I worked on Macs at this time doing desk side support... it was a really confusing time for a potential Apple buyer. They had a lot of overlapping product lines in both desktop and laptop space. After Steve Jobs's return, he eliminated most of them, reducing it to 4 main products - consumer desktop, consumer laptop, pro desktop, pro laptop - the iMac, iBook and Power Mac and Powerbook. This simplicity made it easy for customers to figure out which computer was right for them and reduced product development cost.
This is my old laptop, I recognize the damage to the lid. I setup the software as well. I sold it together with a 2nd laptop, one "good", and one "parts". I believe it would not run on battery power. This happened when I hot-unplugged the SCSI cd-rom with the machine asleep. This damaged the power board in some way. I verified by switching the power board between laptops and the problem followed the board. Both batteries were good. What did you get with it? That Orinoco card looks familiar as well. =)
Yep, this was your machine alright! I bought both machines together (the other one was the “good” one) about 10 years ago. Other than an assortment of CD-ROMs and the wireless card, both included neoprene “wetsuit” carrying cases. I’ll have to do further testing with regards to the whole AC/battery power thing, though at least both machines boot and run just fine still. How did you end up with a second one?
@@ThisDoesNotCompute Ah, yes, I remember now, very cool! I bought the second one after I broke the first one. I can't remember, but I think I got a good deal for it off one of the Macintosh mailing lists of the time. I used the machine as a backup or portable when I was in college in the early '00s, I had a G4 as my main desktop. CodeWarrior was for my school assignments. The rest of the software was just things I used at the time. I had Debian Linux on both my G4 and this back then. I remember the G4 had a better openfirmware that allowed you to boot directly to Linux, rather than use BootX. I found your channel recently searching for GameBoy mods, and I enjoy it very much!
@@mopeybloke I'm sure it spilled into the early augts as trends tend to go. But the clear trend started in the 90s which included Zima, Crystal Pepsi and the Gameboy Play It Loud version.
@@SuperNicktendo Yes the see threw trend did indeed start in the 90's, as Apple released the first clear iMac computers in August of 98, and things started to copy that trend to say around 05/06 when it started to die out, so we can call that period a 2nd wave for clear plastic, and the clear trend in general.
I remember seeing the transparent case laptop in the movie Hackers and wanting one so bad. I was so jealous that he got it for free too, I wanted a laptop so bad back then but I was like 12 and laptops were super expensive haha.
one way of reinforcing brass inserts in plastic standoffs is to glue them and then slide some thinwall brass tubing over the outside of the plastic part.
I usually fill the crevice around the insert with something like jb weld. As long as you leave passage for any cables, that usually prevents any future breakage.
@@Tomppa8.2 that too. really just anything to reinforce the nut-sert from the outside, putting it back as-is is just asking for it to break again. Even if the glue holds, it'll be stronger than the plastic around it.
@@briangoldberg4439 Same here - I use whatever 2-part epoxy glue I've got to hand, like Araldite. It's not limited to very old laptops either, the last one I did was a Dell Vostro 15 5568, only 3 years old but just out of warranty. Seemingly part of a bad batch because I've seen loads of them fail the same way. The upper case/wrist-rest fails and the screen falls off if left unchecked. That said, I'd really like to try the superglue and baking soda method.
That's why you use switchable graphics and disable the dedicated GPU when the power cable is disconnected. My gaming laptop from 2013 gets about 8 hours when I do that with a lightly used battery (the battery is shot now and due to be replaced)
@@irdmoose What laptop do you have? I use battery saver, reduce screen brightness, switch to the low-power GPU, etc. etc. but still struggle to get over 3 hours
I have the 2400Cc and loved it because it was so small and light. Retouched about 70 incredible hi-res photos in Photoshop (albeit slowly) for the book "A Kind of Rapture" by Robert Bergman while traveling extensively in the mid 1990s. Fit perfectly on a coach-class tray table while other laptop users were crunched up over a half-open clamshell. Every now and then I fire it up for old time's sake. Thanks for a great video.
Bless you … a 2400 video! Arguably one of Apple's most splendid laptops, a truly remarkable design. Thank you for taking the time to make this short exposé. I really enjoyed this vide, thank you very much for sharing this with the community.
I like how you dig up info and make even the least interested, interested. I was going to quit at 1 min but hung in there another 30 secs. and found I watched the whole thing. GREAT WORK, THANKS!
Wonderful video as always. I also just wanted to thank you for continuing to present your content in the way that you do, and I hope it continues as it always has. You're one of the seemingly few these days gimmicky/"shock-value" technology TH-camrs. Your concise and focused delivery of content is always enjoyable, no matter the subject. I look forward to the next one!
Great video. i am from Colombia, and apple products in the 90's were kind of rare here, PC was and is still the king. I remember as a 90's kid to see Apple products on magazines, but they were very expensive!. Apple didn't had prescence on schools like in the US either, so, in 2004, when i finally had an old powerbook on my hands (was from my cousin who our family in Canada send it to him), it was a memorable experience, to learn MacOS, the software, the games... was awesome!! and a refresh to the "win-tel" dominated world. BTW, i fix those screw inserts with epoxy adhesive, (loctite Epoxi-MIL) the one that you mix two components to form a gray paste. it's a slow process (24h to harden) but is much better than the cyanocrilate glue.
It’s amazing how Japanese were into macs those days. I remember my dad saying that at the headquarters of Japanese companies having a office with only classic ii macs was a common trend there. In deed, there was nothing more Japanese than macs in the 90s
That translucent Japanese keyboard is really cool. I am currently done with Apple computers because of how nasty they are build where everything is glued / soldered together to not allow the customer to swap components and extend the life of the machine.
thank you for showing the flat flex connectors - I seriously hate these and instructions that dont show if they slide or hinge open. I also cringed so hard when you put the controller on the LCD - thats how you get scratches :)
It used to be such a beautiful thing to be able to repair your own technology. That's why I absolutely love my old computers. Apple has become a company I no longer wish to be associated with. When I switched in 2005, I never imagined what would happen afterwards. Thinner stuff isn't better. They will probably never make another laptop that's as modular as their older machines. Even their most modular computer, the Mac Pro, needs official holders for PCI cards... Which you can 3D print... haha. But its price is laughable. Great video. Loved it!
Wow! Review of the Apple Computer 2400-C, this takes me back. You were correct when you stated that most in the United States preferred the 3400 laptop but, the 2400-C was loved by both professionals and techs who worked most or many hours per day in the field and away from an office. Own a 12 inch Powerbook G4 which, always reminds me a lot of the 2400-C. They each were trying to provide a high end laptop with a small foot print and achieved their goal. While, now over 15 years old, daily I carry this laptop with me to my office to enjoy during breaks and over my lunch period.
Nice!! The 2400c was my first PowerBook. In 1999 I traded my Motorola starMax 4000 clone with dark blue Apple studio display for one. It had the 64mb memory module in it. Great machine.
Great video as always, loved the history facts at the end. It’s so awesome how people will become attached to hardware in those ways when it’s quality. This vid got me wondering how you store and keep all of your retro tech organized and how you decide what spare parts to keep/throw away when doing these composite style repair jobs, etc. As someone who would like to do a similar kind of preservation and restoration in the future when I have my own home, I could see a hobby like this having potential to border on hoarding, so I’d love to know how you manage all of this and decide if a spare part/faulty unit is worth keeping or not. I think a video like that could also help inspire others to try these retro repairs out too! Have a good one and keep up the awesome work -John
Well, for laptops I have a couple of storage bins that I added dividers to - I made a video about it a while back. In general though I’ve had to become much more picky about what I collect as I’m simply out of space. I’ve also had to make some hard decisions about what to let go of in order to free up space for something new. I think it’s actually a good thing in the end because it forces me to pay attention to what I have instead of mindlessly hoarding it.
Super glue (cyanoacrylate) works very well on plastics, but if you ever need something a step up, get a specific plastic welder like Devcon Plastic Welder (make sure to get the cream coloured formulation, *not* the clear -- they use completely different methods for welding the plastic and the cream coloured one is much superior). The Devcon in particular is very, very strong and also machinable/drillable. So unlike epoxies (or cyanoacrylates) it's not brittle and it's easy to file away excess. It's particularly good for vintage plastics that have broken, like those standoffs. It also smells extremely volatile so you know it's working!
Back then Japan was the epicenter of laptop computer evolution where people commute long hours in train and want light yet powerful computers. IBM (now Lenovo) designed and produced most of its ThinkPad line products in Yamato factory in the outskirt of Tokyo, to ship to the world. (IBM also had its own lineup of sub notebooks and palm-top computers exclusively sold in Japan). I never had a chance to own that particular model but remember how people were enthusiastic about the machine here. Well scripted documentary with old Japanese magazines and websites involved. Awesome!
That was the era where I bought my Power Computing Power tower Pro computer. It was in many ways the best Mac I ever had. It was so good and so fast that it took years and years after Apple shut down all the clones for any actual Macintosh to come close to the performance I already had. Ah, those were the days. I had a 270c too (I started out with a Radio Shack WP-2 to take notes for my masters program, but then switched to the 270c purchased used at Comp USA and boy was I glad I did). Sadly, Apple is not what it was. But unlike Google, it helps me with my problems on the phone.
Star Trek Borg is such a fun FMV game. I recently replayed it under Dos Box and it still holds up. Anyways, this was a really interesting little machine and video. Thanks!
Great take-apart portion and much better than the existing TH-cam vids; I could've used this two months ago when I got my 2400. Also looks like you picked up the exact keyboard that I had a snipe bid on! (Fortunately was able to pick one up for around $17 a couple of weeks later.)
Great video, and very informational. The 2400c has been one of my fav vintage portables, and a topic I'm always interested in reading about. I have one of those translucent Yu-Plan keyboards on the way!
Another great video, I learn so much from your videos! I love listening to them while working on my programming homework, makes me want to start collecting old laptops myself
I have one of the 4GB hard drives that would fit in that laptop, actually one of the Apple/IBM branded ones. You are welcome to it if you like. I've had it sitting in my drawer for years.
Oh, the shot of that 145b at the top fills me with nostalgia. Late Winter mid-90's. Lot's of things changed around that time. 25 years later, we're still married ;)
The Newton, ImageWriter and QuickTake were unheard of, but the iPod and iBook were overnight successes. If beating the “old Apple good new Apple bad” dead horse makes you feel better then sure.
@referral madness Apple was basically both IBM and Microsoft at the same time. It almost spelled their death. It was their (arguably) anti-competitive ecosystem and the switch to x86 that saved them. I hear apple wants to go to ARM now... I wish them luck...
@@rich1051414 How did switching to x86 save them? That was long after the iMac and a bit after the iPod+iTunes, I'd argue that those were the two things that saved Apple, not switching to x86 which hardly made much difference to the average end user...
@referral madness The fact that otherwise likely intelligent people still peddle the stupid notion that "Bill Gates saved Apple", some 23 years on now, just makes me shake my head. Sure, tell yourself that a company that was sitting on north of $2 billion (yes, that's a B) in cash was in imminent danger of bankruptcy. (Jobs told the 90-days-from-broke story because it cemented his legend.) Tell yourself that Microsoft didn't know about iMac's imminent release, and didn't want the finally-updated-as-part-of-that-deal MS Office for Mac sold to all those newly-minted Mac users. Ask yourself what Microsoft's $150M investment in Apple netted them, as they cashed it out between 2000-2003? (Had they kept hold of them to present-day, their $150M would be worth $22.4 Billion today, and well over 2x that a few years back at Apple's peak.) But you go on, parroting this nonsense narrative in comments sections. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
@@Dustie1984 Yes the first iPod launched in 2001 and Apple computers switched to Intel in 2006. But the 1st attempt to use intel begun in early 1990s, with 'Star Trek project', but it stopped and they moved to PowerPC instead.
Love these gems. I own 5. My best has a G3 NuPower 240 w/ 80 MB RAM & OS 8.6. Yrs ago, I did an internal mod allowing the bus ability for PCMCIA CF/SD adapters. It makes file transfer ultra-simple. My oddest one is a 240 GHZ (Japan only). Someone customized it with textured matte black paint & carefully painted over the rainbow Apple logo to look like a G3 Pismo. The backlight is dead, but VGA external works. The 2400C keyboard is a joy compared to the horrendous 2300C keyboard. Even new, the 2300C was like typing on a rubber sponge. I have two 2300 & the mechanism under keycaps only gets worse & sticky with age!
I think we had one of these at our IBM media lab, around 1999 or 2000. The power supply went bad, so that was the end of using it. But a much different Apple; back then they allowed and *encouraged* upgrading and customization. These days they'd weld the housing shut if they could get away with it.
Hell, even ten years ago the processor in an iMac was still socketed, you could replace the GPU (if you found one that fit), there was a standard 3.5" hard drive, and so on. Now their iMacs are just like their laptops, soldered-in everything :/
8:00 SuperGlue? I just discovered other options special glue for "hard plastics" - melting plastic to glue it, normally tested on a car because it's intended to be used there, and it worked, recenly tested on regular home lamp made of simmilar plastic as laptop also worked it's not glueing in classic way, but rather melting plastic it's slow process takes 24h to "dry" but highly recommend. Don't know particular brand of it, it's in different apartament, glue itself wont dry unless it touches surfaca of plastic so can be tested before use and cleaned. What was the brand i cant even find now it's very old still works, think you can google.
The plastic was brittle even in 1997. I don't remember taking apart too many of these but the Powerbook 540 lineup never really went back together fully perfectly.
Amazing content as always Collin/Colin (?)! I remember this machine fondly, but I remember wanting a PowerBook 3400c like the one you show in the ending B-Roll. Will you be doing a video on it in the near future? Given we're I'm assuming close in age (I'm 36) I remember most if not all of the retro stuff you over on this channel, which is part of the reason why I come back time and time again! Stay safe!
Making me all natsukashii for my early times in Japan, my 2400c and my Color Classic II - and a litany of various 8xxxx/9xxxx series PowerPC beige behemoths.
In this video, Since you said yellow dog and other early mac linux distros are a story for another time, can we get that video now? I'm desperate for more vintage linux content, it's so interesting
Those Codewarrior icons brought back memories. Excellent development environment, particularly the visual debugger which was well ahead of it's time. Very bad time to be a mac developer though.
I'm playing with CodeWarrior Pro 6 at the moment, writing a small game. CodeWarrior is great but Macintosh Toolbox is not a great API haha. We have come a long way since then :)
My top of the line at the time msi dominator from ‘15 or ‘16 gets about 30 mins while not plugged in, at idle, using igpu and power saving profile, and undeclock to 2 ghz
I thought IBM produced a number of components for Mac's over the years. Most of the time not really publicized but it was a way for IBM to maintain an income stream from a home/business computer market that made IBM the proverbial "bride left at the alter" persona. It quickly pulled out of the desktop computer market focusing on server systems.
The hinge screwed into inserts held by plastic... You can only find these on hundred dollar netbooks. Every screw must hold firmly, or the rest will be exposed to forces greater than they were designed to and the whole thing falls apart.
Hi Collin, I'll get a 2400 in a few days comming in, but I'm not sure what kind of RAM actually is the correct one to upgrade..you mention the special 96MB, but does a standard 64MB So dimm not work ?
10:02 apple being apple even so far back lol, i have a collection of 12+ laptops (i forgot how many exactly rn i just know more than a dozen) and ive opened them all apart including screens and i think every single one of them was more complex than this (also bc the majority are from the 2000s and some even used desktop parts on laptop form factors, or the GPUs were in modules), the only thing it was harder for this one was the whole brittle plastic, the screw plastic standoffs breaking has happened to me but its very uncommon and seems that 90s powerbooks are very prone to this issue sadly
Always good to have spares for whatever retro tech you have, I have 2 & a half Apple Cubes. I also have 3 3Dfx Voodoo’s & I’m kind of hoarding old graphics RAM upgrade chips.
Hey compute, have a question for the crowd here interested in older power books. I have a 128MB ram module for a powerbook 3400c/240 that needs a new connector soldered from a donor RAM chip. (I have both just need the solder work done) Does anyone have recommendations for electronic shops that have the ability to do solder/desolder work on small circuits?
You can cut traces on a standard 64MB ram module and add mod wires, but it isn't for the faint of heart. However, often back then it was cheaper to learn to solder than to special order that upgrade. I am not sure it is worth it today unless you just want to say you did it. Information is available on what traces to cut, and where to add your jumpers. I would opt to mod the ram, not the motherboard. Cheaper if you mess up. Edit: I see you found the information. I commented too early :)
The English keyboard could be explained by other reason… despite being a modern country there is still a certain fascination with foreign things. Many people buy Apple computers and specifically choose an English keyboard just because “it looks cool”. One of my colleagues goes to great efforts just to keep every single device he owns with an English keyboard.
when you glue plastic next time you should try super glue and baking soda it makes a great bond and you can actually fill in gaps of plastic with it as well
I have a same one and it's working perfectly except the battery almost dead.. I love the IBM Thinkpad series, and I suppose this Apple powerpc laptop model is one of them. same as your pb2400, mine has deteriorated rubber parts. almost being melting..
This refurbishment caused more damage than the actual condition was before. I hate old plastics... even my car dashboard started to turn back to oil. :(
>didn't have an optical or floppy drive and opted to use a bigger battery to stay compact
boy oh boy this laptop was wayyyy ahead of it's time
I worked on Macs at this time doing desk side support... it was a really confusing time for a potential Apple buyer. They had a lot of overlapping product lines in both desktop and laptop space. After Steve Jobs's return, he eliminated most of them, reducing it to 4 main products - consumer desktop, consumer laptop, pro desktop, pro laptop - the iMac, iBook and Power Mac and Powerbook. This simplicity made it easy for customers to figure out which computer was right for them and reduced product development cost.
When you can't decide if you want to *think* or *think different*
Why not both?
I personally like to cognitively conceive of something else.
@@NuclearTopSpot underrated comment right here
Think similarly
4:12 Did you try running "startx" or "xinit" to see what desktop environment or window manager is installed and it defaults to?
no because no one cares about loonix
@@ps5hasnogames55 speak for yourself
@@MarkMann1 nah i think i speak for the vast majority of people when i say no one cares about loonux
@@ps5hasnogames55 nah, speak for yourself.
@@MarkMann1 cope more
This is my old laptop, I recognize the damage to the lid. I setup the software as well. I sold it together with a 2nd laptop, one "good", and one "parts". I believe it would not run on battery power. This happened when I hot-unplugged the SCSI cd-rom with the machine asleep. This damaged the power board in some way. I verified by switching the power board between laptops and the problem followed the board. Both batteries were good. What did you get with it? That Orinoco card looks familiar as well. =)
Yep, this was your machine alright! I bought both machines together (the other one was the “good” one) about 10 years ago. Other than an assortment of CD-ROMs and the wireless card, both included neoprene “wetsuit” carrying cases. I’ll have to do further testing with regards to the whole AC/battery power thing, though at least both machines boot and run just fine still. How did you end up with a second one?
@@ThisDoesNotCompute Ah, yes, I remember now, very cool! I bought the second one after I broke the first one. I can't remember, but I think I got a good deal for it off one of the Macintosh mailing lists of the time.
I used the machine as a backup or portable when I was in college in the early '00s, I had a G4 as my main desktop. CodeWarrior was for my school assignments. The rest of the software was just things I used at the time. I had Debian Linux on both my G4 and this back then. I remember the G4 had a better openfirmware that allowed you to boot directly to Linux, rather than use BootX.
I found your channel recently searching for GameBoy mods, and I enjoy it very much!
What actually happened to the lid?
Seems like IBM had some good influence on this design. Except for messing up the RAM pins!
Also I love your videos about old Macs. More please!
A translucent laptop from the 90s would be pretty awesome
Yeah I like that aesthetic too. I got my GameBoy Advance back in the day in the translucent Atomic Purple color and it was awesome.
That was more of a Aughts thing.
@@mopeybloke I'm sure it spilled into the early augts as trends tend to go. But the clear trend started in the 90s which included Zima, Crystal Pepsi and the Gameboy Play It Loud version.
@@SuperNicktendo Yes the see threw trend did indeed start in the 90's, as Apple released the first clear iMac computers in August of 98, and things started to copy that trend to say around 05/06 when it started to die out, so we can call that period a 2nd wave for clear plastic, and the clear trend in general.
I remember seeing the transparent case laptop in the movie Hackers and wanting one so bad. I was so jealous that he got it for free too, I wanted a laptop so bad back then but I was like 12 and laptops were super expensive haha.
one way of reinforcing brass inserts in plastic standoffs is to glue them and then slide some thinwall brass tubing over the outside of the plastic part.
I usually fill the crevice around the insert with something like jb weld. As long as you leave passage for any cables, that usually prevents any future breakage.
Super glue and baking soda works also.
@@Tomppa8.2 that too. really just anything to reinforce the nut-sert from the outside, putting it back as-is is just asking for it to break again. Even if the glue holds, it'll be stronger than the plastic around it.
@@briangoldberg4439 Same here - I use whatever 2-part epoxy glue I've got to hand, like Araldite. It's not limited to very old laptops either, the last one I did was a Dell Vostro 15 5568, only 3 years old but just out of warranty. Seemingly part of a bad batch because I've seen loads of them fail the same way. The upper case/wrist-rest fails and the screen falls off if left unchecked. That said, I'd really like to try the superglue and baking soda method.
"Up to four hours. Pretty short by todays standards..."
**Cries in Gaming Laptop**
Gaming on anything eats battery faster.
@@xenobreak1160 Nah, just having the GPU in the system eats the battery faster.
@@thumbwarriordx It feels like *everything* eats the battery faster lol
That's why you use switchable graphics and disable the dedicated GPU when the power cable is disconnected. My gaming laptop from 2013 gets about 8 hours when I do that with a lightly used battery (the battery is shot now and due to be replaced)
@@irdmoose What laptop do you have? I use battery saver, reduce screen brightness, switch to the low-power GPU, etc. etc. but still struggle to get over 3 hours
I have the 2400Cc and loved it because it was so small and light. Retouched about 70 incredible hi-res photos in Photoshop (albeit slowly) for the book "A Kind of Rapture" by Robert Bergman while traveling extensively in the mid 1990s. Fit perfectly on a coach-class tray table while other laptop users were crunched up over a half-open clamshell. Every now and then I fire it up for old time's sake. Thanks for a great video.
Bless you … a 2400 video! Arguably one of Apple's most splendid laptops, a truly remarkable design. Thank you for taking the time to make this short exposé. I really enjoyed this vide, thank you very much for sharing this with the community.
I like how you dig up info and make even the least interested, interested.
I was going to quit at 1 min but hung in there another 30 secs. and found I watched the whole thing. GREAT WORK, THANKS!
Four hours in 1997 was *excellent*.
Woah woah woah that excellent should be *excellent*
Fantastic video as usual, and those group photos from Japan are super cool. Great work!
Wonderful video as always. I also just wanted to thank you for continuing to present your content in the way that you do, and I hope it continues as it always has. You're one of the seemingly few these days gimmicky/"shock-value" technology TH-camrs. Your concise and focused delivery of content is always enjoyable, no matter the subject. I look forward to the next one!
Great video. i am from Colombia, and apple products in the 90's were kind of rare here, PC was and is still the king. I remember as a 90's kid to see Apple products on magazines, but they were very expensive!. Apple didn't had prescence on schools like in the US either, so, in 2004, when i finally had an old powerbook on my hands (was from my cousin who our family in Canada send it to him), it was a memorable experience, to learn MacOS, the software, the games... was awesome!! and a refresh to the "win-tel" dominated world. BTW, i fix those screw inserts with epoxy adhesive, (loctite Epoxi-MIL) the one that you mix two components to form a gray paste. it's a slow process (24h to harden) but is much better than the cyanocrilate glue.
It’s amazing how Japanese were into macs those days. I remember my dad saying that at the headquarters of Japanese companies having a office with only classic ii macs was a common trend there. In deed, there was nothing more Japanese than macs in the 90s
Just found this channel through this video, even though it was only posted two hours ago! Seeing older PowerBooks brings back memories! Subscribed :D
IBM used to be my hometown’s 2nd biggest employer. I lived about10 blocks from theHQ. THAT LOCATION IS NOW A SKETCHY COMMUNITY college.
That translucent Japanese keyboard is really cool.
I am currently done with Apple computers because of how nasty they are build where everything is glued / soldered together to not allow the customer to swap components and extend the life of the machine.
thank you for showing the flat flex connectors - I seriously hate these and instructions that dont show if they slide or hinge open. I also cringed so hard when you put the controller on the LCD - thats how you get scratches :)
The "damage" of the top cover looks like dripping from a hash joint... Just saying... LoL
It used to be such a beautiful thing to be able to repair your own technology. That's why I absolutely love my old computers. Apple has become a company I no longer wish to be associated with. When I switched in 2005, I never imagined what would happen afterwards. Thinner stuff isn't better. They will probably never make another laptop that's as modular as their older machines. Even their most modular computer, the Mac Pro, needs official holders for PCI cards... Which you can 3D print... haha. But its price is laughable. Great video. Loved it!
Wow! Review of the Apple Computer 2400-C, this takes me back. You were correct when you stated that most in the United States preferred the 3400 laptop but, the 2400-C was loved by both professionals and techs who worked most or many hours per day in the field and away from an office. Own a 12 inch Powerbook G4 which, always reminds me a lot of the 2400-C. They each were trying to provide a high end laptop with a small foot print and achieved their goal. While, now over 15 years old, daily I carry this laptop with me to my office to enjoy during breaks and over my lunch period.
Boy that thing looks like an absolute nightmare to get into. Really nice to see that Apple actually supported standard IO ports.
All laptops of this era were pretty similar, with the IBM Thinkpad being possibly the most serviceable.
2010+: Hold my beer.
I just bought one of these and it’s on its way from Japan right now! I’m very excited :D
Nice!! The 2400c was my first PowerBook. In 1999 I traded my Motorola starMax 4000 clone with dark blue Apple studio display for one. It had the 64mb memory module in it. Great machine.
Great video as always, loved the history facts at the end. It’s so awesome how people will become attached to hardware in those ways when it’s quality. This vid got me wondering how you store and keep all of your retro tech organized and how you decide what spare parts to keep/throw away when doing these composite style repair jobs, etc. As someone who would like to do a similar kind of preservation and restoration in the future when I have my own home, I could see a hobby like this having potential to border on hoarding, so I’d love to know how you manage all of this and decide if a spare part/faulty unit is worth keeping or not. I think a video like that could also help inspire others to try these retro repairs out too! Have a good one and keep up the awesome work
-John
Well, for laptops I have a couple of storage bins that I added dividers to - I made a video about it a while back. In general though I’ve had to become much more picky about what I collect as I’m simply out of space. I’ve also had to make some hard decisions about what to let go of in order to free up space for something new. I think it’s actually a good thing in the end because it forces me to pay attention to what I have instead of mindlessly hoarding it.
Super glue (cyanoacrylate) works very well on plastics, but if you ever need something a step up, get a specific plastic welder like Devcon Plastic Welder (make sure to get the cream coloured formulation, *not* the clear -- they use completely different methods for welding the plastic and the cream coloured one is much superior). The Devcon in particular is very, very strong and also machinable/drillable. So unlike epoxies (or cyanoacrylates) it's not brittle and it's easy to file away excess. It's particularly good for vintage plastics that have broken, like those standoffs. It also smells extremely volatile so you know it's working!
That’s one complicated disassembly. Good work
Back then Japan was the epicenter of laptop computer evolution where people commute long hours in train and want light yet powerful computers. IBM (now Lenovo) designed and produced most of its ThinkPad line products in Yamato factory in the outskirt of Tokyo, to ship to the world. (IBM also had its own lineup of sub notebooks and palm-top computers exclusively sold in Japan). I never had a chance to own that particular model but remember how people were enthusiastic about the machine here. Well scripted documentary with old Japanese magazines and websites involved. Awesome!
That was the era where I bought my Power Computing Power tower Pro computer. It was in many ways the best Mac I ever had. It was so good and so fast that it took years and years after Apple shut down all the clones for any actual Macintosh to come close to the performance I already had. Ah, those were the days. I had a 270c too (I started out with a Radio Shack WP-2 to take notes for my masters program, but then switched to the 270c purchased used at Comp USA and boy was I glad I did). Sadly, Apple is not what it was. But unlike Google, it helps me with my problems on the phone.
Star Trek Borg is such a fun FMV game. I recently replayed it under Dos Box and it still holds up. Anyways, this was a really interesting little machine and video. Thanks!
Great take-apart portion and much better than the existing TH-cam vids; I could've used this two months ago when I got my 2400. Also looks like you picked up the exact keyboard that I had a snipe bid on! (Fortunately was able to pick one up for around $17 a couple of weeks later.)
When I used to work in Japan many many years ago, I remember a couple of people in my office owning this model.
Great video, and very informational. The 2400c has been one of my fav vintage portables, and a topic I'm always interested in reading about. I have one of those translucent Yu-Plan keyboards on the way!
Another great video, I learn so much from your videos! I love listening to them while working on my programming homework, makes me want to start collecting old laptops myself
I have one of the 4GB hard drives that would fit in that laptop, actually one of the Apple/IBM branded ones. You are welcome to it if you like. I've had it sitting in my drawer for years.
Oh, the shot of that 145b at the top fills me with nostalgia. Late Winter mid-90's. Lot's of things changed around that time. 25 years later, we're still married ;)
What a treat down memory lane. I miss PCMCIA upgrade modules.
5:32 _"Someone's been in hereee!" - DankPods_
Another great video i thought i knew a lot about Apple, but this was new to me.
Apple was so much better when the logo had colors
The Newton, ImageWriter and QuickTake were unheard of, but the iPod and iBook were overnight successes. If beating the “old Apple good new Apple bad” dead horse makes you feel better then sure.
@referral madness Apple was basically both IBM and Microsoft at the same time. It almost spelled their death. It was their (arguably) anti-competitive ecosystem and the switch to x86 that saved them. I hear apple wants to go to ARM now... I wish them luck...
@@rich1051414 How did switching to x86 save them? That was long after the iMac and a bit after the iPod+iTunes, I'd argue that those were the two things that saved Apple, not switching to x86 which hardly made much difference to the average end user...
@referral madness The fact that otherwise likely intelligent people still peddle the stupid notion that "Bill Gates saved Apple", some 23 years on now, just makes me shake my head. Sure, tell yourself that a company that was sitting on north of $2 billion (yes, that's a B) in cash was in imminent danger of bankruptcy. (Jobs told the 90-days-from-broke story because it cemented his legend.) Tell yourself that Microsoft didn't know about iMac's imminent release, and didn't want the finally-updated-as-part-of-that-deal MS Office for Mac sold to all those newly-minted Mac users. Ask yourself what Microsoft's $150M investment in Apple netted them, as they cashed it out between 2000-2003? (Had they kept hold of them to present-day, their $150M would be worth $22.4 Billion today, and well over 2x that a few years back at Apple's peak.)
But you go on, parroting this nonsense narrative in comments sections. Whatever helps you sleep at night.
@@Dustie1984 Yes the first iPod launched in 2001 and Apple computers switched to Intel in 2006. But the 1st attempt to use intel begun in early 1990s, with 'Star Trek project', but it stopped and they moved to PowerPC instead.
Really nice machine! The screen looks very bright and crispy.
But I still would prefer the Powerbook 3400/3500.
Nice Clip, thanks!
Love these gems. I own 5. My best has a G3 NuPower 240 w/ 80 MB RAM & OS 8.6. Yrs ago, I did an internal mod allowing the bus ability for PCMCIA CF/SD adapters. It makes file transfer ultra-simple. My oddest one is a 240 GHZ (Japan only). Someone customized it with textured matte black paint & carefully painted over the rainbow Apple logo to look like a G3 Pismo. The backlight is dead, but VGA external works. The 2400C keyboard is a joy compared to the horrendous 2300C keyboard. Even new, the 2300C was like typing on a rubber sponge. I have two 2300 & the mechanism under keycaps only gets worse & sticky with age!
I think we had one of these at our IBM media lab, around 1999 or 2000. The power supply went bad, so that was the end of using it.
But a much different Apple; back then they allowed and *encouraged* upgrading and customization. These days they'd weld the housing shut if they could get away with it.
Hell, even ten years ago the processor in an iMac was still socketed, you could replace the GPU (if you found one that fit), there was a standard 3.5" hard drive, and so on. Now their iMacs are just like their laptops, soldered-in everything :/
I love how the trackpad buttons looks like a handlebar mustache :3 lol
The words uniqueness and customization being applied to Macs and their users? Hmm, now you know you're talking about a long, long time ago.
The Mac Pro would like to disagree. That thing is the most modular desktop in years.
8:00 SuperGlue? I just discovered other options special glue for "hard plastics" - melting plastic to glue it, normally tested on a car because it's intended to be used there, and it worked, recenly tested on regular home lamp made of simmilar plastic as laptop also worked it's not glueing in classic way, but rather melting plastic it's slow process takes 24h to "dry" but highly recommend. Don't know particular brand of it, it's in different apartament, glue itself wont dry unless it touches surfaca of plastic so can be tested before use and cleaned. What was the brand i cant even find now it's very old still works, think you can google.
No joke... these were some of the toughest laptops to work on back in their day!
The plastic was brittle even in 1997. I don't remember taking apart too many of these but the Powerbook 540 lineup never really went back together fully perfectly.
Nobody better in the retro tech biz than Colin Howzitgoin.
If this was able to have a G3 CPU, couldn’t this theoretically run OS X?
Yep
th-cam.com/video/ITAfzekyR48/w-d-xo.html
that moment when you're casually browsing yahoo auctions japan
when your brain turns into sticky goo over time muhahahahahaha
I am almost positive a family member had one of these in the late 90s.
That is a surprisingly good-looking laptop
It wasn’t a programmer, it was a saint. Because you had to be a saint to deal with OS 9.1.
Docking stations...peripherals...ports....man, those were the days!
Love your vids!
BTW, what's the song at 4:58? I looked everywhere on Epidemic Sound for it to no avail.
0:57 Man how good do those ads look with those beautiful machines?
This was very satisfying.
Actually seems like yesterday that Macs switched from PowerPC to Intel/x86.
Amazing content as always Collin/Colin (?)! I remember this machine fondly, but I remember wanting a PowerBook 3400c like the one you show in the ending B-Roll. Will you be doing a video on it in the near future? Given we're I'm assuming close in age (I'm 36) I remember most if not all of the retro stuff you over on this channel, which is part of the reason why I come back time and time again! Stay safe!
The 3400 will definitely be getting covered at some point!
@@ThisDoesNotCompute Hell yeah!
I was waiting for this video to drop, since he gave a spoiler about this in the last powerbook video
Have you considered 3d printing covers for the screw holes.
Making me all natsukashii for my early times in Japan, my 2400c and my Color Classic II - and a litany of various 8xxxx/9xxxx series PowerPC beige behemoths.
So happy we don't have to make compromises anymore
In this video, Since you said yellow dog and other early mac linux distros are a story for another time, can we get that video now? I'm desperate for more vintage linux content, it's so interesting
I had one of these and loved it … had to upgrade to the 3400c when a deal came up at the time; I was tired of using a portable CD-ROM 😂
God I want one! These machines are so awesome
Soundjam MP ROCKED!!! It’s too bad Apple screwed it up.
wonder what those buttons on the inverter board do
Beautiful ,
milestone Mac and a very nice video!
I wonder, how much is worth today?
Those Codewarrior icons brought back memories. Excellent development environment, particularly the visual debugger which was well ahead of it's time. Very bad time to be a mac developer though.
I'm playing with CodeWarrior Pro 6 at the moment, writing a small game. CodeWarrior is great but Macintosh Toolbox is not a great API haha. We have come a long way since then :)
QuickDraw... ew
Those broken insert mouldlings look like a job for JB-weld 2-part epoxy...
As far as I know, there were later versions of debian that could be installed on it long after 1997.
My top of the line at the time msi dominator from ‘15 or ‘16 gets about 30 mins while not plugged in, at idle, using igpu and power saving profile, and undeclock to 2 ghz
I thought IBM produced a number of components for Mac's over the years. Most of the time not really publicized but it was a way for IBM to maintain an income stream from a home/business computer market that made IBM the proverbial "bride left at the alter" persona. It quickly pulled out of the desktop computer market focusing on server systems.
I cannot believe that was considered good in 97…. When I think back to that time I swear we had respectable laptops by then
Have you rebuilt the battery in the 2400 or any other vintage laptop? Would love more info on how to do that.
The hinge screwed into inserts held by plastic... You can only find these on hundred dollar netbooks. Every screw must hold firmly, or the rest will be exposed to forces greater than they were designed to and the whole thing falls apart.
Hi Collin, I'll get a 2400 in a few days comming in, but I'm not sure what kind of RAM actually is the correct one to upgrade..you mention the special 96MB, but does a standard 64MB So dimm not work ?
10:02 apple being apple even so far back lol, i have a collection of 12+ laptops (i forgot how many exactly rn i just know more than a dozen) and ive opened them all apart including screens and i think every single one of them was more complex than this (also bc the majority are from the 2000s and some even used desktop parts on laptop form factors, or the GPUs were in modules), the only thing it was harder for this one was the whole brittle plastic, the screw plastic standoffs breaking has happened to me but its very uncommon and seems that 90s powerbooks are very prone to this issue sadly
Is the screen offcenter to the right just like thinkpads or is it just me?
Always good to have spares for whatever retro tech you have, I have 2 & a half Apple Cubes. I also have 3 3Dfx Voodoo’s & I’m kind of hoarding old graphics RAM upgrade chips.
I have tons of Socket 7 motherboards and a couple Slot 1 boards and tons of PCI and ISA cards.
So what is the importance of old lap use new upgrade one
Random question: where did you get your “Great Wave of Kanagawa” wall art?
This was my laptop for 3-4 years as a kid. I played Quake 2 and Unreal on it. 15 fps at 320x240 doubled!
Hey compute, have a question for the crowd here interested in older power books. I have a 128MB ram module for a powerbook 3400c/240 that needs a new connector soldered from a donor RAM chip. (I have both just need the solder work done) Does anyone have recommendations for electronic shops that have the ability to do solder/desolder work on small circuits?
You can cut traces on a standard 64MB ram module and add mod wires, but it isn't for the faint of heart. However, often back then it was cheaper to learn to solder than to special order that upgrade. I am not sure it is worth it today unless you just want to say you did it.
Information is available on what traces to cut, and where to add your jumpers.
I would opt to mod the ram, not the motherboard. Cheaper if you mess up.
Edit: I see you found the information. I commented too early :)
A very interesting video thnx.
Due to a "a design error"... Apple's made quite a few "errors" which have caused hardware to be specifically made for their products over the years.
I just overclocked my 1400c to 240Mhz. :)
Loved that Borg game. Still have it :)
The English keyboard could be explained by other reason… despite being a modern country there is still a certain fascination with foreign things. Many people buy Apple computers and specifically choose an English keyboard just because “it looks cool”. One of my colleagues goes to great efforts just to keep every single device he owns with an English keyboard.
the hinge design is similar to modern think pads i can see a lot of design influence from IBM in the construction.
when you glue plastic next time you should try super glue and baking soda it makes a great bond and you can actually fill in gaps of plastic with it as well
I have a same one and it's working perfectly except the battery almost dead.. I love the IBM Thinkpad series, and I suppose this Apple powerpc laptop model is one of them. same as your pb2400, mine has deteriorated rubber parts. almost being melting..
Apple: “Replacing ram or your keyboard is a standard repair?!?! What’s this black magic we used to be capable of?!?!”
This refurbishment caused more damage than the actual condition was before. I hate old plastics... even my car dashboard started to turn back to oil. :(
I would want one of these to continue my RISC journey (Raspberry Pi; Air M2, et. al.)...