ) The seller stated that it wouldn't boot because of a bad hard drive. I took a gamble and it looks like it may have paid off. I was able to boot the machine using a 200M SyQuest drive and a copy of 7.5.3. It has 8M of RAM and a 160M hard drive and a screen that is so-so. The floppy drive works, and it even has the little port cover. When I bid on it, I figured if it didn't work I could get at least a few bucks for the AC adapter.

I "erased" the hard drive (Mt Everything said it has 27M used, so I'm assuming I didn't erase much more than a System) and am currently installing a fresh copy of 7.5.3 on it via the SyQuest drive. If this doesn't work, I'll chase down a copy of Disk First Aid or something similar and see what it says.

This is the oldest Powerbook I've ever owned (I owned a few 190's before, two colors, one greyscale), and so far I think it's pretty neat. I was happy it's got a bit of RAM in it, since it looks like RAM is hard to find for these old 'books. If I can get it to work decently, it'll compliment my SE/30 nicely I think. I've got to find a serial cable so I can network them together eventually :beige:

J White

 

[uniserver]

I have a 140 here if you want it. THe screen contrast is dim.

and no hard drive , but i have a nifty 6.0.8 boot disk for it that works nicely.

it's yours if you want it.

 

[NJRoadfan]

With 8MB, it might be best to stay with the factory install of System 7.1 + System Enabler 131. Its uses a bit less of RAM compared to 7.5.x. Your screen likely has the dreaded "floating" contrast issue. Its worse when using 16 grays mode as opposed to 1-bit B&W.

It shows up in a video I did of the machine:

 

[bibilit]

Congrats.

was able to boot the machine using a 200M SyQuest drive

Never been lucky with SyQuest drives, i have been given two of those, the first one was DOA and the second one didn't worked more than a couple of days.