powerbook 100 issues

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Level 1

5 points

powerbook 100 issues

So recently i found a powerbook 100 in my grandfather's old things. When trying to power up the computer, nothing happened. My first instinct was the bios batteries, because after 25 years they are sure to be ancient. Replaced those, and now when those are the only source of power the screen flickers a little. Plug in the charger or the actual battery, and it goes back to being a brick. I'm really at a loss here! This isn't my first repair, but i rarely work on apple laptops (i repair computers as a hobby so it's mostly old pc desktops). Am i missing something obvious?

Thanks in advance for any and all help!

PowerBook, Mac OS 8.6 or Earlier

Posted on Mar 28, 2016 9:41 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Jan Hedlund

Level 7

22,207 points

Mar 28, 2016 4:21 PM in response to Wesleyer

In what condition is the main battery? Unless it has been replaced relatively recently, it may be weak/faulty. A bad battery can put a heavy load on the power supply. For safety reasons, make sure that all batteries are handled correctly. Do not use a faulty battery.

Has the DC output voltage of the power adapter been checked with a multimeter?

Providing that the main battery and the power adapter are OK, you may also want to try a power manager reset according to the steps in PowerBook 100 through PowerBook 5300: Resetting Power Management Unit (PMU) - Apple Support.

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