Powerbook 5300 Revival Back From Dead Sorta Kinda...

[macuserman]

Well I'd just about given up on this 5300 I have been so frustrated with it, these aren't expensive machines so I haven't wanted to invest much into it, but man I have tried a lot of tricks. Anyhow I bought this parts lot of 5300 parts for $1 hoping the power board in the machine would fix mine. It didn't and the motherboard was rough looking had the DC jack torn off. So on a whim I removed the jack from my complete machine and put it onto the parts bin board and boom we have startup chime all is wonderful, and the ugh that horrible screen which changes if I apply pressure to the bezel on the left hand side, but I can barely make out that flashing floppy icon. Now the question is what to do with this mess, fix the screen? Sell this mess for parts? ugh, so close but so far.

 

[macuserman]

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

I'm no expert, so I could be wrong, but that looks like a loose ribbon cable to me. It could be a connection issue on a ribbon cable inside the display itself, but from the symptoms I would guess that the connection issue is with the main cable that goes to the motherboard. I would try to take the display housing apart and see if anything looks amiss. It looks like you've got a mostly working PowerBook there, so there definitely is hope.

 

[macuserman]

I'm no expert, so I could be wrong, but that looks like a loose ribbon cable to me. It could be a connection issue on a ribbon cable inside the display itself, but from the symptoms I would guess that the connection issue is with the main cable that goes to the motherboard. I would try to take the display housing apart and see if anything looks amiss. It looks like you've got a mostly working PowerBook there, so there definitely is hope.

Hmm I guess it won't hurt to have a look. I'll dig in this parts box and see if there is an extra ribbon I can try as well.

 

[Byrd]

Yep I'd keep going to attempt to fix the LCD, you've not much to lose. You might find you need to clamp the ribbon connector somewhere for reliable contact. The mottled polarizing film can be replaced with a new piece (look into film available from an LCD TV) - looks like the 'Book wasn't stored well causing the damage.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

It's also worth checking the serial sticker on the bottom case. You said you have a bunch of parts, so I don't know if your spare motherboard that ended up working came with a matching bottom case or not, but if you check that sticker and see the letters "AA" printed on the bottom right of it, that tells you that your PB was serviced through Apple's repair program for these. The 5300s were so unreliable that pretty much every surviving unit that works has that little tag on the sticker. They did a really good job with repairs it seems, because they ended up replacing screens, plastics, motherboards, and more. Most of the machines seemingly got serviced because plenty are still around today. I wonder if your original unit with the dead board wasn't serviced? That would certainly explain a lot of your problems. My 5300ce went through the program at some point and hey, it still works.

 

[macuserman]

 

[macuserman]

Well it's back together anyways, the screen doesn't actually have anything on it it was just dirty I don't think the polarizing film has an issue. I did boot it off an external drive the internal one was dead and the one I found to put in also seems to be dead My drive had 9.1 on it so it was slooooooow. But everything does seem to work, trackpad, clicker etc. The entire screen changes when I squeeze the left side of the bezel, I took the screen apart and double checked all the connections everything seems fine. Not really sure, I hate to buy a screen though, there was someone looking for 5300 parts maybe I'll offer it to him if I've reached the end of the road here.

 

[macuserman]

Oh also my serial number did not have any AA at the end, but the reason this original board died was clearly due to battery explosion, it was corroded very very badly on the power board. So this is now a swap of both the powerboard and the motherboard out of my parts box as well as the trackpad just because it was minty clean. Oh and swapping the DC jack from the original board. I very mix matched deal, also the right side bottom screen screw is gone due to broken plastic so you have to squeeze the screen tightly when you adjust the display angle to avoid ripping the hinge out of it. So basically it's perfect now.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

Beautiful! If you’re trying to get a new display you should probably try to find a 5300c or ce display. I know the 5300c screen will work, not sure about the ce since the ce board has a faster processor. The quality is great though, definitely worth getting this one nice again. It’s a shame the original screen seems to be dead.

 

[System6+Vista]

Wow my 5300cs just died one day (as in no more signs of life when pressing on). Never investigated. This inspires me to take a look under the hood. Ha it started up sooooooo slowly I think to 8.6? I never gave it a fresh OS install so every time it was opening Eudora and tryna fetch from the mail server, etc.... I bought it initially cuz I could get a vintage Mac, color screen, for $30!? I only liked 68ks previously, but I really like the form factor & case design, I use vintage Macs mostly only for typing lyrics, it was excellent for that. I wish to one day bring it back to life.

 

[3lectr1cPPC]

It’s probably either the power supply or the internal power board, both are starting to need to be recapped at this point.