PowerBook 180 Clock

[KC13]

Just got one of these at a thrift shop for $9.00 CAD [] ]'> and it boots fine with only one dead pixel on the screen. The main battery is stone dead, and I presume the PRAM battery is as well, because the time displayed in the title bar changes randomly.

Does anyone have a link to the service manual? Jeepers, I wish Apple would allow sites to link these!!! Way to annoying to keep tracking them down as sites appear then disappear. [xx(] ]'>

EDIT: Ooops, wrong PB forum, sorry. Hope a moderator can move it!

 

[register]

The PRAM Battery is a 3 V Lithium button cell soldered onto a small daughter board beneath the speaker and microphone. Be sure to use proper ESD protection when pointing a soldering iron towards the board! Also be careful when using a multimeter. Several circuits of the 180 do not like high test voltages; use a multimeter that is appropriate for use with old CMOS electronics. Some tell the 180 is built solid as a tank. This is true for the housing, but I already ruined one motherboard just by measuring a line and one daughterboard by fixing a connection.

 

[KC13]

Thanks

 

[equill]

The Service Source Manual, which is geared to Apple's pluck-'n'-chuck methodology for AASP's use, will tell you little about circuitry or operation of the PB, although it does contain the functional specifications. You will learn more by opening and eyeballing the innards, given that you have the requisite Torx-10 and -8 drivers, and take the precaution of keeping yourself grounded continually as you explore. The case-securing screws are accessible from underneath (T10) and in the rear panel (T8). You need to crack the case (the system battery should already be out) at the rear seam, and to disengage the ribbon cable that connects the video signals from daughter card to the top case and display before parting the halves completely. You will have to get one finger, at least, inside the case through a narrow opening and around the metal ports and shaped plastic. The case halves must also be winkled carefully apart at the front. It is a painful process until you master it.

There is an MLB below a daughter-card with CPU, and perhaps above that a RAM-expansion card of 2-10MB. A base 4MB of RAM is soldered-in. An inverter board and interconnect board (mic., speaker and backup battery, and perhaps also an attached modem board) feed the display HT and video flexboard up to the display through its hinges. If you do nothing but look, remove dust, reseat the daughter card and RAM card and FDD and HDD flexboards, and look for and deal with corrosion on the MLB that may have come from a prior battery leakage, you will know that the connections are good.

The backup battery on the interconnect board is rugged, as well as being soldered-in. One of my 160s had not been in use for about a dozen years, but the backup batt. revived, and is still happy four years later. The catch is that BBs do not begin to recharge (they are only 30-50mAh capacity, compared with the system battery's 1000-odd mAh) before the NiCd system battery reaches near-full terminal voltage, not full charge, or about 7V. If you trawl these forums using 'backup battery' you will get more info. As long as the system battery is not too shot (say, 6.3V and up), the backup can recover in another 24hr or so with the PB on the AC adapter.

de

 

[thinkdifferent]

Just got one of these at a thrift shop for $9.00 CAD [] ]'> and it boots fine with only one dead pixel on the screen. The main battery is stone dead, and I presume the PRAM battery is as well, because the time displayed in the title bar changes randomly.
Does anyone have a link to the service manual? Jeepers, I wish Apple would allow sites to link these!!! Way to annoying to keep tracking them down as sites appear then disappear. [xx(] ]'>

EDIT: Ooops, wrong PB forum, sorry. Hope a moderator can move it!

That happens to my PB 180 too! >

Ur lucky u got that for such a low price! They go for up to $500 on eBay, thoguh I would never seel mine :beige:

 

[beachycove]

They go for up to $500 on eBay, thoguh I would never seel mine :beige:

That they are (presently) advertised at $500 by some moron on eBay does not mean that they go for that price. A Lisa, maybe, or a TAM, but not a PB180. $50 would be about the upper limit.

 

[thinkdifferent]

They go for up to $500 on eBay, thoguh I would never seel mine :beige:

That they are (presently) advertised at $500 by some moron on eBay does not mean that they go for that price. A Lisa, maybe, or a TAM, but not a PB180. $50 would be about the upper limit.

Here are Powerbook 180's from several different eBay sellers:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-Powerbook-180_W0QQitemZ200255288869QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item200255288869&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1240|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nostalgia-Macintosh-PowerBook-180-Model-M4440-Works_W0QQitemZ400010173211QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_2?_trksid=p3286.m20.l1116

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Apple-Macintosh-Powerbook-180-Boots-Works_W0QQitemZ200255288828QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item200255288828&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1240|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

http://cgi.ebay.com/APPLE-MACINTOSH-POWERBOOK-180_W0QQitemZ370136031831QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item370136031831&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1240|66%3A2|65%3A12|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

They are priced at $120, $49, $270, and $424