Powerbook 180 help

[Livingroom]

Howdy folks. my wife bought me a powerbook 180 and stylewriter (with unopened ink!!!) on ebay for christmas. i was so looking forward to playing simcity on it - in monochrome! the seller said everything worked tip top, including the floppy drive. and indeed, it worked fantastically well until i put a floppy disk in the drive whereupon everything shut off and now it refuses to turn back on. 

i know these 100 series powerbooks need recapping, but why would it go from 100 to 0 so fast? i ordered a cheap power supply replacement that will be here thursday, just in case. can anyone suggest what might be the cause of this blackout? i read someplace that the D15 Zener diode can cause this on the logic board. it's been 20 years since my ham radio and soldering days - i was nevery particularly good at it, that was my Dad's thing and he's had a stroke now so i can't ask him to help with a recap. are there any services/companies/people who are good at it that can fix me up? 

Thank you!

 

[bibilit]

PSUs are prone to failure for sure, maybe using a multimeter you can have figured out if voltages are present (7.5 V)

If not, except for the Powerbook 100,  logic boards are not due for capacitor issues, so probably not your issue here.

 

[Livingroom]

PSUs are prone to failure for sure, maybe using a multimeter you can have figured out if voltages are present (7.5 V)

If not, except for the Powerbook 100,  logic boards are not due for capacitor issues, so probably not your issue here.

I have a multimeter but have no idea how to use it

 

[bibilit]

Easy, using the two probes, and selecting 20 volt dc, connect the red probe in the psu barrel, while touching the outer part of the same item with the black probe. 

You should read 7,5 volts or close when the psu is plugged. 

 

[demik]

Probably the PSU. The floppy drive consume a lot of current when seeking. I've got a bad PSU around here that shutdown when I'm using the floppy drive. On another PSU, it's fine.

Good luck with the multimeter  

 

[register]

Please consider to check both the male and female connectors as well as the cable for faulty contacts. I found the power connector on the motherboard  and also the male 7.5V plug to be a permanent source of malfunction until reworked.