I'm going to guess, that it's because retro bright is actually bleaching the plastic. I've heard reports that retro bright can cause plastic to become brittle and deteriorate much faster. That's usually the reason I hear when people state that they don't like it.
@@akaJughead That's not true. The additives that yellow were originally to improve the plastics flexibility/durability. The same chemical process that causes it to yellow, also causes it to be more brittle. So if you're working with a heavily yellowed part, it's already extremely brittle; and if you're disassembling/reassembling something for the first time in 30 years, you're gonna put more stress on the plastic. If you wanna read more, Hackaday posted an article in January with a polymer engineer who explained it.
^^ What he said. The most yellowed (or oranged) plastics I deal with are almost always cracked, or do so while working with them. The faceplates on 3.5" floppy drives are terrible about this. The little clips that snap into the housing don't bend anymore, they just snap right off. I've had to glue _so many_ of those back on, or remanufacture them with acetone and donor plastic... The retro-brighting, though, is really helpful. They may still be fragile afterwards, but they at least look nice. It isn't actually "bleaching" anything -- at least, not at first. You can tell because yellowed parts start un-yellowing, while parts that aren't yellowed just stay the same color. I use plastic bins filled with grocery store peroxide, on top of my laundry with a couple of 30W UV LED panels suspended from a DJ lighting rig stand. That way I can use it 24/7, without regard to weather. It's not failure-proof, and I have had some problems, mostly I think from my own negligence. You have to keep the parts submerged, otherwise they just bake in UV. This is tricky, because plastic tends to float, especially once the bubbles start forming. Also, if they aren't whitened enough after a few days, you just have to accept it for what it is. I've RB'd stuff for over a week and the results aren't good. That's when it starts to bleach, but not evenly. I've got some case bezels that went through that. They don't look very nice, but they didn't look very nice to start with. It's just a _different_ "not nice" now. If I want them back in OG condition, all I have to do is paint them -- which would've been the cure anyway. So, IMO, why not give it a shot? I have so much stuff that took to the RB process very nicely. I just finished a PS/1 model 2133 -- front bezel and drives. It made a world of difference in the perceived condition.
@@akaJughead That’s incorrect. Over time, UV light causes a fire retardant chemical to leach to the surface of the plastic causing the yellowing. The UV light also causes the plastic to become brittle. The retrobrite technique uses an oxidiser to draw this upper layer of the yellowing out of the plastic. It’s a process that should be monitored carefully depending on the strength of the oxidiser, usually Hydrogen Peroxide. Opinions vary but low strength (3% - 6%) over a longer time is considered a safer approach over the more aggressive 12% - 15% strength. The degree of yellowing is also a factor, slight discolouration is less likely to make the plastics brittle over heavy discolouration. Also, the use of a cream or paste over a liquid oxidiser can vary and whether the piece to be retrobrited is left unwrapped, Saran-wrapped or sealed in a Zip-Loc bag. As with all chemical processes, it’s best to try it on a small area first to ascertain the results before moving to the whole part. And it might be an idea to purchase a UV lamp or LED strip to control the retrobriting process rather than rely on the Sun.
I literally just acquired a PowerBook 145 myself! Battery is missing but there's no damage from any leaks. The only issues are a dead hard drive and flakey brightness in the screen. Pity they're SCSI so I can't simply swap it out. Great video
The article at 16:00 is just so 90s computing it brings back a lot of memories. The font, the colors, everything. It's like I'm back in 1993 drooling over upgrades for the computer I just got.
Don't know why, but your videos always get me in chill mode. I love the way you explain everything and the scenes you prepare. Thank you for such hard work!
The worst problem these days with the passive matrix screens is that the capacitors in the LCD panel fail and cause the ghosting issues and overall bad quality. If you replace those, these screens come back alive once again usually. The 145 wasn't a bad machine, it was leaps better than the 150 was in terms of a budget, lower end Powerbook!
Pleasure to watch how snappy you restoring these vintage tech, very impressive! Also background history and retrospectives on the units/models you're working on, making it the most interesting. Thank you!
@@daemonspudguy The 190 and it's PPC cousin the 5300 had lots of fit and finish issues... paint that flakes off and weaker that normal screen hinges. The IDE hard drives feel a lot slower than the SCSI drives included in other Macs of the era. A 190 is basically a not-so-great replacement for the 500 series Powerbook.
@@ThisDoesNotCompute.. good call wearing gloves at 2:26 Colin...... would have been okey to mention.. that the cadmium on the Ni-Cd (nikel cadmium) batteries.. (that little white powder) has been documented as carcinogenic..... especially when inhaling it.... yes.. yes.. with repeated exposures.. yes.. but never the less.....
What a piece of garbage that machine was. It bought one to replace the 145 and it died almost immediately and try and they might they never managed to fix it and offered me a refund which I spent promptly on the PowerBook 1400 which was rock solid and introduced hot-swap modules.
Great stuff as usual, Colin. I love how many of your videos remind all of us in the retro community that "there's always something..." in regards to getting a machine back to 100%. This hobby requires effort, which is something we should all take seriously as stewards of these relics to our past.
Proper trip down memory lane. I loved my first PowerBook 145 (bought with summer job money in 1993) and like you, I spent a lot of time cleaning the smut out of the trackball. Wrote my dissertation on it and saved me from having to queue up at the computer centre at University. Tripped over the power brick one evening and shorted out the motherboard but thankfully it was repaired under warranty. Destroyed the original hard drive when the computer (in a case) took a tumble off a chair which the insurance company had to pay out for after much discussion with the loss adjuster. So many a lesson learnt on computer ownership as well as wishing that MagSafe had been invented in the 90's! I've only ever bought MacBooks since then...
I had an acer laptop about 10 years ago and the housing around the screen hinges started to crack, when i closed the display, you could see inside the display housing, i applied plastic glue on the outside, pushing down on the open display while i put the glue on, i let it dry overnight, and that crack never got any worse and the laptop closed and opened again like new, no more squeeking and breaking, plastic glue is awesome, and i also use it now for all kinds of plastic repair, awesome vid man!
Two (1992/3) grand just for "getting the job done"... Love to indulge in computer history, and that's no doubt a nice machine to have, but at the same time, I'm glad and relieved how much more affordable computing is today.
6:00 The standoffs might be intakt by now but the left one of the 2 shown there seems to already have a crack down its side. Maybe it would be a good idea to reinforce it with glue or epoxy?
I had a 180c back in 1994 - beautiful display on it and I also used it as a desktop by connecting a VGA monitor. Looks like these models didn’t have an external display option?
I had a 145B as my first Macintosh laptop. That little machine was a workhorse that got me through the end of undergrad. I remember using it to take notes in class long before using a laptop in class was at all a common thing, and the ability to take it to a coffee shop to work late at night seemed groundbreaking at the time.
My first portable Mac was an ex-Middle school PowerBook 1400cs. I had started out with a Mac SE/4 that was "upgraded via eBay" to an SE/30 equivalent. I had looked at the array of portable Macs, but money was tight, so I chose accordingly. I updated this unit as I could, but the next step was the Internet. Surfing the 'Web required a G3, so it was Mainstreet/Wallstreet time. I settled on a PDQ Wallstreet from Canada, and a 500Mhz Sonnet card made it possible to explore the "Online Wild West." The next major question was, "can I create a custom DVD of interesting TV shows?" That led to a series of adventures with the Titanium PowerBooks, solved by finding a Core2Duo Intel MacBook Pro. That old unit still (sorta) works, with dead keys, subwoofer, and the Mac OSX 5 ceiling. A Bluetooth keyboard and headphones get around the dead keys and subwoofer, for now. An Intel i7 MacBook Pro has the "three beeps at startup" problem and an ifixitit session looms. Oh well, Ye Olde Lenovo ThinkPad T530 still works, even if Windows 10 doesn't "make my day."
I donated a Toshiba with an external trackball just like that one pictured at 1:06 to Free Geek Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. I half wonder if that's my laptop?
I had a Powerbook 180 machine back then. I remember that I had to buy a specific adapter to get it to work at 75Hz on a regular PC 15" screen, otherwise it would only run at 60Hz, which would really hurt my eyes after a couple of hours. I also remember that every two or three days, I would need to clean the tracking ball. The best solution was to use soap and water to clean the ball and Qtips with a bit of alcool to clean the rolls.
Nice. My ex bought a 145B back in the day and I still have it on my retro shelf. It has such a cool design. It still sort-of runs but I think I need a new power supply.
Are you sure the disc was formatted correctly? I’ve had issues in the past using an OS-X machine to format disks. Can the OS that is on the PowerBook read HFS+ discs? What happens if you format the disk on the PowerBook and then try to copy>
Saving this for later. I have a 145B that I saved from a sad fate in a garbage truck years ago and have never gotten around to working on it. My hinges seem fine, the battery only had a small amount of crud. I don't have the original power brick, but I do have a multi-voltage adapter from RCA that supplies 7.5v. Unfortunately, the PowerBook will not start. Maybe now I have reason again to try to get it running.
The Macintosh Portable can be fully disassembled without any tools. Makes me wonder why this wasn’t the norm moving forward. Solid feeling machine too.
That Titanium G4 is beautiful! Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 is awesome as well. Modern laptops could learn a bit from those screen bezels too. Have you made any videos on that machine?
I know someone who still uses a titanium g4 with a broken battery to this day. He just keeps it plugged into the wall. Surprisingly quick back in the late mid 2000s. I wonder what it would feel like today.
Of note, the various Macintosh software archives (Garden/Repository) have actual restore images to reinstall the actual software that would have come with each machine. They are on a CD image made by Apple, likely used by Apple dealers/refurbishers. Sometimes it's not much different than using the vanilla retail installers, but I like that extra level of authenticity.
I'm going to guess it's probably capacitors. I have brought several PS/2 floppy drives back to life by re-capping them. And a 720K Teac. Most of those just needed new mini radial caps on the motor PCB (underneath the disk). But, I'm fixing a Mitsubishi 1.44MB drive now that had SMD cans on the controller board that leaked everywhere and took out an adjustment pot next to them. Yuck. It's _always_ the caps. And if it isn't, it probably will be.
I had a Compaq 486 in 94. It had a small marble sized trackball off to the right side. Mouse buttons on the side of the laptop It was terrific. I'm using laser trackballs today because of that one computer. Trackpads... so irritating I unplug them when I can. It's worth the occasional cleaning to not have wrist issues after gaming and work. Can be super sharp in games as well.
Another excellent video Colin. I really enjoyed this as I used to own one of these machines myself back in the day. Congratulations on the restore and good luck with repairing the floppy disk drive at some point in the future.
I miss my Powerbook 180 working. Its been sitting on a shelf since the 90s covered in dust. It slid to the front of the school bus during my high school years and crashed the HDD. Then some time later it just stopped accepting power.
Those standoffs for the screen were a problem long before these machines were considered "vintage". Back when this powerbook style was current i replaced a LOT of the rear screen plastics both in warranty and out. I supported a company that 100% mac at the time and had lots of powerbook 180's and 160's i kept at least a dozen of the rear plastic in stock.
Had the PB145 (sans B) as my 2nd Mac. The family computer was the Performa 405 but my brother and I both would need a computer at same time so we went in halfsies on buying it at Sam’s club. The first one came with a dead backlight. Returned it and the replacement had a “sorry” memo from Apple that due to ram chip shortages, they had to install more than what was advertised on box - instead a second 2MB to go with the 2MB on board they put 4MB (6MB total)
Oh hey, you made a video about the 145b, had access to one of those as a kid. It's the main reason I went into IT as an adult. Sure, I had some games for it, but the productivity options with Claris Works and Hypercard couldn't be beat.
this got me thru high school and college from 93 to 99. wrote my honours thesis on it sitting on the floor in my flat with the back stands turned up. was still working till 2015 (!) when finally the screen warped and sort of melted.
I feel like adding the lube will make the hinge smoother but the stress would be the same if the lid is continued to be opened improperly. The lid needs to be lifted from the middle up to equally distribute the stress load. I think this is what caused the hinge to have broken in such a way.
I'm kinda surprised that you didn't run into capacitor issues with the passive matrix screen on this thing since that's one of the most common issues with these things nowadays.
This vaguely reminds me of the Apple laptop my Dad owned back in the '90s. It had a floppy drive at its right side, which I thought was cool cos I thought floppies were a desktop thing, haha. I never saw the thing opened, tho. Dad only used it at work abroad (he'd only use our older IBM PC at home) and always kept it away from my 6 year-old hands' reach.
Question: Are those daughter boards with CPU interchangeable between different computers? They should fit physically, but could the computer be turned on and perform without a glitch? You've already shown us how IBM did it with a ThinkPad T30.
Back in 1994, I couldn't afford one, but was the Toshiba T4900CT w/pentium processor that took my breath away. In the early 2000's I got my revenge and was able to purchase/have in just one year 7 laptops from different brands just for myself.
I don't know if you did this off camera, but a lot of times if the heads aren't moving, the worm gear might just be frozen in the motor (I've seen it a few times on floppy drives). Twisting it carefully but firmly by hand if it doesn't move will free it up. I also would recommend removing all of the old grease before putting the new grease on top of it, because you will end up with the same problem from the old grease anyway.
Thanks for video. My dad had the PB170 when it just came out. It had the superior Active Matrix monochrome LCD compared to the crappy cheaper screens of the other models. It seemed to run just as fast as my two year old (at the time) Mac IIci, except of course the power book was only black and while. Nice little, but expensive machine.
I just love the introductory history to your videos. Just amazing to see that past history. Talking about history, Apple is shaking up the industry with it's M1 silicon chip and it's time we need a modern day version of a revolution as it was starting in July of 1993. In a future video, could you walk us through your 3D printer? I would love to know more about the printer and how you chose it and what you use it for. I was frankly stunned by the fact that you were able to create that hinge part. Thank you, Ravi Peiris M.D.
The reason why the hinge broke only on the left side is because the owner was liting the lid by grabbing the left side of the screen thus causing extra stress on that part. If the lid had been opened from the middle up, both hinges would be intact.
your pretty advanced at this stuff. Remember the Microsoft Surface 3? I just got on fromm ebay with like everything all for 130$ so if any of yall want some there pretty good for the price
I have this exact laptop, and I have the exact same gap in the plastic on the same exact hinge. That specific part of the laptop must be a defect. I'm only 14 but my parents had this laptop out for like 23 years. So ours was like new, and didn't get yellow overtime at all. Surprisingly fast for 4mb ram also. Ours screen has super bad display ghosting and everything sort of fades in and out of view, dont know if thats how it was or if theres a problem with the screen
You’ll need to replace the capacitors on the back of your LCD screen. Fiddly little job but you can order the right parts from somewhere like Mouser - 9x 3.3uF tantalum or ceramic caps, 1x 22uF 35V, 1x 100uF 6.3V or 10V, there’s a good video on TH-cam ‘Powerbook 140 capacitor replacement’ :)
I love how early Apple products - from before they defined the mainstream - used components from all kinds of companies like the Acer keyboard or those AMD chips in your PowerBook 🤣
Awesome refurb job, Colin. I have a similar problem with the screen hinge on my PowerBook 5300cs that needs fixing, looks like I ought to browse thingiverse for a possible solution. Also, I bought a 5300c parts machine with the thought of swapping the passive matrix in the 5300cs for the active matrix from the 5300c. Based on what you said, i better check for the similar tunnel vision before doing the swap.
Awesome video as always but it seems your first layer on those prints is way to high, you need to squish it more. Love the Prusa Mini btw, I'm thinking of getting one
I forgot to pick the right PLA filament preset in PrusaSlicer, so things got a little wonky. I definitely recommend the Prusa Mini, it’s been a great printer!
@@ThisDoesNotCompute those things happen. Thanks for the heads up on the Mini, I like to build my own printers so I will probably wait till the delivery time is not crazy and order one.
Have you tried fans and a dehumidifier to help dry out the screen? Might take a week or so but dry airflow and enough time can probably help those panels.
Did you try inserting the floppy disk with the drive disassembled? Sometimes the issue is a spring wears out and one of the heads stops contacting the disk. If it’s the top head, you can sometimes just weigh it down by taping a coin to the top of it. Otherwise you have to take the spring out and twist it back around the other way to give it more tension.
I would advise to, if possible, to tweak the tension on the hinge of the screen. The plastic where the hinge is screwed to tend to break, because laptop hinges have a self-regulating mechanism, that tries to compensate for the wear after constant opening of the lid. The problem is, sometimes it does too much, making the lid harder to open and the weakest link breaks. After the adjustment, the soft spot should be opening the lid without the base going up. That should be near the factory adjustment.
Aboutt that floppy drive: something similar happened to me a while back with an LC II: cleaning and lubricating the drive did not help, not even changing the motor. In the end, it was the motherboard that needed recapping: after that, everything started to work.
Ah! Really a bit jealous for this one. I was able to get my teenage hands on a 140 in the mid/late 90's. It wasn't the best machine, but it was mine, and I loved it to death. Donated it to a group at my high school that needed to run some older software in the early 2000s, and I'm pretty sure it probably got thrown out the next year. :-\ Oh well. Maybe some day I'll find one and load it up with Think Pascal and Hypercard goodness. :D
3:48 To avoid this you should always close/open the screen from middle of the screen and not in the edges. This will spread the force on both hinge more even.
I've got several old Powerbooks in various states of repair. One of them's got the active matrix monochrome screen with the "black vignette" effect, rendering it unusable. It starts up OK and the picture's superb, but the black starts to creep in from the edges as the screen warms up. I've also got one with a passive matrix monochrome screen that's blank white when it starts up, then slowly gains contrast over a five-minute period. It's annoying but at least it's usable.
Colin, would you consider doing a video explaining how to get into retro mac laptops? I have been emulating classic Macs for years and would love to have a real machine to use. What is the best machine for beginners? PowerBook Titanium?
I have a PowerBook 180c with the same problem of broken-off standoffs on both hinges, the hinges themselves are also too hard to turn. But the worst part is that the display data cable is completely missing, there is only the backlight cable.
Nice restoration. I have a 165, working except for the trackball which only registers on the x axis. No idea how to fix, other than stripping down and checking for dry joints around the opto’s...
About the floppy drive: at 14:55 you’re putting in a high-density disk but the drive is offering to format it as single or double sided; it’s seeing a double-density disk? Therefore the pin switches at the front of the drive might need a spray of contact cleaner? About the Acer D/C sticker on the keyboard - I’ve noticed that all Powerbook 150 parts have such stickers. I suspect that Apple ‘farmed out’ production of the simpler 150 as a budget last-of-the-line version. The 150 was lighter - it did away with the multiple-board sandwich and standoffs are less likely to be broken as a result (you were lucky that your floppy drive bracket wasn’t floating free). However, despite the lighter 150 being the best value overall, I still think the original Powerbook 100 was a better design than all the other 100-series models that followed it. The 100 was slimmer, stronger (never any broken hinge or board standoffs), and had the curved edge to the display where the others were square.
That tip with the soldering iron and stand-offs is ingenious
@@epiclydum you get early access if you sponsor someone it's like 5 dollars a month i think
@@epiclydum Patreon members have had access to this video for days.
Yeah, it’s a great idea!
I was using this tip in the 90s when I was fixing these. No 3D printers but using panels cut from old enclosures with CA adhesive worked fine.
“For various reasons I’m not a fan of retrobrite”
You have to expand on that some time.
I'm going to guess, that it's because retro bright is actually bleaching the plastic. I've heard reports that retro bright can cause plastic to become brittle and deteriorate much faster. That's usually the reason I hear when people state that they don't like it.
@@akaJughead That's not true. The additives that yellow were originally to improve the plastics flexibility/durability. The same chemical process that causes it to yellow, also causes it to be more brittle.
So if you're working with a heavily yellowed part, it's already extremely brittle; and if you're disassembling/reassembling something for the first time in 30 years, you're gonna put more stress on the plastic.
If you wanna read more, Hackaday posted an article in January with a polymer engineer who explained it.
^^ What he said.
The most yellowed (or oranged) plastics I deal with are almost always cracked, or do so while working with them. The faceplates on 3.5" floppy drives are terrible about this. The little clips that snap into the housing don't bend anymore, they just snap right off. I've had to glue _so many_ of those back on, or remanufacture them with acetone and donor plastic...
The retro-brighting, though, is really helpful. They may still be fragile afterwards, but they at least look nice. It isn't actually "bleaching" anything -- at least, not at first. You can tell because yellowed parts start un-yellowing, while parts that aren't yellowed just stay the same color.
I use plastic bins filled with grocery store peroxide, on top of my laundry with a couple of 30W UV LED panels suspended from a DJ lighting rig stand. That way I can use it 24/7, without regard to weather.
It's not failure-proof, and I have had some problems, mostly I think from my own negligence. You have to keep the parts submerged, otherwise they just bake in UV. This is tricky, because plastic tends to float, especially once the bubbles start forming.
Also, if they aren't whitened enough after a few days, you just have to accept it for what it is. I've RB'd stuff for over a week and the results aren't good. That's when it starts to bleach, but not evenly. I've got some case bezels that went through that. They don't look very nice, but they didn't look very nice to start with. It's just a _different_ "not nice" now. If I want them back in OG condition, all I have to do is paint them -- which would've been the cure anyway.
So, IMO, why not give it a shot? I have so much stuff that took to the RB process very nicely. I just finished a PS/1 model 2133 -- front bezel and drives. It made a world of difference in the perceived condition.
@@akaJughead That’s incorrect. Over time, UV light causes a fire retardant chemical to leach to the surface of the plastic causing the yellowing. The UV light also causes the plastic to become brittle.
The retrobrite technique uses an oxidiser to draw this upper layer of the yellowing out of the plastic. It’s a process that should be monitored carefully depending on the strength of the oxidiser, usually Hydrogen Peroxide.
Opinions vary but low strength (3% - 6%) over a longer time is considered a safer approach over the more aggressive 12% - 15% strength.
The degree of yellowing is also a factor, slight discolouration is less likely to make the plastics brittle over heavy discolouration.
Also, the use of a cream or paste over a liquid oxidiser can vary and whether the piece to be retrobrited is left unwrapped, Saran-wrapped or sealed in a Zip-Loc bag.
As with all chemical processes, it’s best to try it on a small area first to ascertain the results before moving to the whole part.
And it might be an idea to purchase a UV lamp or LED strip to control the retrobriting process rather than rely on the Sun.
I literally just acquired a PowerBook 145 myself! Battery is missing but there's no damage from any leaks. The only issues are a dead hard drive and flakey brightness in the screen. Pity they're SCSI so I can't simply swap it out.
Great video
The article at 16:00 is just so 90s computing it brings back a lot of memories. The font, the colors, everything. It's like I'm back in 1993 drooling over upgrades for the computer I just got.
Don't know why, but your videos always get me in chill mode. I love the way you explain everything and the scenes you prepare. Thank you for such hard work!
The worst problem these days with the passive matrix screens is that the capacitors in the LCD panel fail and cause the ghosting issues and overall bad quality. If you replace those, these screens come back alive once again usually. The 145 wasn't a bad machine, it was leaps better than the 150 was in terms of a budget, lower end Powerbook!
6:10 Heating up the threaded inserts is a genius idea. That trick is going to save me so much time on future repairs!
Pretty sure that's my personal PowerBook 180 at 1:15. He's famous! :D
Congratulations 🥳
Pleasure to watch how snappy you restoring these vintage tech, very impressive! Also background history and retrospectives on the units/models you're working on, making it the most interesting. Thank you!
Thank goodness it's not a PowerBook 190.
Yep. The only machine worse than the 190 was the 150.
@@ThisDoesNotCompute What's wrong with the 190 and 150?
@@daemonspudguy The 190 and it's PPC cousin the 5300 had lots of fit and finish issues... paint that flakes off and weaker that normal screen hinges. The IDE hard drives feel a lot slower than the SCSI drives included in other Macs of the era.
A 190 is basically a not-so-great replacement for the 500 series Powerbook.
@@ThisDoesNotCompute.. good call wearing gloves at 2:26 Colin...... would have been okey to mention.. that the cadmium on the Ni-Cd (nikel cadmium) batteries.. (that little white powder) has been documented as carcinogenic..... especially when inhaling it.... yes.. yes.. with repeated exposures.. yes.. but never the less.....
What a piece of garbage that machine was. It bought one to replace the 145 and it died almost immediately and try and they might they never managed to fix it and offered me a refund which I spent promptly on the PowerBook 1400 which was rock solid and introduced hot-swap modules.
Colin, your videos are so we'll produced and always look so darn good! Thanks for another look at a laptop otherwise forgotten.
Great stuff as usual, Colin. I love how many of your videos remind all of us in the retro community that "there's always something..." in regards to getting a machine back to 100%. This hobby requires effort, which is something we should all take seriously as stewards of these relics to our past.
Proper trip down memory lane. I loved my first PowerBook 145 (bought with summer job money in 1993) and like you, I spent a lot of time cleaning the smut out of the trackball. Wrote my dissertation on it and saved me from having to queue up at the computer centre at University. Tripped over the power brick one evening and shorted out the motherboard but thankfully it was repaired under warranty. Destroyed the original hard drive when the computer (in a case) took a tumble off a chair which the insurance company had to pay out for after much discussion with the loss adjuster. So many a lesson learnt on computer ownership as well as wishing that MagSafe had been invented in the 90's! I've only ever bought MacBooks since then...
I had an acer laptop about 10 years ago and the housing around the screen hinges started to crack, when i closed the display, you could see inside the display housing, i applied plastic glue on the outside, pushing down on the open display while i put the glue on, i let it dry overnight, and that crack never got any worse and the laptop closed and opened again like new, no more squeeking and breaking, plastic glue is awesome, and i also use it now for all kinds of plastic repair, awesome vid man!
Two (1992/3) grand just for "getting the job done"... Love to indulge in computer history, and that's no doubt a nice machine to have, but at the same time, I'm glad and relieved how much more affordable computing is today.
Fantastic camera work. The selective focus, panning, depth of field. Top level work.
6:00 The standoffs might be intakt by now but the left one of the 2 shown there seems to already have a crack down its side.
Maybe it would be a good idea to reinforce it with glue or epoxy?
I love the aesthetics of these early model PowerBooks with trackballs before they updated the design to use a trackpad. Maybe one day...
I had a 180c back in 1994 - beautiful display on it and I also used it as a desktop by connecting a VGA monitor. Looks like these models didn’t have an external display option?
I as a little 6 year old I got a ibook g3 with 256mb ram and a 5gb hhd and used it till 2017(it was S L O W)
@@daytimedorks Holy shoot, a Powerbook G3 in 2017 must really have been a pain
I had a 145B as my first Macintosh laptop. That little machine was a workhorse that got me through the end of undergrad. I remember using it to take notes in class long before using a laptop in class was at all a common thing, and the ability to take it to a coffee shop to work late at night seemed groundbreaking at the time.
Oh man, the Toshiba T1910 series. I remember mine fondly. That trackball attached to a proprietary port on the side, and if you're a lefty? Forget it.
Colin, your videos are excellent and informative !!
My first portable Mac was an ex-Middle school PowerBook 1400cs. I had started out with a Mac SE/4 that was "upgraded via eBay" to an SE/30 equivalent. I had looked at the array of portable Macs, but money was tight, so I chose accordingly. I updated this unit as I could, but the next step was the Internet. Surfing the 'Web required a G3, so it was Mainstreet/Wallstreet time. I settled on a PDQ Wallstreet from Canada, and a 500Mhz Sonnet card made it possible to explore the "Online Wild West." The next major question was, "can I create a custom DVD of interesting TV shows?" That led to a series of adventures with the Titanium PowerBooks, solved by finding a Core2Duo Intel MacBook Pro. That old unit still (sorta) works, with dead keys, subwoofer, and the Mac OSX 5 ceiling. A Bluetooth keyboard and headphones get around the dead keys and subwoofer, for now. An Intel i7 MacBook Pro has the "three beeps at startup" problem and an ifixitit session looms. Oh well, Ye Olde Lenovo ThinkPad T530 still works, even if Windows 10 doesn't "make my day."
Does that glue leave a hazing/residue on the surrounding plastics as it outgasses like regular super glue?
I donated a Toshiba with an external trackball just like that one pictured at 1:06 to Free Geek Minneapolis a couple weeks ago. I half wonder if that's my laptop?
No, if you look in the description you can see he got it from a reddit post 7 years ago.
I had a Powerbook 180 machine back then. I remember that I had to buy a specific adapter to get it to work at 75Hz on a regular PC 15" screen, otherwise it would only run at 60Hz, which would really hurt my eyes after a couple of hours. I also remember that every two or three days, I would need to clean the tracking ball. The best solution was to use soap and water to clean the ball and Qtips with a bit of alcool to clean the rolls.
Nice. My ex bought a 145B back in the day and I still have it on my retro shelf. It has such a cool design.
It still sort-of runs but I think I need a new power supply.
Are you sure the disc was formatted correctly? I’ve had issues in the past using an OS-X machine to format disks. Can the OS that is on the PowerBook read HFS+ discs? What happens if you format the disk on the PowerBook and then try to copy>
Those magazines bring me back to the 90's!
Good timing Colin, I just received a broken powerbook 145b I’m planning to get going again. This video is a great resource, thanks!
Saving this for later. I have a 145B that I saved from a sad fate in a garbage truck years ago and have never gotten around to working on it. My hinges seem fine, the battery only had a small amount of crud. I don't have the original power brick, but I do have a multi-voltage adapter from RCA that supplies 7.5v. Unfortunately, the PowerBook will not start. Maybe now I have reason again to try to get it running.
Colin’s videos are just so relaxing, love it.
The Macintosh Portable can be fully disassembled without any tools. Makes me wonder why this wasn’t the norm moving forward. Solid feeling machine too.
I love your Apple history, I never paid any attention to them during these times.
The words "Apple" and "Budget Friendly" being in the same sentence is amazing. I haven't seen that since 1989.
That Titanium G4 is beautiful! Mac OS X and Mac OS 9 is awesome as well. Modern laptops could learn a bit from those screen bezels too. Have you made any videos on that machine?
I know someone who still uses a titanium g4 with a broken battery to this day. He just keeps it plugged into the wall. Surprisingly quick back in the late mid 2000s. I wonder what it would feel like today.
He must be a patient person when web browsing 😅
Of note, the various Macintosh software archives (Garden/Repository) have actual restore images to reinstall the actual software that would have come with each machine. They are on a CD image made by Apple, likely used by Apple dealers/refurbishers. Sometimes it's not much different than using the vanilla retail installers, but I like that extra level of authenticity.
Spin the motor in the floppy drive by hand around a few times, sometimes it just gets stuck from sitting and rotatating it can help
I'm going to guess it's probably capacitors. I have brought several PS/2 floppy drives back to life by re-capping them. And a 720K Teac.
Most of those just needed new mini radial caps on the motor PCB (underneath the disk). But, I'm fixing a Mitsubishi 1.44MB drive now that had SMD cans on the controller board that leaked everywhere and took out an adjustment pot next to them. Yuck.
It's _always_ the caps. And if it isn't, it probably will be.
I had a Compaq 486 in 94. It had a small marble sized trackball off to the right side. Mouse buttons on the side of the laptop It was terrific. I'm using laser trackballs today because of that one computer. Trackpads... so irritating I unplug them when I can. It's worth the occasional cleaning to not have wrist issues after gaming and work. Can be super sharp in games as well.
I used a PowerBook 145B as my main laptop from 1993 to 1997 - a great little machine.
Another excellent video Colin. I really enjoyed this as I used to own one of these machines myself back in the day. Congratulations on the restore and good luck with repairing the floppy disk drive at some point in the future.
I miss my Powerbook 180 working. Its been sitting on a shelf since the 90s covered in dust. It slid to the front of the school bus during my high school years and crashed the HDD. Then some time later it just stopped accepting power.
Could be a new fuse needed by the battery terminals. I just restored one of these mainboards this way.
Those standoffs for the screen were a problem long before these machines were considered "vintage". Back when this powerbook style was current i replaced a LOT of the rear screen plastics both in warranty and out. I supported a company that 100% mac at the time and had lots of powerbook 180's and 160's i kept at least a dozen of the rear plastic in stock.
Love these videos - chilled out viewing of stuff I remember wanting as a kid!
Had the PB145 (sans B) as my 2nd Mac. The family computer was the Performa 405 but my brother and I both would need a computer at same time so we went in halfsies on buying it at Sam’s club. The first one came with a dead backlight. Returned it and the replacement had a “sorry” memo from Apple that due to ram chip shortages, they had to install more than what was advertised on box - instead a second 2MB to go with the 2MB on board they put 4MB (6MB total)
Oh hey, you made a video about the 145b, had access to one of those as a kid. It's the main reason I went into IT as an adult. Sure, I had some games for it, but the productivity options with Claris Works and Hypercard couldn't be beat.
Your video intro is really catchy, I love it
this got me thru high school and college from 93 to 99. wrote my honours thesis on it sitting on the floor in my flat with the back stands turned up. was still working till 2015 (!) when finally the screen warped and sort of melted.
That's the polarizer. It can be fixed, but it's not easy.
Would it help to also lubricate/oil the hinges a bit so the stress is less? Or possibly could that make them too loose?
I feel like adding the lube will make the hinge smoother but the stress would be the same if the lid is continued to be opened improperly. The lid needs to be lifted from the middle up to equally distribute the stress load. I think this is what caused the hinge to have broken in such a way.
I'm kinda surprised that you didn't run into capacitor issues with the passive matrix screen on this thing since that's one of the most common issues with these things nowadays.
There is the ghosting.
I've always wondered about the effectiveness of Loctite glue given my problems with superglue in the past. Thanks for talking about it in this video.
This vaguely reminds me of the Apple laptop my Dad owned back in the '90s. It had a floppy drive at its right side, which I thought was cool cos I thought floppies were a desktop thing, haha. I never saw the thing opened, tho. Dad only used it at work abroad (he'd only use our older IBM PC at home) and always kept it away from my 6 year-old hands' reach.
Question: Are those daughter boards with CPU interchangeable between different computers? They should fit physically, but could the computer be turned on and perform without a glitch? You've already shown us how IBM did it with a ThinkPad T30.
Back in 1994, I couldn't afford one, but was the Toshiba T4900CT w/pentium processor that took my breath away. In the early 2000's I got my revenge and was able to purchase/have in just one year 7 laptops from different brands just for myself.
Toshiba Tecra 700CS was also in my wish list.
I don't know if you did this off camera, but a lot of times if the heads aren't moving, the worm gear might just be frozen in the motor (I've seen it a few times on floppy drives). Twisting it carefully but firmly by hand if it doesn't move will free it up. I also would recommend removing all of the old grease before putting the new grease on top of it, because you will end up with the same problem from the old grease anyway.
I grew up with a Macintosh Portable, then a 145B. I still wish I had both!
Thanks for video. My dad had the PB170 when it just came out. It had the superior Active Matrix monochrome LCD compared to the crappy cheaper screens of the other models. It seemed to run just as fast as my two year old (at the time) Mac IIci, except of course the power book was only black and while. Nice little, but expensive machine.
I just love the introductory history to your videos. Just amazing to see that past history. Talking about history, Apple is shaking up the industry with it's M1 silicon chip and it's time we need a modern day version of a revolution as it was starting in July of 1993. In a future video, could you walk us through your 3D printer? I would love to know more about the printer and how you chose it and what you use it for. I was frankly stunned by the fact that you were able to create that hinge part. Thank you,
Ravi Peiris M.D.
The reason why the hinge broke only on the left side is because the owner was liting the lid by grabbing the left side of the screen thus causing extra stress on that part. If the lid had been opened from the middle up, both hinges would be intact.
I watched this as I 3d printed a part for my own (fractal node size) computer to upgrade it to make it even quieter than it already is.
Thanks for all the work you put in - great stuff mate (from Australia)
your pretty advanced at this stuff. Remember the Microsoft Surface 3? I just got on fromm ebay with like everything all for 130$ so if any of yall want some there pretty good for the price
great - this was my first ever PowerPook, loved it - thanks for your gread vids
I have this exact laptop, and I have the exact same gap in the plastic on the same exact hinge. That specific part of the laptop must be a defect. I'm only 14 but my parents had this laptop out for like 23 years. So ours was like new, and didn't get yellow overtime at all. Surprisingly fast for 4mb ram also. Ours screen has super bad display ghosting and everything sort of fades in and out of view, dont know if thats how it was or if theres a problem with the screen
You’ll need to replace the capacitors on the back of your LCD screen. Fiddly little job but you can order the right parts from somewhere like Mouser - 9x 3.3uF tantalum or ceramic caps, 1x 22uF 35V, 1x 100uF 6.3V or 10V, there’s a good video on TH-cam ‘Powerbook 140 capacitor replacement’ :)
Awesome. I had the 145 and loved it. Was a great machine until it got stolen. Thanks for the video!
Even that is a lot of work time for CA glue. In my experience as soon as the parts touch they're bonded. The magic of video 😄
I love how early Apple products - from before they defined the mainstream - used components from all kinds of companies like the Acer keyboard or those AMD chips in your PowerBook 🤣
I guess you could say the original battery peed itself.
Awesome refurb job, Colin. I have a similar problem with the screen hinge on my PowerBook 5300cs that needs fixing, looks like I ought to browse thingiverse for a possible solution. Also, I bought a 5300c parts machine with the thought of swapping the passive matrix in the 5300cs for the active matrix from the 5300c. Based on what you said, i better check for the similar tunnel vision before doing the swap.
looking at the pcb's with so many ICs one can totally appreciate the idea of an SoC
Sometimes, the yelowing on keybords can be removed with alcohol. You should try that !
Awesome video as always but it seems your first layer on those prints is way to high, you need to squish it more.
Love the Prusa Mini btw, I'm thinking of getting one
I forgot to pick the right PLA filament preset in PrusaSlicer, so things got a little wonky. I definitely recommend the Prusa Mini, it’s been a great printer!
@@ThisDoesNotCompute those things happen.
Thanks for the heads up on the Mini, I like to build my own printers so I will probably wait till the delivery time is not crazy and order one.
Could it be that capacitors of the floppy drive are bad and causing the motors not to spin?
Have you tried fans and a dehumidifier to help dry out the screen? Might take a week or so but dry airflow and enough time can probably help those panels.
Sometimes brushed DC motors get dead spots. That is easily fixed by spinning the motor a little. I don’t know what else could it be
that titanium G4 is gorgeous
Did you try inserting the floppy disk with the drive disassembled? Sometimes the issue is a spring wears out and one of the heads stops contacting the disk. If it’s the top head, you can sometimes just weigh it down by taping a coin to the top of it. Otherwise you have to take the spring out and twist it back around the other way to give it more tension.
I would advise to, if possible, to tweak the tension on the hinge of the screen. The plastic where the hinge is screwed to tend to break, because laptop hinges have a self-regulating mechanism, that tries to compensate for the wear after constant opening of the lid. The problem is, sometimes it does too much, making the lid harder to open and the weakest link breaks.
After the adjustment, the soft spot should be opening the lid without the base going up. That should be near the factory adjustment.
Dislikes had the active matrix display..
Aboutt that floppy drive: something similar happened to me a while back with an LC II: cleaning and lubricating the drive did not help, not even changing the motor. In the end, it was the motherboard that needed recapping: after that, everything started to work.
I deeply love your videos. Greetings from Argentina. 🎀
Ah! Really a bit jealous for this one. I was able to get my teenage hands on a 140 in the mid/late 90's. It wasn't the best machine, but it was mine, and I loved it to death. Donated it to a group at my high school that needed to run some older software in the early 2000s, and I'm pretty sure it probably got thrown out the next year. :-\ Oh well. Maybe some day I'll find one and load it up with Think Pascal and Hypercard goodness. :D
Nice work another part of computer history saved .
I loved my 170 I owned back in the 90s. One day Ill get another, but prob a 180 as its a better screen.
3:48 To avoid this you should always close/open the screen from middle of the screen and not in the edges. This will spread the force on both hinge more even.
Great work and video as always!
"budget-friendly" and "Apple" are two words you cant use in one sentence very offen xD
And then Steve Jobs came back
I had a 140. It is my first laptop. That was a good computer. Did a lot of BBSing on it.
I've got several old Powerbooks in various states of repair. One of them's got the active matrix monochrome screen with the "black vignette" effect, rendering it unusable. It starts up OK and the picture's superb, but the black starts to creep in from the edges as the screen warms up. I've also got one with a passive matrix monochrome screen that's blank white when it starts up, then slowly gains contrast over a five-minute period. It's annoying but at least it's usable.
The passive matrix LCD probably needs a recap to its driver boards.
Could you rebuild the battery with Li-ion and if so, how much more battery life could it potentially provide?
Colin, would you consider doing a video explaining how to get into retro mac laptops? I have been emulating classic Macs for years and would love to have a real machine to use. What is the best machine for beginners? PowerBook Titanium?
Mate still witing for that G4 TI laptop review!
I have a PowerBook 180c with the same problem of broken-off standoffs on both hinges, the hinges themselves are also too hard to turn. But the worst part is that the display data cable is completely missing, there is only the backlight cable.
MY FIRST MAC!! Yay!!! I still have it. I'd love to get it working again ;) Some day.
Nice restoration. I have a 165, working except for the trackball which only registers on the x axis. No idea how to fix, other than stripping down and checking for dry joints around the opto’s...
About the floppy drive: at 14:55 you’re putting in a high-density disk but the drive is offering to format it as single or double sided; it’s seeing a double-density disk? Therefore the pin switches at the front of the drive might need a spray of contact cleaner?
About the Acer D/C sticker on the keyboard - I’ve noticed that all Powerbook 150 parts have such stickers. I suspect that Apple ‘farmed out’ production of the simpler 150 as a budget last-of-the-line version. The 150 was lighter - it did away with the multiple-board sandwich and standoffs are less likely to be broken as a result (you were lucky that your floppy drive bracket wasn’t floating free).
However, despite the lighter 150 being the best value overall, I still think the original Powerbook 100 was a better design than all the other 100-series models that followed it. The 100 was slimmer, stronger (never any broken hinge or board standoffs), and had the curved edge to the display where the others were square.
That hinge fix was 👌.
I have a 180 with a dead hard drive is there anything I can replace it with apart from an expensive second hand unit ?
Love these vintage laptop videos