A Naked and Nasty Macintosh Portable - Part 4

Published: 2010-08-01
Updated: 2011-02-04
Author: Jaeden Amero

I'd like to give a special shout out to Trag. Without his caps, this project wouldn't have been possible. If you need caps for any of your recapping projects, my dealer can be your dealer: talk to the man.

I need to get some caps more from him. I am missing one capacitor in order to complete the replacement on my SE/30. I am also missing one capacitor in order to complete the replacement on my LC III. I was hoping to finish the SE/30 this weekend, but it looks like I'll have to wait until I can get my capacitor fix from trag again.

I had two dead Portable batteries. I wanted to re-cell them, so I attempted opening one with a screwdriver, but that totally messed up and and bent the plastic. I have one remaining, but I don't know how to open it cleanly in order to install new cells. I'd appreciate any advice you could give on rebuilding the Portable's battery.

I acquired a flaky Portable in 2003. It would often crash or sad mac, but it could boot and do stuff more often than not. When I tried to play with it again around February of 2010, I found that my PowerBook 100 adapter had failed (by no longer outputting any current; i.e. as soon as a load is present, the voltage goes to zero). I replaced all the capacitors and hooked up an alternate battery, but currently all I can get out of it is a sad mac.

My goal for this Portable is to get it running solid with a good battery and a good power adapter so that I can do software development on it. I am reading Inside Macintosh now to prepare for this. Eventually, I'd like to boost its RAM to the max, and that will probably involve creating new hardware. For now, unfortunately, this Portable is shelved.