23 Jul
2002
23 Jul
'02
8 p.m.
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=20403434273427. They are
hard to come by, BTW.
-W