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croissantking
My PowerBook 165 keeps on finding new ways to piss me off. Now, it cold boots without sound or trackball/keyboard input. After doing a hard shutdown, and powering on again, it works normally. What in the hell… I’ve already replaced so many parts in this machine.
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croissantking
croissantking
Yes @Snial I’m pretty determined to get it fully working.
My 180 is better behaved.
Both are maxed out with rebuilt batteries.
I like having one of each type of greyscale screen (passive and active) with their relative pros and cons.
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Snial
Snial
The PB1xx series were special, because they revolutionised laptops. I had a PB100 (which I loved) until it got stolen when I accidentally left it in the foyer of the Kilburn building at Man Uni in 1998. I borrowed a PB150 for a couple of weeks a bit later (clunky, but cheap & had IDE drives).
RetroTechTom
RetroTechTom
My 165 likes to reboot randomly when it feels like it
jmacz
Uhh.... LCD from a dead powerbook duo 280c which I scraped the polarization film off of (it was trashed). Finished recapping it and was testing it to see if I could see anything using a circular polarizer lens... but got this:

IMG_9706.JPG
Powerbase
I am pleased to inform everyone, I have bought a M4 Mini. I have joined the current generation.
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LaPorta
LaPorta
Still not there yet! My newest is the 2020 iMac.
Powerbase
Powerbase
The last "actual" Mac i had was a 2012 Macbook Pro I used for a good while, good machine.
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Snial
Snial
You've been more frugal than me. My list is:
  1. 2006 MacBook Core Duo in 2010, died in Jan 2014.
  2. 2012 Mac mini Core 2 Duo in 2014 - still works!
  3. 13" MBP 2018 in August 2018, sold on eBay in 2022.
  4. MacBook M2 in Spring 2022.
croissantking
IMG_3167.jpeg
Good progress today fixing a 24X
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croissantking
croissantking
I found that one or more of the buffer chips was bad, but replaced them with wrong parts (too fast; overdriving inputs on other chips). Card worked for a while, but would crash upon resolution or bit depth change and sometimes displayed graphical corruption. After a while, the VCLK signal became unstable and I would lose sync, and now won't sync at all. Looking at VCLK output it wildly fluctuates between 0 and 8MHz.
finkmac
finkmac
how'd you identify that the buffers were bad?
croissantking
croissantking
@finkmac I just sort of guessed they might be given where they sit (between the Nubus interface and one of the ASICs) and it was easy to swap them.
3lectr1cPPC
New website update with the updated Macintosh Portal is out now! I also put up some new PowerBook Duo-related cap reference, and some more PowerBook developer notes and other stuff.

Home - MacDat

Hardware reference information on vintage macs, PC laptops, capacitor reference, and more!
www.macdat.net www.macdat.net
M
Spaghetti time
1741986927577.png
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M
max1zzz
I don't know but tbh I expect most people will never use the connector and just connect a BlueSCSI or a fast spinner internally :) I may make a version with the correct 50pin external connector if I decide I can be bothered to make a footprint for it. But either way I am just going to throw the design on GitHub so anyone will be free to modify the board to fit their needs :)
M
max1zzz
(The second comment most people made after saying the DB25 was better was "And a internal SCSI connector would be good too" And that was before I had told anyone that was already my plan :) )
T
Trekintosh
Just use autorouter, your computer definitely will not regret trying to autorouter 3000 traces
demik
final_PCB.jpeg
CircuitBored
Quads always be Quaddin'

IMG_2350.jpeg
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CircuitBored
CircuitBored
@Byrd any tips for removing the sulfate(?) or is this a "get a new block" situation? I know copper sulfate is water soluble so I was considering boiling the block in water
CircuitBored
CircuitBored
FWIW I am no chemist so the above may be a horrible idea
Byrd
Byrd
More gentle method would be using citric acid, immerse for several hours, however be ready it’ll probably look worse once corrosion is dissolved (especially around the barbs)
finkmac
1741562765394.png

certified powerbook duo moment. all those big caps were leaking their guts all over the board. clearly someone turned it on without recapping...
jmacz
jmacz
Ouch! At least there's a bit of the pads left. Hope it didn't eat any of the traces.
J
joshc
Hopefully it cleans up alright
A
aladds
Thankfully a lot of those capacitors are in parallel with each other, so there are options for connecting to different pads, or just using bigger capacitors
3lectr1cPPC
And here's a much-needed new Macintosh Portal homepage! I really like how this one turned out.
1740968374663.png
3lectr1cPPC
I've been cooking up a new fancier homepage for MacDat... what do y'all think?
1740773291753.png
Not fully finalized, but close. The rest of the site's styling is staying the same.
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jmacz
jmacz
I've always appreciated the fact that it captures the feel of the 90s and is straightforward with easily accessible info. 3 clicks and I have what I need. Thanks for making this available!
3lectr1cPPC
3lectr1cPPC
I'm glad it's been helpful for you! I'm going to be working on some much-needed improvements to the Macintosh Portal next.
Byrd
Byrd
Looks classy, nice work
T
Any modern devices to take advantage of Geoport serial ports on early PPC macs? Network bridges and the like? A quick google isn't really giving me much to go on.
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C
cheesestraws
modern stuff, I feel obliged to plug AirTalk...
A
aladds
Wasn’t the apple cord a requirement of GeoPort devices, at least to begin with?
Mk.558
Mk.558
That's neat. I'll mention it in CMN 4.0. Problem is, aren't those rare? And who could even afford 128kbps ISDN? Not many people that's for sure, you needed 2 lines too.
jmacz
Kid telling me not to ask him to clean his desk when mine looks like this...

IMG_9517.JPG

Testing a repaired PowerKey along with in the middle of recapping/repairing a Duo 280c and a mini dock.
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HardwareHacker
HardwareHacker
You gotta be "kid"ding me...
To be fair, that doesn't look messy. That's organized chaos right there.
How'd the testing go?
jmacz
jmacz
PowerKey works.. there were a couple cracked solder joints and like others, the wires needed to be reseated for two of the four outlets.

Regarding the Duo, about to start a thread on it. It's working, but still working on the keyboard and the battery.
finkmac
finkmac
I HATE DUO KEYBOARDS!!!!!!!!!! but the duos are addicting :cry:
slomacuser
The very first package of Adobe Photoshop. #Photoshop anniversary

BD3CB970-48E3-4275-A8F9-64342ADE9BDF.jpeg
croissantking
I disassembled my QuickTake 100 all the way, it has a tonne of electrolytic caps which I didn’t know about. Some are very well hidden. Anyone interested in a write-up?

IMG_2830.jpeg
ArmorAlley
Actually, I have discovered scans I made of the box & manual at 300 dpi that I can send you now. Send me your e-mail address and I'll send the box & manual in jpgs. There's about 15MBs+ of files.
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