Vintage PowerBook display & PRAM issues post-HDD replacement

Carried out an experiment on a PowerBook 540. This machine has a PowerBook Display control panel version 7.5.2 from the System 7.5 Version 7.5.3. It may not work exactly the same on your PowerBook 180, and the control panel may be different, but you could perhaps test it:

• Make sure that the PowerBook 180 is off
• Connect the display adapter cable with the VGA switch adapter to the PowerBook (and the external monitor)
• Power on/Start up normally (nothing will be visible on the PB 180)
• Wait till the startup sequence has finished (no more sounds)
• Press Command + F (this will open the Find File window, which of course is invisible on the PB 180)
• Directly type PowerBook Display
• Press Return
• Press Command + O (this will open the PowerBook Display control panel)
• Use the space bar to toggle Video Mirroring on/off

Hello,

You may have to experiment a bit with termination, but the general rules are described in the Macintosh

User’s Guide for Macintosh PowerBook 160 and 180 computers (pp 228-229):

download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Manuals/powerbooks/0302674APB160180UG.PDF

>What if I disconnected the internal screen cable? Would it then be forced to display the desktop to the external monitor?

Should not change anything in this very case (PowerBook 180).

>And regarding the 10 dip switch adapter, If I set the pins to 1,4,7,8,9,10 “on” it shows the desktop pattern but no HD icon

Normal behaviour. The Desktop pattern that you see is only the extended section. The HD icon is hidden somewhere (probably on the left hand side). With a lot of luck, you may be able to "grab" one of the items in the invisible section of the Desktop and drag that item to the visible part.

Information about the exact PowerBook model (and the Mac operating system version) would help.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook/index-powerbook.html

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook/all-powerpc-powerbook-models.html

Thank you for the information.

In the meantime, I have been able to reproduce the situation by using a PowerBook 180c (with a working internal display, which has been covered and is not used here) and an old external Eizo FlexScan L360 display. The connection to the Eizo monitor is via Apple's display adapter cable and a VGA switch adapter similar to the one you are using.

This PB 180c does not have an installed hard drive.

I am using a Network Access Disk 7.5 floppy as a startup disk. On another Macintosh computer, I have modified the NAD 7.5 disk slightly by removing one item in order to make a bit more space. Instead, a PowerBook Display (version 7.5.2) control panel has been copied to the Startup Items folder in the System Folder of the NAD 7.5.

Starting up the PB 180c from the modified NAD 7.5 results in an empty (extended) Desktop on the Eizo monitor (apart from the cursor arrow if moved there).

If I now press the space bar once, the full Desktop with the menu bar appears on the external display. The PowerBook Display window is now visible, showing that video mirroring is enabled.

The only files needed to create the floppy is a Network Access Disk 7.5 download (image file), an appropriate version of StuffIt Expander (such as 4.0.1 or 5.5), and Disk Copy 4.2. Additionally, the little PowerBook Display control panel. Which old Macintosh computers (with a floppy drive) do you have access to apart from the Power Macintosh 7600? Operating system versions?

beigebox wrote:

No the drive doesn’t click or spin up.

I verified that it’s fine by temporarily installing it in the PB180

Have you verified the power adapter's output (5 V DC) voltage and polarity with a multimeter?

beigebox wrote:

/.../

Footnote- it’s new and has a led light on it which is very bright when plugged in. I notice it dims and flickers when powering up the external. Not sure what that means?

/.../

A photo of the power adapter label? Just guessing here, but a flickering LED could possibly mean that the adapter cannot handle the load.

For resetting the PRAM, you could try an external keyboard (borrowed from the PM 7600) connected to the ADB port.

If a group of letters/characters is concerned, you may want to check the PowerBook keyboard cable connection to begin with. Also, a problem inside the PB keyboard cannot be ruled out.

The Key Caps desk accessory may be useful in this context.

>I thought about trying the scsi disk mode using the special system cable. The problem is I have no video so I can’t get to my control panels on the Powerbook to change the ID

If you reset the PRAM (Command+Option+P+R at startup), the SCSI in the applicable control panel may return to a preset number such as 2. However, the exact number should not really be important if you do not have any other (external) SCSI devices connected to the other (desktop) computer.

See also pp 230-235 in the user's guide

(download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Manuals/powerbooks/0302674APB160180UG.PDF)

Just one more thing. Depending on the connector design, there is a risk that some hard drives will be installed 180 degrees wrong, so it may be advisable to double-check pinouts to avoid costly consequences.

Also, if you have another appropriate Macintosh computer with a SCSI port, SCSI disk mode may be useful if you wish to gain access to the installed PowerBook 180 hard disk drive contents for experimental purposes. Details can be found in the Macintosh User’s Guide for Macintosh PowerBook 160 and 180 computers.

The forum does not have direct messaging capabilities. You would have to download files from the web.

Does your Power Macintosh 7600 have a way of connecting through Ethernet via your home network to the Internet? A very small web browser such as WannaBe (knubbelmac.de/software/internet-programme/web-browser/) can be used for some plain http links.

However, you need to have a ready-to-use StuffIt Expander version (for example, 4.0.1 or 5.5) already installed on the PM 7600.

Files are usually encoded .bin (MacBinary or .hqx (BinHex). If you are using a PC or a modern Mac as an intermediary, make sure that all files are kept encoded until on the PM 7600. Do not in any way try to decode/decompress/open anything in transit. Once on the PM 7600, drag the files onto StuffIt Expander for encoding/decompression.

download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/Disk_Copy_4.2.sea.bin

download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/Utilities/Disk_Copy/Disk_Copy_4.2.txt

Do you have access to the System 7.5 Version 7.5.3 download?

download.info.apple.com/Apple_Support_Area/Apple_Software_Updates/English-North_American/Macintosh/System/Older_System/System_7.5_Version_7.5.3/System_7.5.3_Info.txt

This (US version) download consists of nineteen files. Once mounted, the CD image contains an installer. If one selects Custom Install -> Control Panels -> PowerBook Display, one would be able to install only the little control panel in question.

If necessary, hard drive pinout information can be found on the web (search for something like OEM specifications for IBM-H2xxx-Sx).

I guess that external power is not supplied via the HDI-30 SCSI connection.

BTW, I can confirm that my hard drive storage case (which looks like the one in your pictures) indeed has a centre negative power inlet. So, since yours according to the technical information is centre positive, for some reason two similar models with different power polarity appear to exist. This can of course be very confusing. Therefore, please double-check the power adapter and/or ADB power cable plug output polarity via a multimeter.

Obviously, a correct internal wiring in either storage case should lead to a proper power polarity once at the hard drive connector.

I tested a Conner 250S 2.5" SCSI hard drive in my storage case. The case was connected to a PowerBook 180c (without an internal hard drive) by a circa 0.7 m HDI-30 (actually, only 29 pins since not for SCSI disk mode) to DB-25 SCSI cable. I did not use a terminator at all for this test.

With the PowerBook 180c still off, power was applied to the storage case (whereby the hard disk could be heard spinning). Next, the PB 180c was started from a Network Access Disk 7.5 in the floppy drive. The external hard disk (which earlier had been properly formatted) appeared on the Desktop.