PowerBooks

[James]

Talk about the PowerBooks here and while you're at it, discuss the Portable too.

[Christopher]

I have been given a Powerbook 540 but know power supply it has 2 batteries both flat can anyone suggest how I can get it fired up to see if it will boot, Not sure where I can buy a power supply but I would like to know it works before I do.
I have a very sophisticated NiCad charger (Model Aeroplane enthusiast) but I don't know what voltages’ the batteries are and what to charge them at can anyone help.

[Kathryn]

James and John maybe able to help you find more places to look, but here are a few that I know of.

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/tenchi/500.html

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=112267

http://www.welovemacs.com/machinespecs-macintosh-powerbook-540-540c...

http://www.i-battery.co.uk/laptop-battery/apple/powerbook-540c.html

http://www.planetbattery.com/product2.asp?id=4&id2=36&id3=436

http://www.macheaven.co.uk/?page=proddetail&prod=788

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PowerBook_500_series

I use to have a 540c, it was my first laptop, and I miss it.

Good luck in getting your Blackbird up a running smoothly!

[MacMan]

Just thought I would share the fact that recently I bought a PowerBook 1400c active matrix display on eBay and replaced the passive matrix on my PowerrBook 1400cs with it. The difference is really quite amazing - the passive "cs" display was always a bit fuzzy and washed out looking, but the active matrix screen on the other hand is bright, crisp, sharp and displays strong colours. The replacement screen was a bargain too - £5 plus shipping!

[skipapple]

I've got a Lombard G3 powerbook. I really like it because the keyboard is so nice to use (bronze), and it can still do SCSI. It doesn't have wireless, and I'm afraid that using OSX is too much for it. Does the Pismo have more capability for running Tiger and being able to use an Airport card?

[James]

skipapple,

Yes, the Pismo is supported by Tiger, and it can take an Airport card too. You can try Xpostfacto to get Tiger on your Lombard though and 3rd party PCMCIA card to give your Lombard wireless capability.

[skipapple]

I'm not sure that my PCMCIA slot works, I tried a firewire card with no results, so I'm reluctant to try that.

If I get a Pismo would I be able to use the Lombard battery and Zip drive that I have now? (Maybe I should forgo my SCSI and upgrade to the Pismo.)

[Christopher]

I have a Lombard G3 and have got Tiger 10.4.11 on it using Xpostfacto I also have a pcmcia wireless card in it and it all works quiet well I can use it ok for mail and web browsing and some word processing its not to slugish I recently put a 80gb disk in it, it has 192MB memory which I am hoping to upgrade to 512MB when I can afford it.

[Manuel Marques]

I have a Pismo, which runs Tiger and OS 9.2.2. Of course, in OS 9 the Pismo runs like a champ, but many things are missing, obviously!

Tiger runs... ok, if you deactivate certain things, like the Dashboard, Spotlight indexing, and Finder animations (you can do all of the above using TinkerTool or similar).

Panther does better, but many programs I use require 10.4, so I must use it...

[Mike]

I have a Wallstreet (check episode #40 for a story about it) that I recently upgraded with a Sonnet Crescendo/WS G4 with 512MB RAM. Prior to that I installed a 5400rpm hard drive (80 GB), partitioned for running Mac OS X. Runs pretty good, but I have a couple questions:
1) I know there are 7200 rpm laptop hard drives out there. Has anyone had any experience with them? Do they run really hot or anything? Would a 7200rpm drive help speed things up even over a 5400rpm drive replacing the original 4200rpm drive?

2) I also have a Newton Message Pad, the original, running Newton OS 1.3. I use it as an organizer, beleive it or not. Is it possible to sync it with my Wallstreet while it is running OS X (I can connect via serial while it is booted into Mac OS 9, but trying it in Classic crashes Newton Connection Utility). Thanks!

[Kathryn]

Hi Mike,

I heard your great Wallstreet story, and Bravo! No wonder so many love that PowerBook. I believe it is possible to sync your Newton using OS X from what I have read. I haven't had the time to look into it much, but I am a member of a Newton List. They would be a great source for you. I will try to get further for you. Below is a link where you can find a lot of info on the Newton.

http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/newton-faq-introduction.html

Good luck, and I'll try to find the link to sign up for the list.

Kathy

[Forrest]

My PowerBook G4 Died, And it sucks, it was my most modern mac and now I'm stuck with this PC.
When, I push the power button, nothing. no hard drive spin or 'dong' sound.

Does anyone know how to fix it?

[MacMan]

Take a look at this Apple article (click here for link) and see if you can sort it. I would reckon a PRAM reset or Power Manager reset should do the trick if it's nothing major that is wrong with it.