Mac Portable problems

From: Wayne M. Smith <wmsmith_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Wed Jul 24 03:00:01 2002

> Hello, all:
>
> I decided to pull-out my Mac Portable to charge it after it being on
> the shelf for about 1 year. I put the battery in and plugged in the power
> adapter. As soon as I insert the battery, the unit immediately starts up
but
> doesn't boot and I get lots of vertical lines on the screen (in no
> discernable pattern). I know that the screen has a few defective rows near
> the bottom but had no other issues the last time I used it. It wasn't
stored
> in extreme temperatures (either cold or warm). I hope that some of the
> screen drivers didn't go flaky on me.
>
> Since I haven't used it in a while, I've forgotten a lot about it.
> Does this have a reset button on it? Any thoughts on what else to look
for?
>
> Rich
>
In all likelihood the problem is that your battery isn't holding a charge
and all you are feeding it is power off the adapter. The Mac Portable power
adapter (which is in actuality more of a batter charger than it is an
adapter) does not put out enough power (only 1.5a at 7.5v I believe) to spin
up the hard drive or fully power the display. The best solution is to find
a Powerbook 100 adapter which puts out the same amount of current (2.0a) as
the portable battery is designed to (presumably this is because the PB100 is
essentially a reworked Mac Portable). I have also used a PB170 adapter
(model M5652) with success, but it puts out 3.0a and so you're running a bit
hot.

A PB100 adapter is currently up for auction on e-pay:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2040343427. They are
hard to come by, BTW.

-W
Received on Wed Jul 24 2002 - 03:00:01 BST

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