The 5300c lives!

[TheMacGuy]

Tonight, I decided to try and troubleshoot what was wrong with the 5300c I got as a lot with the working 165 for $30. So, I plugged it in, and, low and behold, "BOOONNNGGgg!" I opened the display, and after a few seconds, what do you know, I get the one and only . So I tried to look up the specs of the machine, but the original owners wiped the HDD completely, only leaving Word 6.0.1 and the System folder. Standard apps like Calculator and System Profiler were gone. So I disassembled the 5300c and the 5300cs (cs has everything from the pervious owner) and put the cs HDD into the c. I copied Calculator, System Profiler, and other standard apps from the HDD to floppies, then swapped the HDD back, because the cs HDD felt sluggish. The cs does have a bigger disk (1.1GB vs. 750MB), but a lot more files. Because I have never gotten the trackpad on the 5300cs to work, I moved the extra 32MB RAM expansion card and the working battery to the 5300c. Also, the 5300c has a better screen, and is in better cosmetic condition.

Overall, the 5300c is in insanely great condition, looks like it was never used besides the finger oil on the keyboard. But the I/O door is still intact!

Here are the 5300c specs:

PPC 603e clocked at 100MHz

16MB of RAM on the logic board, 32MB expansion, total 48MB

750MB IBM hard disk drive

System 7.6, Finder 7.5.6

 

[Byrd]

That's great, not sure why but I quite like the 5300c, they feel rugged and the active LCD is nice. You can speed it up a heap by putting in a < 10GB IDE HD (saying less than 10GB as it doesn't like newer drives which conform to a later, faster ATA standard).

 

[theos911]

How does the cs screen compare the c screen in terms of image quality?

 

[TheMacGuy]

I don't think I'm going to upgrade it. Besides the RAM and battery from the cs, it's barebones stock. One thing I noticed was the fact that the RAM soldered to the logic board was factory upgraded, not the normal 8MB but instead 16MB.

As for the displays, there is a huge difference. The c screen seems clearer, brighter and more vivid, where as the cs screen is a little more blurry, darker contrast, and will darken out the image. It's almost like when Apple introduced the Retina display.

 

[TylerEss]

When you ordered a color 5300, you got to choose 8 or 16MB RAM. Neither came with a memory module installed, so if you picked 16MB you got 16MB soldered. The 117MHz 5300 always came with 16MB, and the greyscale one always came with 8MB.

Nowdays, I can't imagine a company taking the extra supply-chain costs of stocking two different motherboards when the only difference is the soldered RAM.

 

[TheMacGuy]

Neither came with a memory module installed, so if you picked 16MB you got 16MB soldered. The 117MHz 5300 always came with 16MB, and the greyscale one always came with 8MB.

I prefer the soldered and module slot.

 

[pistooli]

I have a 5300cs and a 3400c, and the active display on the 3400 is by far superior. both of the machines are cool, though.

congrats on your working 5300c!

speaking about speeding it up, I replaced the HD with a CF card in my 5300. it is not only silent but also "blazing fast", if I might use this word...

 

[TheMacGuy]

I try to keep my machines stock depending on what they came with. The only exceptions are the Cube (because finding the original RAM and HDD would be tuff, if it worked) and the eMac, because the previous owner upgraded it, same thing goes for it. So those I would like to max out, but the PBs, eMate and 512kE are staying original.

 

[DocFinance]

As for 5300c vs. cs vs. ce, the cs screen is basically the same as the 1400 passive screen, maybe a little dimmer when new. The ce has a better backlight, but I always thought the c was crisper or sharper.

 

[techknight]

I think the movie independence day gave those machines thier fame?

I remember watching that movie and seeing the mini-CDROM drive. I wanna make one of those one day... itll be fun.

the IDE pinout is in the developer notes for that machine. Just need to take an off-the-shelf CD drive and modify it and move the spindle assembly around to fit micro-CDs in that bay.

 

[bibilit]

I think the movie independence day gave those machines their fame

A couple of days ago, i watched "The Saint" on TV (the 1997 movie with Val Kilmer) as i remembered the powerbook 5300 used by Simon Templar.

In independence day the PWB was labeled Powerbook XXX if i remember clearly.